Trying to set up a dual boot with Win 10 and Mint....
Older Lenovo PC.....I could not change BIOS to USB first boot.....but I can F12 and boot menu comes up....
Here is what I did...

Win 10 fully up and running....8 Gb RAM and 2 TB hard drive....
I shrank the volume and made 2 partitions about 900 MB each....
First partition is C:\ and windows is running great....

Second partition intended for Mint is not formatted....

Booted up with Mint on a bootable flash drive....
During install it did ask for a partition....I chose what I thought was the obvious one....
Mint appeared to install....I rebooted and expected the BIOS to ask which OS to boot up to....
But it did not....

Every reboot it goes into Windows....

And looking at my C:\ drive it does not appear to have anything on the "other" partition nor is there any linux files in the C:\ partition...

Disk Management shows a healthy C:\ partition and the other partition as healthy but not formatted....

Should I format the partition.....if so exFAT...????

Thanks for any assistence appreciated...

Welcome to LinuxQuestions.
Windows does not natively support a non Windows filesystem so it will be recognized as not formatted. With an existing empty partition you would need to select something else and then manually select the mount points and filesystems to be formatted. Does this PC have a UEFI or legacy BIOS?

https://linuxmint-installation-guide...t/install.html

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No, do not format it.
In fact that space should not have a partition defined -- it should have been left unallocated so it could be used as space for the install.

How many partitions remained for windows?
With Win10 using uefi boot I have always seen 4 partitions. p1 is reserved (hidden), p2 is efi, p3 is the win OS, and p4 at the very end of the drive is the win recovery partition. When shrinking the space using the running windows system it usually just shrinks partition 3 and leaves the empty space between the end of p3 and the beginning of p4.

Every tutorial I have seen shows leaving the freed up space as unallocated then installing into that space. Also it is usually recommended to allow the installer to do automatic partitioning which means it will share the efi partition with windows and create its own appropriate sized partitions in the free space. While it is quite possible to manually create the partitions in that space it means more work and more admin tasks in preparation for continuing the install.

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Without the usb plugged in, What boot options does f12 give?

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You only needed the F12 key to set the Boot Options to USB for one boot. No need to make a permanent change in the BIOS firmware. Is windows installed in UEFI mode? Did you boot to install Mint in UEFI mode? Check the BIOS for UEFI references.

Is that a typo? Why would you create 2 partitions of that specific size? That is far too small for any current Linux and I expect the Mint iso is larger than that.

I agree with other members about leaving free or unallocated space rather than create a partition from windows. You need to format it for Linux and you can't do that with a default windows OS. My experience is that windows will see a partition from Disk Management and not much more. Als, it is a good thing that there are no Linux files on the C:\ drive because that won't work. What is referred to as the C:\ drive in windows is actually just a partition which contains the filesystem.

No, that won't work. Start by reading the the information at the link in post 2.

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Thanks for the tips.....Getting back on this project today....
I deleted the volume intended for Mint and made it unallocated....

Now if I understand everyone all I should need to do is boot off my Mint flash drive and the installation
should take care of any partitioning and formatting....

TYPO....my 900 MB should be Gb.....

Legacy BIOS....

F10 gives me really 1 choice...
SATA1 the SATA hard drive......and under this...
Windows Boot Manager
LINUX
LINUX
Enter Setup....

NO option for a USB boot.....this was not the case when I first attempted to install Mint...
The USB boot option was available and I used it....

Don't understand where the 2 LINUX boot options came from....

I really don't have any Linux experience......I have MINT installed on a little PC but about the
only thing I use it for is connecting Win 10 drives and copy off data to a ext USB hard drive
purpose of saving data for clients PC's I work on......sometimes easier to do it this way
rather than let Windows apply permissions all down the files....

I thought it might be a better idea to dual boot off this 1 PC....a little more organized and
a little less equipment hanging around.....AND I wanted to learn how to do it....

Appreciate everyone's help....

After I get this figured out and working I will note the REP or Helpful....

Steve

Do you see any references to UEFI when you are in the BIOS? Is your drive gpt or dos? You can get that info by booting the Mint usb and opening a terminal and typing the command: sudo parted -l
It should show Partition Table in the output, either gpt or dos/msdos.
If you installed windows 10 in Legacy mode, it should be an msdos partition table as windows won't install in EFI mode unless it is on a GPT drive. Also, if windows is Legacy, you need to have that option available and selected to install Mint in Legacy mode or it won't boot windows.

If you can't boot the Mint usb, that won't help. Since you indicate you did it before, it should be possible again. You should see an option immediately on boot as to what keys to use to select boot options or access BIOS firmware.

What happens if you select either one of the linux boot options?

Either Linux boot options takes me into a Lenovo Memory test....nothing useful....

NO references to UEFI in the BIOS.....the BIOS is a simple one.....not anything I've seen on
Lenovo computers before.....I used to work in corporate IT and we used Lenovo computers.....
This would have been about 15 years ago....about the same age as the Lenovo I'm working with....
I've never seen a BIOS like this before.....and I've worked on probably 4-500 Lenovo's over the years....

Guys....I'm pretty good with Windows.....but I'm a mere "babe in the woods" with any Linux os....

Yancek....I don't know how to open a Linux terminal....and the command sudo parted -1......sorry....

Trying another boot into my Mint flash drive....

I might have to start all over....wipe the HD....and install W10 again and go from there....

Thanks for following up....

Well...I cannot boot into my USB Mint flash drive....
Does not give me an option to boot into USB flash...

BIOS does not have any place to set USB as first boot...
BIOS is set AHCI...legacy...
Secure Boot is disabled...
Quick Boot is enabled...

OK....I've got bigger problems here.....
Now the PC starts to POST then reboots....
Rebooted without loading the OS 3 times...
Right now system is doing a diagnose and repair....I'm not hopeful....

Thank you everyone...
I'm going to close this post out for now.....After I get this PC working...
Or another PC.......I'm gonna try to dual boot Mint again.....
And if I need assistance I will be coming back.......

Appreciate your time...
Steve

Alternatively, run W10 on one PC and Linux Mint on the other.

Avoid the aggro of dual-booting and keep it simple.

Beachboy2....That's what I'm doing now...and it's fine...
But I'm running out of space....if I can eliminate 1 pc....
That would help....

Disable 'quick boot' ‘quick boot’ will prevent the system from scanning for plugged in usbs at boot.
Boot into windows, type system information in the search bar and run the app, under summary look for bios mode. If says uefi disable legacy mode.

Ctrl+Alt+t will work. Also, an online search will give you a massive number of results. You could copy/paste the command into a terminal which would be simplest that would output the information you were lookig for.

If your computer is 15+ years old it may not be capable of booting from a usb but it would be surprising that it has a Secure Boot option in that case. Looks like the hardware has reached its limit.

Yancek.....I'm making one more attempt....
I wiped the HD....and am reinstalling W10 from scratch....
That is processing normally....I can install W10 from USB.....

Now....if I understand everyone.....When I'm done updating W10....
Do I reboot with my Mint USB and just follow the prompts...???
I think that is what everyone is telling me....

Or do I have to shrink the volume to make space for Mint...???

So everyone understands what I'm trying to do....
I'm a retired IT guy and I have a number of home users I support....
Since I rebuild quite a few PC's......I have this Lenovo bolted to the
wall above my workbench.....I have 2 SATA lines coming out thru a hole
I cut in the side panel so that I can connect
1 or 2 SATA drives to to move data....copy data off etc....

Large HD's with a lot of data can take some time for permissions to filter
down in order to move the data.....

Here I like to use my MINT pc.....data movement is quick and easy.....
BUT....my workbench is small crowded with stuff....

My goal is to eliminate my current MINT PC and dual boot the Lenovo
I have hanging on the wall....It is out of the way but close to where I
work........so it's really a convenience thing.....