Questions about Dual Booting

Hi! My friend was trying to find some linux distros for his old computer and he found zorin os, i didnt know what zorin os was and i have been looking for a linux distro to dual boot with my windows 10 install. I looked into dual booting zorin os with windows 10 and some people have been saying that its wiping their data after a update, breaking the windows install or just not working. So i have been wondering if any of that is true because i wanna try to dual boot linux and windows as a fun little project because i am a beginner to this kind of stuff. Thank you in advanced!

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No. Zorin OS does not have any access to the Windows Partition and cannot and has not ever wiped Windows Data after any update.
That is not how drive access works.

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Are you sure? i have some important data on my windows partition and i dont have anything i could back it up with

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Yes, I am quite sure.
Think of your Windows Partition and your Linux Partition as being two separate planets or worlds.
If I build a dam on a river on my planet, this has no effect on yours. I cannot build one on yours, only on mine.

User Error can cause issues during installation. For example, if the user selects the wrong partition when installing their Linux Distro. But that is user error and that has nothing to do with Updates.
I have never, not once, ever seen a Linux Distro update wipe Windows data. They are too separated.

If you have important data, you must find a means of backing that data up. Data without backups is like a gas can smoking a cigarette. It won't end well.
There are many free Cloud Services that offer in the range of 5 to 15gigs of space without charging you.
And you can stack them if you are wily, such as using the Free Sync, free Mega and free Proton to accommodate all your data divided among the clouds.
USB sticks are relatively inexpensive. And even a low cost SanDisk should hold 32 to 64 gigs.

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Thank you so much! Time to have fun with dual booting

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Honestly: You should have backed up all your important data. There always is away..

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I dual boot Win 10 with Zorin Pro but use 2 different drives if that is an option for you .... as folks have said above back up all your info before attempting to install both OS's on the same disk .....

Pay attention to what you are doing and once you have both OS's up and running don't worry about updates destroying any data on either partition ..... I love the example of two different worlds ..... it works just like that .....

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Gday @twixy , Welcome to the community!

Hope you enjoy Zorin OS as much as we do :+1:
To help us in the future, can i ask you to Show the Edition of Zorin OS in your profile Please.
This saves us asking if you require help in the future.
How to adjust profile Edition, Click here.

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I have been in a dual boot setup with zorin and win 10 for nearly 2 years. I have never had either OS effect the data of the other, even in the shared data partitions (accessible to both zorin and windows).

You can use the something else method to install. Follow how to Partition & Install zorin 16. Read through it without doing anything, including the Before You Install. Then install, it should take about a half hour, forty-five minutes. You won't regret it.

ALWAYS MAKE BACKUPS BEFORE MAJOR SYSTEM CHANGES.

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The most important two worlds with diffrent partitioning. I always choose two hard disk if one is broken i still can broken hard disk where is bootloader damaged repaired with " doctor linux". When windows died linux can repaired problems. The second way before you want two operating system on one hard disk taken a backup some important files. I have some expedience if opedating system working but some awfull a weather, electricity or mistakes with a command in terminal or damaged hard disk.

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Meanwhile me after formatting my disk and installed Fedora KDE 5.27:

Meat GIF

I would like to add here that windows update do sometimes delete grub.Although fixable and it won't delete any data ,it might feel like the update broke your linux partition
In my experience(no claims here) UEFI is better than legacy in preventing this
(no deleted grub in UEFI so far)

But this should be of no concern to op as Linux breaking windows is unheard of;)

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The only issue I have had in the dual boot is not having direct sound access from my monitor - outgoing to the monitor - fine - back part for accessing the monitor's speakers no go, however, sound direct from the pc either by external speakers or head set work - in Windows I can play sound through the monitor, but not Zorin. Just using my Bose system - so not suffering - still frustrating. However, with the operating system itself - I have it on two laptops and am dual booting on a mini-desktop/a beelink - the laptops work even faster now than when new - Dels. Really - I have 4 k video, so it's just a matter of time and updates - I figure - before I reclaim my monitor's sound system for Zorin as well. In the meantime I'm becomming quite researched in the topic having restored my system 5 times from different settings I've tried. Lord knows I've reset bios enough times as well - must say - the Beelink is solid considering the amount of abuse I've thrown at it. LOL

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