Windows 10 and Zorin dual boot recommendations

Installing Zorin OS
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Heya,

once Zorin 16 is officially released, I want to risk it and deactivate Secure Boot on my Windows laptop. That way I could finally install other operating systems. I still need Windows 10 for some programs work related, so I can't yet ditch it completely.

The laptop has got 2 SSDs (M.2 and SATA).
I would like to install both operating systems on the M.2 drive and leave the bigger SATA drive for data only (using it from both OS).

Is that possible? What kind of problems can I run into when installing Zorin and WIndows on the same SSD? Would I need to reinstall Windows or can I make a dual boot without touching the Windows partition?

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You can install Zorin alongside of Windows without reinstalling Windows. You would need to disable Windows Fast Boot as the fast boot locks the drive preventing write access.
The more pressing problem would be installing Zorin OS on the NVMe ssd. While sata is no problem, NVMe tends to give Linux a hard time.

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Oh I see, I didn't expect that. Will read further into that then, because it would definitely be my dream-come-true setup. Any idea what could potentially happen? Faulty installation or not being able to install at all? Would that affect Windows?

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This seems to be the common thing I have seen. But... I have no frame of reference for how many people install Zorin on NVMe without any trouble at all. It could be that we only see the very few that have troubles here on the forum. I would suggest Go For It and see what happens.

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I have setup dual boot Windows 11 beta and Zorin 16 beta on a 1TB SSD drive. Windows is booting from EFI partition and Zorin is doing legacy booting with grub installed on /dev/sda. BIOS setup is set to legacy booting support. When the computer is booted the operating system is chosen from the BIOS boot menu. Both operating systems does not interact in any way in terms of booting. When GRUB is updated it does not affect windows nor windows is touching the boot record of /dev/sda.

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Thanks! Unfortunately I couldn't find any information for my SSD (Samsung PM981 MZVLB512HAJQ-000H1) to use under Ubuntu 20.04... I might just try it out anyway as long as I don't screw up my Windows partition.

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The info about the legacy booting was very helpful, thanks! I also realized that deactivating fast boot in Windows was not enough. It was still activated in the BIOS.