Installing Redhat on a machine which has Windows 10

[Denzil]

How may I install Red Hat 8 or 9 in my local machine if MS  Windows 10 has been installed?

Kind Regards,

Denzil

[Chetan_Tiwary_]

@Denzil I hope you got all your answers from @Travis ! ( Thank you Travis for the detailed answers! )

Nothing to add from my side - apart from just that reiteration -  RHEL/CentOS  is best suitable to learn cloud, Ansible, Terraform & Gitjhub.

[Denzil]

Hello Travis,

I have read https://tmichett.github.io/Fedora_Remix/. Intersting.

Now if I try to install into the same machine in which Windows are up and running, where I have a partition, what steps must I take  first? 

At the same time, with all due respect, if I am to install Redhat Linux insted of Fedora what must I do? 

Kind Regards,

Denzil

[Travis]

@Denzil -

The installation for all Linux for dual-booting would be about the same. One of the differences with a live distribution like Fedora is that it actually loads a full version of Linux on your computer without installing anything and you can explore and use it without installation. If you choose to install it to disk, there will be an "Install" feature on the dock.

With Red Hat Enterprise Linux, you will get just the Anaconda insttaller and go through the installation pieces.

The intention of the Fedora Remix wasn't really for you to need to read it, but more to provide context and an easy link of what it is. I have highly customized it and put on several applications that I use all the time. I also use that as my load for when I get a new company laptop. 

Regular Fedora (unmodified) is always available: https://fedoraproject.org/workstation/download 

[Denzil]

Good day to you Travis,

Thank you so much again.

I have visited the site, and completed few steps.

Once I have burnt the ISO via Fedora Media Writer, et el. How shall the rest work?

This in relation to installing Linux in my Windows computer which has a seperate partition.

By the way how may I do a minium MS- Windows 10 backup?

Kind Regards,

Denzil

[Travis]

@Denzil -

You put in the USB drive and boot it up. If you used regular Fedora or my Fedora Remix, those are both Live ISOs meaning it will boot from USB and directly into Fedora Linux as a live user. There is a Dock at the bottom that has an Install to Disk and that should walk you through the installation process. It will specifically ask you where you wish to install the system and it "should" take care of the dual-boot aspect for you. Again, I haven't done this for a long time, and I don't have a recent Windows machine that I would have done it on as I would guess it was Windows XP or Windows 7 when I last did this.

The Anaconda installer has gotten much much better, so I think it should be a much more straightforward process. 

I've grabbed a few URLs and resources for you to check out (older versions of Fedora, but process is the same).

https://www.tecmint.com/install-fedora-with-windows-dual-boot/#:~:text=However%2C%20try%20to%20disab....

https://itsfoss.com/dual-boot-fedora-windows/#:~:text=If%20things%20go%20right%2C%20you,%E2%80%9CIns....

https://jfearn.fedorapeople.org/fdocs/en-US/Documentation/0.1/html-single/Fedora_Multiboot_Guide/ind....

https://www.tecmint.com/install-fedora-with-windows-dual-boot/#:~:text=On%20the%20next%20screen%2C%2....

As far as Windows backup, not 100% sure. I believe Microsoft has a backup creator where you can create a bootable recovery disk USB or external HDD. There are also programs out there like Clonezilla and Acronis where you can image your machine. It depends on how important the files are on the machine, the one link mentions backing up just your home files and directories (My Documents, Pictures, etc.), but you might have lots of software on the system, so don't know the exact details. 

Some references on Windows 10:

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-back-up-and-restore-an-image-file-of-windows-10#:~:text=You%20sh....

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/4376853/(article)-how-to-create-a-system-image-i...

https://www.asus.com/us/support/faq/1045873/#:~:text=%5BTroubleshoot%5D%E2%91%A0.-,Select%20%5BAdvan....

Clonezilla:

https://clonezilla.org/downloads.php

Rought instructions for clonezilla.

You will now be in a text-based interface. Use the Arrow Keys and Enter to make selections. Bolded items are what you should choose.

1. Language: Select "English" and press Enter.

2. Keyboard Layout: Select "Keep" (or "Don't touch keymap") and press Enter.

3. Start Clonezilla: Select "Start_Clonezilla" and press Enter.

4. Choose Mode: Select "device-image". (This means "disk to image," which is what you want for a backup).

5. Mount Clonezilla Image Directory: Select "local_dev". (This means you are using a local device, like your external USB hard drive).

6. Find External Drive: You'll see a screen of text. This is your chance to plug in your external drive if you haven't already. Since you have, just press Enter.

7. Select Backup Drive (Destination): Clonezilla will now show a list of all partitions on your computer (e.g., sda1, sdb1). You must select the partition on your external hard drive where you want to save the backup.

   • Pro Tip: You can identify it by its size and label (e.g., "MyBackupDrive"). sda is usually your internal drive, and sdb or sdc is usually your external drive.

   • Select it and press Enter.

8. Image Directory: You can just press Enter to save the backup to the main (root) directory of your external drive.

9. Mode: Select "Beginner" mode.

10. Choose Action: Select "savedisk". (This tells Clonezilla you want to save the entire disk, including all partitions, bootloader, etc.).

11. Image Name: It will suggest a name based on the date (e.g., 2025-10-19-12-00-img). This is fine. Press Enter.

12. Select Source Disk: Now, you choose the disk you want to back up. This will be your internal Windows 10 drive (e.g., sda, nvme0n1). Select it and press Enter.

13. Filesystem Check: It's safe to select "Skip checking/repairing source file system" (because you already disabled Fast Startup).

14. Check Image: It will ask to check the saved image. Select "No, skip checking the saved image" to save time.

15. Confirmation: Clonezilla will show you a summary and ask "Are you sure you want to continue? (y/n)".

    • Type "y" and press Enter.

    • It will ask you a second time. Type "y" and press Enter again.

The backup process will now begin. You will see a progress bar. This can take anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours, depending on the size of your drive and the speed of your hard drives.

[Denzil]

Good day to you Travis,

Thank you so much for your unbelmished technical and professional support!

I need to oder media to backup my Windows 10, at least the System. Other user files I can manually back up to an external disk.

I understand you have not done this for quite some time. Hence I need to take every precautions. However I feel since I have a seperate partition, it should work well.

Appreciate for taking trouble to furnish all the very useful links. 

Kind Regards,

Denzil

[Chetan_Tiwary_]

@Denzil no MS office does not work natively with RHEL but can work in web mode I guess. 

LibreOffice is the alternative which is present in many Linux distros.

[Blue_bird]

Windows 10 is dead on 14/10/2025. Microsoft stopped support for Windows 10 menas No updates and no Security.

It is recommended to go for Windows 11. If you want to install multiple Redhat's VM's on local system (Windows 11), as other mentioned it depends on so many factors like: how much cpu, ram and storage(hdd)  that your local system has.

Thanks

[Chetan_Tiwary_]

@Blue_bird indeed upgrading to Win11 is better recommendation but given the hardware constraints ( RAM ) it will hit performance limits in this scenario afaik.

[Denzil]

Hello Blue_Bird,

Thank you for your comments and advise.

Kind Regards,

Denzil