this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2026
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How do I encrypt my drives and get rid of Windows? (beehaw.org)
submitted 2 days ago by JillyB@beehaw.org to c/linux@programming.dev
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A while ago I decided to get an extra m.2 drive and put Linux Mint on it to try and switch off Windows. I unplugged the original drive, plugged in the new one, put Mint on it, then put the old drive back in. This has allowed me to dual-boot. However, Ive since fully committed to the Linux drive and haven't used the Windows drive in a long time. How do I put Linux on both drives?

I would like to fully encrypt both drives since I dont think I did that when I installed Mint. I would also rather have the original drive as the main drive again because I think it's in a faster slot for the motherboard. Is there a way to make this change without a fresh install? I could probably backup most of my important data to a flash drive but I'd rather not. (I'm fully ok with losing everything on the Windows drive though).

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[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 17 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I could probably backup most of my important data to a flash drive but I'd rather not.

You should ALWAYS back up any important/irreplaceable data before making any changes to your hard drives, even if you think the risk is low. Accidents happen.

You can move the drive from one slot to the other, the drive's UUID should not change. You'll just need to change the boot drive selected in UEFI. Physically swapping the drives will be faster, easier and less failure-prone than trying to move your boot and root partitions between drives.

For editing drive formats and partitions, the best tool is gparted: https://gparted.org/

It's convenient to have gparted installed on a USB drive so that you can live boot it and use it to make changes to the system drive(s). With gparted you can simply erase the Windows drive and create a new partition formatted for Linux (probably ext4).

If you are not already familiar with editing disk partitions and formats, you should read some tutorials first: https://gparted.org/articles.php

As for encryption, some Linux installers have this as a selectable option during the install process. If Mint does, you should consider reinstalling anyway to use that, as you are more likely to have it working properly.

If you just want to encrypt your data partition(s) you can implement LUKS with cryptsetup: https://linuxvox.com/blog/linux-luks-encryption/

Note that this is the most basic use, it does not cover FDE. If you want to also encrypt /boot so that your computer will not start without being unlocked, that is more complicated to set up:

!! YOU SHOULD READ A LOT OF INFORMATION BEFORE ATTEMPTING THIS !!

https://askubuntu.com/questions/1470391/luks-tpm2-auto-unlock-at-boot-systemd-cryptenroll

https://cryptsetup-team.pages.debian.net/cryptsetup/encrypted-boot.html

Be aware that doing anything wrong in this process is likely to leave you with an unbootable system, and unable to recover any data from the encrypted partition/drive. You need to be sure that the steps you're going to take are relevant for your hardware and OS before you start, and that you have all of the necessary utilities installed.

Again, if Mint has a selectable option for this in its installer, you will have much better chances of success reinstalling with that.

Don't skip the backup.

[–] JillyB@beehaw.org 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Thanks for all the info. The reason I didn't want to do a clean install wasnt because I didn't want to back things up. I just knew I would forget game saves or have program settings revert to default or whatever and spend the next couple weeks slowly running into small issues with my setup.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

Pull the current Linux drive. Install Linux with encryption to the current windows drive. Put the other drive back in, copy files and settings over, then wipe it.

You could also use cryptsetup-reencrypt to encrypt the current Linux drive in place. I've done it, works great. But you should always have a backup of anything you can't afford to lose.

[–] NaibofTabr@infosec.pub 3 points 1 day ago (2 children)

You're welcome, and yeah growing pains every time with a new install. But you do it a little better each time.

One recommendation - when you do reinstall, don't use the default/automatic partitioning. Manually set up your /home directory as a separate partition from /root. This lets you reinstall the OS without having to touch your user files. When you reinstall again, all you have to do is select the existing /home partition to use as the new install's home (and make sure not to format it). This makes your install a lot more flexible, and your OS a lot more disposable.

If you do manual partition configuration, don't forget to also create a /swap partition that is at least 1.5x the size of your RAM.

[–] Ghoelian@piefed.social 2 points 1 day ago

Another benefit of a separate home you can keep is that a lot of linux-native programs store their preferences and other stuff in ~/.config or ~/.share, so you get the added bonus of not having to set these programs up again as well.

[–] imecth@fedia.io 1 points 1 day ago

Separating home is unnecessary these days with btrfs, Fedora for example will let you reinstall while preserving /home/.

[–] possiblylinux127@lemmy.zip 3 points 1 day ago

Wipe both and then do a fresh install

[–] MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 1 day ago

I could probably backup most of my important data to a flash drive but I’d rather not

You absolutely need to have working backups in place, otherwise your data is at risk.

[–] Marija_@programming.dev 2 points 1 day ago

I would say encrypt first, optimize second.

[–] swodig@mander.xyz 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's impossible to do this without a reinstall. Look up LVM and LUKS

[–] nous@programming.dev 12 points 2 days ago (1 children)

That's not true. It is possible. It is just a lot harder and more error prone and takes way longer to do then just reinstalling.

[–] swodig@mander.xyz 1 points 11 hours ago

Fair enough

[–] neutronbumblebee@mander.xyz 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

What's your end goal for encryption? Possibly you don't need a whole filesystem. Maybe consider Veracrypt which just uses files. Or boot from a USB stick and resize your existing storage partitions and create a new encrypted drive in the free space then copy and redirect your /home although that's a bit more work.

[–] JillyB@beehaw.org 2 points 1 day ago

My goal is to generally enhance my security. With the US becoming more of a police state than it already was, I don't need my music folder to be a freely accessible reason to slap me with charges for nothing. If I ever do something that might be deemed not-government-friendly, I don't want to suddenly have to worry about how my files are stored. I'd rather have that baked in for a greater sense of freedom.