I would use two different disks, the one that you have already for windows and a second one for Linux. When you’re ready to install Linux Unplug the windows disk, so that you can’t screw it up ( been there, did that 😭) then when you need to use either the Linux or Windows Just choose the start up disk in bios at booting, usually F11, a tiny bit longer than dual booting, but it will save you a lot of hassle. Dual booting is rather dangerous as windows has the annoying habit of wiping Linux grub setups when updating, and Linux has the annoying habit of wiping everything, two different disks, much easier.

Timeshift for the system, works perfectly, if you screw up the system, bad update for instance just start it, and you’ll be back up running in less than ten minutes. Simple Cron backups for data, documents etc, just in case you delete a folder, document, image etc . Both of these options to a second internal HD

Okay, at least that gives me an idea, thanks

Thanks will check that out 👍

I’m going to do the same later this year as like you my setup is 10 years plus, though I’ll re-install Arch again What MB, GPU card etc did you buy? , as I’m out of touch with the latest equipment now, so would be grateful for a heads up

I use timeshift, on Arch and a Debian setup . It’s simple to set up, I do a automatic snapshot once a day, so if something breaks, just boot into tty and restore the previous day’s snapshot, takes about five minutes. Not sure why you say ext4 doesn’t work as it does. Haven’t tried the other programs that you talked about

Diaro sends me a notification and the end of the Day, reminding me to write something.

I keep a diary using Diaro on my android phone. I started a long time ago in note books, but as even I can’t alway read my own writing, switched to typing. I don’t write much, mostly rubbish, what I do find useful is the ability to search and find things, ‘repaired the fridge’ ‘changed the battery in the smoke alarm’, ‘had so and so around for dinner’ , ‘bought this and that’ … It’s only for myself, do when I’m dead and gone it will just disappear like myself

Yes i know, i tried it about two times, but found it extremely poor, was easier to install it by ‘hand’

Not that I remember

I do a Syu almost every day, I also do a Timeshift snapshot every day. So if ever something is broken I can just boot into TS and reinstall yesterday’s working system. Then I read the forums. That way I can see what breaks the system Only ever needed to that twice because of Nvidia updates (I’m running a very old card)

The Arch install is much lighter, Endeavour like many other linuxes, installs programs that you may or may not require. I prefer adding programd when I require them

I went from Manjaro to Arch. Installed by command line (took a few tries to get it done… ) I tried their installer but it wasn’t very good. Have also run Endeavour on a second pc for a while but I prefer pure Arch.

Garmin Epix Pro gen 2, by far the best, as like the 7x but with an OLED screen. A real fitness watch, rather than a apple smart watch

They often do some promotions, got mine at about half price

I use NordVPN, works well with Arch, no gui just terminal, only about three times to get it logged, to the country you want to use, and running

Use timeshift, easy peasy to set up. It’s saved my bacon a couple of times now, only last week, when the kernel 6.4 came out, but my old nvidia driver wouldn’t work with it. You just jump into tty, run timeshift --restore and chose a previous backup, takes all of ten minutes. I have it doing a back up every day to a second HD, keeping the last five, doesn’t take up much space. I don’t think there’s an easier option than that.