How I Dual Booted Fedora With Windows on My Acer Nitro V15

When I was trying to learn Linux, I first used VirtualBox on Windows with Kali Linux. It worked at first, but on my laptop it felt pretty slow and crashed multiple times, especially while running heavier tasks. After a while, I wanted a smoother experience with better performance, so I decided to try dual booting instead of virtualization.

I also realized Kali Linux is mainly designed for penetration testing and security work rather than everyday usage. Since I wanted a beginner-friendly Linux distribution for learning and daily use, I decided to try Fedora Workstation instead.

This is how I dual booted Fedora with Windows on my Acer Nitro V15.

Safety First

Before changing anything, I made sure to back up important files and prepare recovery options in case something went wrong.

What I did before installing Fedora:

• Backed up important files to Google Drive
• Cleared unnecessary files to free up storage space
• Saved my BitLocker recovery key
• Temporarily disabled BitLocker
• Created a Windows recovery USB drive

I saved my BitLocker recovery key from:

**Microsoft BitLocker Recovery Keys**

Saving the recovery key is extremely important because Windows may ask for it after changing partitions or boot settings.

Temporarily disabling BitLocker can take some time depending on your system.

Creating a Windows Recovery Drive

I used a 32GB USB flash drive for the recovery drive (make sure your USB drive is at least 16 GB).

Make sure the USB drive does not contain important files because everything inside it will be erased.

Steps:

1. Search for “Recovery Drive” in the Windows taskbar
2. Open it
3. Check:

• “Back up system files to the recovery drive”

1. Click Next
2. Select your USB drive
3. Click Next again
4. Wait for Windows to create the recovery drive

Disable Fast Startup in Windows

I also disabled Fast Startup to avoid possible issues while dual booting.

Steps:

1. Open Control Panel
2. Go to Power Options
3. Click “Choose what the power button does”
4. Click “Change settings that are currently unavailable”
5. Uncheck:

• “Turn on fast startup”

1. Click Save Changes

Downloading Fedora

I downloaded Fedora Workstation from the official Fedora website:

Fedora Project

Then I downloaded Fedora Media Writer for Windows:

Fedora Media Writer

I used another USB flash drive to create the Fedora bootable USB.

Booting Into Fedora Installer

My laptop is an Acer Nitro V15.

To access BIOS on my laptop:

• Press F2 while booting

I enabled the F12 Boot Menu inside BIOS.

After that:

1. Shut down the laptop
2. Insert the Fedora USB drive
3. Turn the laptop on
4. Press F12 during boot
5. Select the Fedora USB drive from the boot menu

Then Fedora showed these options:

• Start Fedora Workstation Live
• Test this media & start Fedora Workstation Live
• Troubleshooting

I chose:

• “Start Fedora Workstation Live”

Testing Fedora Before Installing

Before installing Fedora, I checked whether everything worked properly while running the live version from the USB drive.

I tested:

• Wi-Fi
• Speakers
• Touchpad
• General performance

Everything worked properly, so I continued with the installation.

Installing Fedora Alongside Windows

Inside the installer:

1. Choose your preferred language
2. Click Next

I selected:

• “Share disk with other operating system”

Since I had not manually created partitions earlier, the installer already enabled the reclaim space option automatically.

!! Important: Choosing:

• “Use entire disk”

will completely erase Windows and all existing data.

Since I still use many applications on Windows, I decided to keep Windows and allocate only part of the storage to Fedora.

I shrank the Microsoft Basic Data partition and gave around 90 GB to Fedora.

If you want additional security, you can also enable:

• “Encrypt my data”

After reviewing the installation summary:

1. Check:

• “I understand that some partitions will be modified”

1. Start installation

The installation process took some time.

First Reboot

After installation:

1. Reboot the system
2. Remove the Fedora USB drive

The first thing I did was boot into Windows to confirm everything still worked correctly and verify that the Windows partition had been resized properly.

Windows may ask for the BitLocker recovery key once after changing partitions or boot settings. This is normal — simply enter the recovery key you saved earlier.

After confirming Windows worked properly, I rebooted again and selected Fedora from the boot menu.

Final Fedora Setup

Inside Fedora, I completed the initial setup:

• Created my username and password
• Enabled third-party repositories/downloads

And finally…

woalaaa!!! we dual booted Fedora and Windows successfully.

Final Thoughts

I was honestly nervous before trying dual booting because I was worried about breaking Windows or losing files. But Fedora’s installer made the process much easier than I expected.

I also wanted to try Linux because of the amazing desktop customization and ricing community. Seeing how much people personalize their Linux setups made me want to experiment with my own workflow and desktop style too. If you like customization, definitely check out https://www.reddit.com/r/unixporn/ — the setups people create there are insanely cool and probably enough to make anyone want to customize their desktop

If you’re trying Linux for learning, development, customization, or just curiosity, dual booting can be a really nice way to explore Linux while still keeping Windows available whenever you need it.