Jumping from Windows 11 to Rocky USB

Rocky Linux Help & Support
1

EDIT: TL;DR: Current Theory: Use Rufus in DD Mode to install x64 Rocky onto External NVME.

Hi Support,

I’m trying to make a jump from Windows 11 to Rocky, but I want to try before I risk borking things. I’ve constructed an enclosed USB NVME to boot from, but I need to make it have Rocky so I can select it from the boot menu.

So far all documentation I can find shows how to turn the Drive into an install disk, and the only other method I can think of is to get a spare USB, turn that into an install medium and then direct it to install rocky onto the USB NVME. However, as I am a smooth brained user, I can see myself borking it up and accidentally installing it over my main windows 11 boot and wiping out my current system. And the Just use X program just causes me to raise a lot of questions as I’m overwhelmed by the various sub selections of the program. I know It’s supposed to be an x86 install but I’m confused by the titles and cases.

Current system:
Ryzen 9 5950x (undervolted)
Nvidia 3080ti (undervolted)
64GB DDR4 3200 CL16 Ram (Running XMP/EXPO)
4TB Windows 11 Boot - Currently in use and I do NOT want to over ride
4TB Storage
1TB Storage backup
128GB USB Boot drive (currently blank)

Use cases/Goals:

Game Development on Unreal engine
Modelling in Blender
Open source media creation instead of Adobe Suite
PhotonWorkshop & Microsoft 3d Builder on WINE for 3d resin printing (this is why I need to try before going full on)
Figma/UI UX Design

Thanks in advance!
-Voxel

P.S. I was recommended to use Linux and an engineer recommended I use Rocky for its driver support. I’ve dabbled with Ubuntu on a laptop, but it kept giving me use issues with some of the programs for design (mainly hanging/lagging a lot when trying to draw). I’m hoping this distro will be better.

2

PEBKAC: I completely forgot that Rufus exists. I’ll give it that a shot.

3

If using Rufus, make sure to do it in dd mode, see:

There’s also the option of preparing a USB stick with Ventoy, and then just dropping the ISO file itself on the USB stick. https://www.ventoy.net/en/index.html

4

I’ll use Rufus with dd mode just as a precaution. While the “USB” drive connection is a 10gbit/s USB-C to NVME 3.0 External Drive, I might as well follow what you posted for maximum stability.

Thanks!

5

Having just adding Rocky to two mini PCs with win11, just use Disk Management and shrink the
C: partition, reboot into Rocky minimum on external USB DVD drive and install on the blank
disk space. Straight forward. If you have booting problems put rEFInd on a USB stick. I also
wanted “data” on an external USB disk so if the internals failed, we’d still have the data.