Linux Dual Boot Failure With HP Laptop

I found myself down a rabbit hole instead of studying Java. I mean, if you want to program you should be using Linux not Windows. You would not want people to know you are a poser, and naturally, the solution to that problem is to pretend you know how to use Linux.

The first step was to open the Googles and type in "dual boot linux and windows 10 hp laptop". Naturally, after much reading it became clear that while the process of dual booting Linux and Windows can be relatively straight forward, it is generally a pain in the ars if you are using an HP laptop.

I found several quite complex "solutions" for attempting to deal with the problems of dual booting an HP system with UEFI, but they were all problematic, all system specific (which seems to be an issue), and often ended in multiple failures before finally getting it right.

My final decision was to go with the most straight forward solution I found and roll the dice. Well, long story short, instead of a tutorial, all I have to post is a story of failure. I could go into the details of uninstalling tons of software, getting rid of the hibernation and page file, and a few other things I did in order to make it possible to shrink my hard drive as much as possible (after all, I would be using Linux as my primary OS...why bother leaving that much room for Windows). I could give links to a couple other resources I used, and provide screenshots of my progress along the way. I guess I could even detail the attempts I made to remove Ubuntu from my boot record (see below). In the end, there just is not any point.

I did in fact get my machine to dual boot Ubuntu and Windows 10, but after several aberrant reboots obviously associated with Windows fighting with Linux on how to boot the machine I decided it would be best to dump Linux and go back to just Windows.

Thus far the only sign that I ever messed with it is the persistent listing of Ubuntu when I pull up the boot menu (which I would only ever see if I needed to boot from a USB anyway). There are several complex solution for getting rid of that entry, but as the laptop does boot normally I will just leave it there letting it burn a hole slowly in my obsessive mind until I have to reinstall Windows from scratch some day.

To be honest, it is better this way. I would have spent days (or weeks) learning to use Linux as my primary OS and looking for solutions to retool for a workflow on a system that does not have all the software I use for Windows and Mac. This way I can get back to the serious business of learning Java. I crack myself up.