Did any of you keep the original OS on the mini PC (e.g. by adding a second SSD and installing Stellarmate X on it, rather than just wipe the existing SSD)? I'm wondering if this is possible since I have a mini PC that I'm not ready to wipe yet.

Make a back up

I wiped the Windows OS from the Mele, no need for stinky Windows..

I installed a SSD internally and installed Ubuntumate on it and am running from it without disturbing the Win11 on the eMMC. I asked this of Jasem in June...

"if I purchase the Stellarmate X OS, I could download it to a USB thumb drive, and then install it to a 2nd attached external SSD without interfering with the Windows installation on the internal drive or the NVMe SSD that I currently boot ubuntu from? Presuming I get the boot priority correct, I'd like to leave the existing OSes intact for now."

his response was
"Not entirely sure if this would work. Unless you can select which bootloader to load on startup and then select the bootloader from the 2nd drive."

I'm didn't feel comfortable enough to proceed and try it. If someone does, I'd love to hear the results.

No need for stinkin replies to ditch anything if that wasn't the original question.

Thank you. This was exactly my doubt. I am using the mini PC as a way to control my equipment using sharpcap which is windows only.

I am not sure that taking an OS backup would work. The mini PC didn't come with a product key for Windows, so reinstalling it after the drive is wiped once may be complicated.

If Windows were activated on the mini PC and then you installed SM X, you may be able to reinstall Windows by contacting user support. As I found out by searching on internet, "No, you cannot transfer the OEM key to another computer. Manufacturers use these keys to install Windows on any prebuilt PC." So I just activated my Windows copy on the mini PC I bought and then installed SM X. Hopefully I could install it again if I decide to return to Windows on the same mini PC.

If your issue is running Sharpcap you could consider moving to FireCapture which will run on the Stellarmate X. As far as I can work out they are very similar.

I am happy with sharpcap.

My biggest reason to try stellarmate X is the same as my reason to use stellarmate (where I started): the ability to do live stacking and control my rig from a mobile device. The inability to control from my phone (unless I like pain) is the biggest limitations of my current windows setup.

Firecapture works with SM X, so you have a great piece of software for planetary imaging and you have Ekos/Kstars for everything else (deep sky and live stacking). It would probalby be easier to try and learn Firecapture that to have your mini PC set up with two SSDs and two operating systems.

Kstars and ekos does not live stack, as far as I know. The stellarmate app does. I do EAA most of the time, and planetary imaging very occasionally. So the EAA functionality is more critical for me.

When I used stellarmate with the rpi it was quite unstable. Random crashes, the equipment profiles were especially annoying and didn't work. That's why I would like to try stellarmate x without destroying my currently working windows setup.

I would also be interested in switching over to Stellarmate X from kstars/ekos on my Mele if it can be done while preserving the windows installation on the internal drive. I have Ubuntu on an SSD but I use windows when I need to do firmware updates for various bits of hardware - generally those require a windows installation and I am pretty much Mac and Linux.