Boot Loader 2 disks

General Help
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1

My setup:
I began with a Win10 PC. I installed Zorin as multi-boot. Then I installed Mint, multi-boot. Now I want to go with Zorin only ... BUT

As I investigated this older PC, I've realized it has 2 HDD in it, 1 TB, 500 GB. My goal is to have Zorin boot on the 500 GB drive and share the 1 TB for backups from my home network (2 Win11 Pro PCs). Currently, Zorin is on a partition on the 1 TB drive.

I realize one option would be to reinstall Zorin on the 500 GB. I went through a lot of pain as a Noobie setting it up to see/share with Win11 (I know; it's easy, right?!) so I'd prefer to copy my installation (?) I realize maybe a reinstall would be a healthy refresh of my knowledge I'm getting...

Also, what OS is best for the 1 TB? Zorin cannot write to NTFS, correct?

I can still boot to Win10, but I'm ready to let that go. If anything is better done there, I can do that, too. But this is a Zorin forum, so I know Z is best! But, for example, if I want to copy files from 1 TB to 500 GB... well, I need to decide how to format 500 GB, too, since it cannot stay NTFS.

Thoughts?

2

Zorin can't install with NTFS, that is right. But on a Drive, this isn't a Problem. You create a Partition on a NTFS Drive and there You install Linux and format it to ext4. Then You have Linux on a NTFS Drive - but seperated from the NTFS Format.

In Your Case it is even simplier because You have 2 Drives. Take the 500GB Drive and use it for Zorin or an other Linux System and the 1TB Drive in NTFS for sharing like You want do.

That is no Automatism. And ''is the best'' is relative.

You could try Clonezilla but to be honest I would suggest to make a fresh Install.

3

This has helped me think it through as I continue to research and learn.

In Windows, I knew how to share a HD for the network to access it. Assuming I install Zorin on the 500GB, how do I make the 1TB NTFS drive accessible to the home network?