Computer has two hard drives, I would like to install Zorin in the secondary drive, but I find the installation instructions not too clear about this instance.
2nd. drive information as shown in the Installation Type screen when selecting the "something else" option:
/dev/sda
free space 1 MB
/dev/sda1 EFI 104 MB
/dev/sda2 16 MB
/dev/sda3 524985 MB
/dev/sda4 475095 MB
/dev/sdb
/dev/sdb2 5 MB
free space 8204 MB
/dev/sdb3 ext4 23246 MB 2697 MB used
As you might correctly guess I am new to this adventure, I tried to used Linux mint using this same hard drive but after using Timeshit feature it filled up the partition assigned, not sure what happened and right after I changed my mind to go with Zorin Pro. Please advise.
This is the partition that is formatted to ext4 but is only a bit less than 24 gigabytes in size.
This is your largest partition; 524 gigs in size.
This one 470 gigs.
So, I think sda3 is the most viable. I recommend that if using TImeShift, to go into it's settings and limit how many backups it can store - otherwise it will keep stacking backups and filling the drive.
Hello Aravisian,
Thank you for the feedback, I am posting pics of the BIOS and the partition table of the drives as per Ponce-De-Leon's request, I hope this helps.
Hello, Ponce DL, thanks for your assistance as well. There it goes, pics of the BIOS and the partition table as shown after selection "something else".
No, Ponce DL, the main drive is in the first pic of the partitions, seen as nvmeOnp3 (ntfs) 500 Gb, that is where Win11 resides, the second drive is 1TB and seen as sda3 (unknown) and sd4 (unknown) and the other small partitions. sdb3 must be the partition created by the initial setup when I installed Linux mint. Ultimately I would like to keep only the sda partitions and consolidate the 1TB on two main partitions, one for the Zorin OS Pro and the other for the user home directory where all the documents and additional files will reside.
Thank you for kind assistance.
From a baulked EndeavourOS experience (I correctly identified the drive I wanted it to be installed to) overwrote my PCLOS Debian Plasma drive instead!
I always find it is best to disconnect the drive you need to keep hold of and then installation becomes easier, where you can focus on doing the install.
I am still curious as to what sdb4 is as it looks like a 32 Gb memory stick in terms of its capacity.
If sda3 and sda4 are data drives then I would be tempted to put Zorin Pro on sda3 (but I would create separate '/' and '/home' partitions on it so if the system did go west you can just install Zorin Pro to '/' leaving your '/home' directory intact).
I would use sda4 as an NTFS partition and label it DATA - that way you can use it to share between your Windows drive and your Zorin Drive.
After reinstalling Windows 11 you could update GRUB in Zorin so it picks up Windows in GRUB. Don't forget to temporarily disable FastBoot and Secure Boot in BIOS and also stop the option in Power Settings where the hard drive never turns off, which is what prevents GNU/Linux OS's from installing.
You should never save data from Zorin to where Windows resides as files will get corrupted, thanks to Windows - that is why I suggested a dedicated DATA drive to share between both OS's.
Okay, then I will concentrate on the sda Sheme. What I can see so far is, that You have there already an EFI Partition. It isn't very big but should be enough when You only use it for Zorin. So, take this one and choose it and mark it as EFI-Partition. I know, it already stands there but for creating the Partitions it is neccessary. Then take sda3 and mark it with the Mount Point / and format it to ext4. Then take sda4 and mark it with /home and format it to ext4, too. That should work.
