I'm making the switch from Windows to Linux, starting with some secondary machines and hopefully moving my main gaming rig over if it goes well. I currently have three drives in my PC: a 500 GB M.2 for Windows, a 2 TB SATA SSD for apps and documents, and a 4 TB SSD for games. My plan is to keep Windows where it is and add a new M.2 SSD for Linux. I'm not worried about reinstalling my Steam library, but I need to protect about 500 GB of important documents, D&D maps, and photos. I'm considering just unplugging the important drive during installation, but I want to know the best way to ensure my files are safe and can be accessed from Linux. Can I move files temporarily to the games drive and transfer them back after setting up Linux? Also, how practical is it to keep files on a separate drive from the OS in Linux? Is it difficult to maintain a setup with the OS, programs/files, and games on different drives?
1 Answer
Keeping your files on a separate drive is definitely doable, but you might hit some bumps if that drive is formatted with NTFS or FAT. For basic reading and occasional writing, it should be fine, but apps that need to do a lot of writing can run into permission and file management headaches. To future-proof your setup, it's best to migrate those files to a Linux-friendly format. You could use the separate drive mostly as an archive for reading, which means less hassle altogether.
That sounds reasonable! I’m open to formatting most of the drives for Linux, especially if I can copy everything safely.