I'm installing Kubuntu 26.04 on a Windows 11 PC with three drives: a large SSD containing Windows and most applications, an 11TB NTFS hard drive containing my files and Steam library, and an otherwise empty 222GB SSD that is also currently formatted as NTFS. I booted the Kubuntu installer from a USB drive, but when I selected the smaller SSD, the installer only offered Manual Partitioning. I want Kubuntu installed using a Linux filesystem rather than NTFS, but I'm not sure how to safely prepare the drive or which partitions to create. What should I do?
3 Answers
Linux can’t be installed directly onto an NTFS partition. The installer needs unallocated space or partitions formatted with Linux filesystems. If you need to resize an existing partition, do it from a live USB environment rather than from the operating system currently using that drive, and make sure you have a reliable backup first.
Since the 222GB SSD is empty, use a partitioning tool from the live Kubuntu session to create a new partition table on that drive and remove the existing NTFS partition. This will erase the target SSD, so double-check that you have selected the correct drive and back up anything important first. Once the drive shows as completely unallocated, restart the installer and let it automatically create the Linux partitions.
You can also delete the existing partition on the 222GB SSD from the manual partitioning screen, then create a Linux filesystem such as ext4 or Btrfs in the resulting free space. Be very careful to modify only the empty SSD, not the Windows or data drives.
I found KDE Partition Manager in the live session and used that instead. I had to unmount the partition before changing it, but the installation is now running. I’m new to Linux, but this helped a lot—thanks!