What’s the Best Way to Move Windows and Preserve Data When Switching to Linux?

To keep things simple, it might be best to back up all your important data and do a clean install of Linux on the SSD. Just format the other drive for storage afterwards. If you’re not planning to boot Windows, cloning isn’t really necessary.

Looking at your situation, it sounds like moving Windows data to a separate partition while still within Windows could work well. This way, when you remove it, your data stays safe on that D: drive, and it makes things simpler down the line.

If you don't need a bootable Windows drive, just copy your user folder from Windows to the USB, and then you can easily clone your Linux install using the 'dd' command. After cloning, you might need to update your boot loader. But honestly, moving your data and then doing a clean install of Mint could save you a lot of hassle!

Have you tried Clonezilla? It’s a great tool for cloning drives. You can create a live USB with Clonezilla, clone your Windows drive to the external HDD, and once that's done, check if you can boot from it just to be safe. After that, it's as simple as resizing the partition on the external drive to match your needs. For your Linux Mint installation, you can do a similar process, or just consider doing a fresh install. If you have a Timeshift backup, restoring it should be easy after the fresh install!

Transwiz is another option you can look into. It’s specifically designed to transfer your data and settings reliably, much better than just dragging and dropping. I recommend giving it a shot if you want to keep everything organized.