Score:0

Installing Ubuntu + adding second hard drive

in flag

I've been running Kubuntu for several years, with the OS installed on my primary SSD, and a second, mechanical HD for mass storage (I added and formatted it in Kubuntu- I don't recall what format (FAT32, etc) at the moment). Well, I managed to screw up my OS at some point while attempting to upgrade it (it won't boot properly, I can't even open the konsole or connect to the internet anymore, and I suspect I need to do a clean install to get it working again.

I can access all my personal files, on both drives, from an Ubuntu live USB. My initial plan is to move all the personal data on my primary drive to the second drives, remove that drive from my laptop, and then install Ubuntu or another flavor (Lubuntu perhaps, since my laptop is older) as a complete disk overwrite of the primary drive, and then add the second drive back in, retaining all my data on the second drive.

Is this workable? Will a clean install of Ubuntu or another flavor still recognize/be able to read the second drive with all of it's data? I'm trying to avoid having to move all my data from both drives to an external hard drive, but I can if I need to.

Nmath avatar
ng flag
I'm not sure what is the problem? If you are asking if your data is immune to being overwritten or lost, then the answer is "No". If you don't have backups, you will probably lose your data at some point
user535733 avatar
cn flag
It's a sensible plan. Failures and mistakes tend to occur at the worst possible time, so don't be hurried, check your input twice, and mitigate your risk as much as you can. For example, you can unplug your hdd during install, and manually add it to fstab later.
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