Can you clear two drives by installing Ubuntu/use two drives with the same installation?

Tinav

12/21/22, 7:04 AM

I'm new to this kind of thing, (and lacking a lot of the proper terminology) so I'm not entirely sure what information I should be looking for. Hopefully I'm in the right place and not asking questions that have been answered countless times before.

My machine has two drives, one with five hundred gigabytes (I think this one is an SSD if that makes any difference) and a another with five terabytes. What I would like to do is to install Ubuntu Desktop on the 500GB drive, and use the 5TB drive for all of my personal stuff/projects, games, software, etc.

Currently, Windows 7 is installed on the 500 GB drive and (most of) everything else is on the other drive. Ideally, I would like to clear out both drives so that I could start from scratch with the new operating system. (After backing up everything I'm going to keep.)

I would/will be installing an OS for the first time, so I wanted to know if this is how I should/how to do this, and whether that's how it works in Ubuntu.

1 + 2

hard-drive

system-installation

guiverc

12/21/22, 7:12 AM

You haven't said which Ubuntu product you're planning on using (desktop? server? core?) but assuming it's a desktop install; I'd use the *Something else* option which lets you have full control on what is done. The easier options may achieve what you want, but I prefer the *Something else* as it lets me tell the system what I want, where I want. (FYI: if you stuff things up and a re-install is needed; the *something else* also lets you install without format thus allowing you not start again with everything)

C.S.Cameron

12/22/22, 2:09 AM

Do you intend on installing both Windows and Ubuntu on the SSD or just Ubuntu? If both, what version of Windows? A GPT partition scheme is most popular nowadays but Windows 7 requires MSDOS. If you will be installing Windows 10, it should be installed before Ubuntu, Both OS should be installed in UEFI mode.

Score:2

Ubuntu

Nmath

12/21/22, 7:16 AM

It sounds like you want to erase both hard drives before installing Ubuntu.

The most user-friendly way to do this is to use the "Disks" application from a live session to format each disk.

Boot from Ubuntu installation media and choose "Try Ubuntu".

Then launch the "Disks" application. Select the disk you want to format and click "Format". You should use the GPT partition scheme, when asked.

For the disk where you intend to install Ubuntu, that's it! When you install Ubuntu you can choose this disk as the destination and the installer will create the needed partitions and file systems.

For the disk you intend to use as a data partition, in Disks, choose the disk on the left and then click the + button to create a partition. Pay attention to the description of the options for file systems and choose what is most appropriate for your use case. If the disk will only be used by Ubuntu, ext4 is a good option. If it will be used by Windows and Ubuntu, you might choose NTFS, but keep in mind that this file system won't support POSIX ownership and permissions. FAT32 is a file system that is recognized by almost all operating systems but also doesn't support POSIX and cannot store files larger than 4GB. Also, FAT32 does not support partitions over 2TB, so this would be a poor choice for your 5TB disk, as you would need to create multiple partitions.

You can choose "Install Ubuntu" from the live session or you can reboot the installation media to install Ubuntu.

0 + 2

C.S.Cameron

12/22/22, 1:42 AM

The OP will not be able to install Windows 7 on a GPT drive.

Nmath

12/22/22, 1:44 AM

OP makes no mention of installing Windows 7. It's so far past EOL and a huge security risk so nobody should be installing it anyway.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Can you clear two drives by installing Ubuntu/use two drives with the same installation?

TH: คุณสามารถล้างสองไดรฟ์ด้วยการติดตั้ง Ubuntu/ใช้สองไดรฟ์ด้วยการติดตั้งเดียวกันได้หรือไม่

RO: Puteți șterge două unități instalând Ubuntu/utilizați două unități cu aceeași instalare?

RU: Можете ли вы очистить два диска, установив Ubuntu/использовать два диска с одной и той же установкой?

VI: Bạn có thể xóa hai ổ đĩa bằng cách cài đặt Ubuntu/sử dụng hai ổ đĩa có cùng cài đặt không?

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