Q 1.)
I would like to know how to take the contents of the folders in W10; images, documents and downloads with me to Ubuntu? I must
immediately add...I have no space on the PC for a dual boot W10/
Ubuntu.
Answer
Invest in an USB external drive. If you can afford it, buy an external SSD. The SSDs are faster than mechanical hard drives. Buy two if you can. You should have more than one backup.
Copy all the images, documents, downloads in your external USB drive(s). Copy all your videos in the D: drive into the external USB drives as well.
Don't use Windows backup program or any third party backup program to back up your files for this purpose. Just copy and paste or drag and drop the folders. Or create new folders and copy and paste files in them.
- Install Ubuntu using the default option of deleting Windows 10. This option will delete all the partitions in your internal drive including C: and D:. Therefore it is very important that you have two copies of your images, music, video, documents, etc. in two external drives.
Q 2.)
And if I put U 20.04 on that PC will I have access to my video
collection which is many GB in size? That collection is stored a so
called Data-Partition, the D-drive I mean...with a fresh U 20.04
installation...I want to have access to that video collection without
any problems and watch videos from it with my family.
Answer
Windows is not always very clear what is a separate hard drive (or SSD) and what is a partition as partitions are called C: Drive, D: Drive etc. If your D: Drive is a data partition in the same physical hard drive, then it will get deleted if you install Ubuntu using the default options of erasing Windows.
It is possible to install Ubuntu while preserving other partitions such as the D: Drive. For that you will need to use the Something Else option. This is the advanced option where you will have to tell the installer which partitions to delete and what partitions to create and how to format the new partition so that Ubuntu can use it as the system partition. If you select the wrong partition then you may be deleting the data partition (D:) instead of the Windows OS partition (C:).
The Something Else option requires deeper understanding of how partitions are named and mounted in Ubuntu. I do not recommend this for someone who is "pretty new using Ubuntu."
Even for long-time users of Ubuntu, mistakes happen. Therefore, I recommend that you make external USB drive backups even if you feel comfortable using the Something Else option.
Where is my D: Drive?
If the D: Drive is located in a separate physical hard disk (or SSD) OR if you used the Something Else option correctly then D: Drive will not be deleted by the installation process. However, Ubuntu will not call it "D:". You will have to set Ubuntu up to mount the partition (previously called the D: Drive) with a mountpoint. Mountopints are empty folders created specifically for mounting partitions. You may also want this partition to be mounted automatically when you turn the computer on and Ubuntu boots. Once the partition is mounted it can be accessed like any folder in Ubuntu.
Once you have copied your videos back into the computer from the external USB drive, Or once you have set up the data partition to mount when the computer boots, you should be able to play the videos using an application like VLC. As others have pointed out you should test with a sample video on your other computer to make sure the videos work with VLC or something similar.
Hope this helps
