Hello everyone,

I plan to install two 2 TB hard drives in my Dell XPS 8700 desktop computer. My ideal situation is to install the Mint on one drive and divide the other into three partitions with the OS in partition one, programs in partition 2 and files in partition 3. If this is possible please tell me how to go about doing it. Also, if there is a better way please advise.

Thanks.

Not knowing the usage you intend for the machine, I can't comment on your partitioning plans, but I do know that you should install Windows first to whatever it sees as its C: drive.

I've read often here that, if you install Windows second, it mucks up your Linux boot loaders.

A web search for "linux windows two hard drives" will turn up a lot of useful resources.

So you want us to advise you on how to force Windows to install into separate partitions ?. Very odd request. Personally I can't help.

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Install Windows first. The Windows installer hopefully allows you to specify partition size/etc during setup, otherwise shrink it afterwards using Windows built in tools, or resize it using gparted from mint live. After Windows is installed, boot mint live to create the other partitions you want, leaving unpartitioned free space for Mint.

For the data partition, if you plan to share it between both OS, create it as NTFS partition. You can lookup how to assign "My Documents" or whatever windows calls your home folder to your data partition on the windows side (dunno off the top of my head, but is certainly possible). On the linux side, after installation just use simlinks from your home folder to Video, Music, Documents, Downloads, etc (i did this back when I dual booted...)

However if its only for Linux data, then may be a good idea to use separate EXT4 home partition when you install Mint. But note, unless things have changed on the Microsoft side, it may not be easy to get at that data from Windows if you do it that way.

When you say you want programs in another partition, do you mean windows or linux programs? It is not a good idea to share a partition for those. If you mean Windows programs, then create another NTFS partition for those also before installing Mint.

When you install most linux using most installers, [excluding swap which isn't useful if you only have one linux distro so skip that], it'll ask if you want it all on one partition, or separate partitions for root and home folders. When you install programs the normal way for all users, thats where programs go, to the main root partition, not home. Home is where your personal config files are, and your personal data (music/videos/downloads/documents/etc). However since you're probably going to simlink those to that NTFS Data partition you made earlier, not a lot of point in separate home partition in your use case. So unless you want things confusing, just leave enough unpartitioned space (or a whole drive) for Mint.

Windows has a "Custom" install option but just how customized that can be you will have to find out elsewhere.

A better way would be the microsoft support site or a windows forum.

Thank you enigma9o7

I have some clarifications if you don't mind.

1. "When you say you want programs in another partition, do you mean windows or linux programs? It is not a good idea to share a partition for those. If you mean Windows programs, then create another NTFS partition for those also before installing Mint."

Windows will be on one drive by itself and Mint on one drive by itself.

Okay, but that still doesn't answer if you meant windows or linux programs (or both which is bad idea) on that separate programs partition...

The easiest solution is one partition on each drive and be done with it. But maybe to do with the size of your drives you want to do something different because you want more space available to one of the OS's than the other, or you want to share a partition for data and while still being able to hibernate windows.

Without knowing the sizes of drives and what your intended use is, I can't give you any specific recommendations. Just the general stuff I mentioned in previous email like

1) windows can not use ext4 partitions for much at all out of the box, and even with special tools is a hassle to do more than read only, at least last time I looked into it (but that could have changed... in my case after dual boot a year or two, got rid of windows completely).
2) you can change the location of your home folder in windows to another ntfs partition after installation
3) linux can use ntfs partitions for data without any special setup
4) linux keeps programs and OS in root partition
5) linux keeps user config files and user data in home partition

Actually I thought of one more thing I've read about recently - if you hibernate win10/11 (which may be the default shutdown option) then you cannot fully access that partition from linux (read-only). So if you want to use your main win10 partition for data from linux, then you must make sure windows does a full shut down. Otherwise use a separate ntfs data partition, which won't be affected by hibernation, and set both windows and linux to use it.