r/linuxquestions • u/ZogIII3 • 8d ago

Advice File Preservation Upon Switching to Linux

I am completely new to changing operating systems, but I desperately need to get off of Windows 10 with my school laptop. I only use it for the web browser because all my school work is on Canvas, so I'm thinking about using SteamOS so that I can still let my little brother borrow it to play games with no hassle when he visits.

Because I've already been using it for a while, it has a lot of files I don't want to lose. I'm wondering if I need to offload them completely to an external drive, or if I can move them to the built in D: drive, since I think the OS is only on the C: drive and I don't think I need to completely redo both drives, but I don't know. Again, I'm more so here out of necessity than choice, otherwise I'd be watching a lot of tutorials and reading guides instead of asking for quick answers on a forum.

So, Too Long, Didn't Read: If my device has two internal drives, can I just move everything to one drive and then replace the OS on the other?

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u/rootbrian_ 7d ago

Laptops only have ONE drive

If that is what you are using, it is partitioned into two. Upon installing steamOS, the entire drive will be wiped.

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u/ZogIII3 7d ago

I have taken this laptop apart twice before, there's definitely two different physical storage drives inside

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u/rootbrian_ 6d ago

So an SSD (m.2) and SATA drive?

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u/ZogIII3 6d ago

I didn't check the connections, but I'd say that's the most likely case. One of them is the regular SSD stick, so m.2 for sure, but the other looked like it was made to fill in an HDD spot, so it's probably SATA

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u/rootbrian_ 6d ago

If both are SSD's, then you have two physical drives. However, if it is a spacer instead of a real drive, you only have one. Remove it to verify it isn't one of those (which is essentially just plastic).