Can this be done?

[Shabakthanai]

Over the past several years, I have been learning how to set up and configure my computer using a dual boot system. The system works but is screwed up a bit; I would like to fix it without losing any data if possible.

I have 2 SSD's and 2 HDD's that contain my system as my computer currently is, however I would like to reorder the drives in the below described way.

I would like to save all my data from all drives to the empty TB 3GBs HDD, then format the remaining drives and install the current data on my preferred drives.

This may be a relatively simple problem for some of you to solve; it is daunting for me.

The following are images of my current drives. Their contents are not exactly as I thought they were, so I need to find the content of the first TB HDD first. If it were as I thought it was, it would simply be a TB Drive with the mount point /home and containing all the /home data for my Kubuntu 14.04 OS.

Here are opened images of my drives, as they appear in KDE Partition Manager 1.0.3:

This is a SATA TB HDD 6GB, contents in question.

This is a 128GB SSD that contains Kubuntu 14.04, but appears emmpty in the Partition Manager.

This is a 256GB SSD containing Windows 7 Pro.

This is the empty TB HDD @ 3GBs that I would like to save all my current drives information, then transfer the data to the preferred new location.

I would like to format the TB HDD 6GBs and install Windows 7. I would like to create a partition that can hold about 400GB so that I can expand the Win7 system, if needed, or use the space for additional storage for whatever I may need the space for in the future. I would like the file system for that space to be Ext 4, if part of that space can be expanded to as NTFS, if Win7 needs space in the future. I doubt very much that will be the case.

I would like to install Kubuntu 15.04 on the 128GB SSD and will put any future beta OS's in that drive.

I would like to install Kubuntu 14.04 on the 256GB SSD. And finally, I would like to format the TB HHD that contains all my drive information and set the mount point with a file system Ext4 and mounted at /home.

Since I do not know how and where Kubuntu or Windows save all of their files, I am hoping this can be done, as well as, properly locating and saving those files that are involved in GRUB and initial setup of the MB and stuff,

I have never made complex changes with my system where I have not lost important data or email records or configuration, but as you can see, in the past I have not requested much help setting up my drives, because what I want is how I thought I had set up my drives. Everything has functioned fairly well; I was unaware my drives did not load as I thought.

Does this appear a wise way to set up my drives? Thanks for advice and help

[vsreeser]

Over the past several years, I have been learning how to set up and configure my computer using a dual boot system. The system works but is screwed up a bit; I would like to fix it without losing any data if possible.

I have 2 SSD's and 2 HDD's that contain my system as my computer currently is, however I would like to reorder the drives in the below described way.

I would like to save all my data from all drives to the empty TB 3GBs HDD, then format the remaining drives and install the current data on my preferred drives.

This may be a relatively simple problem for some of you to solve; it is daunting for me.

The following are images of my current drives. Their contents are not exactly as I thought they were, so I need to find the content of the first TB HDD first. If it were as I thought it was, it would simply be a TB Drive with the mount point /home and containing all the /home data for my Kubuntu 14.04 OS.

Here are opened images of my drives, as they appear in KDE Partition Manager 1.0.3:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5785[/ATTACH] This is a SATA TB HDD 6GB, contents in question.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5786[/ATTACH] This is a 128GB SSD that contains Kubuntu 14.04, but appears emmpty in the Partition Manager.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5787[/ATTACH] This is a 256GB SSD containing Windows 7 Pro.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]5788[/ATTACH] This is the empty TB HDD @ 3GBs that I would like to save all my current drives information, then transfer the data to the preferred new location.

I would like to format the TB HDD 6GBs and install Windows 7. I would like to create a partition that can hold about 400GB so that I can expand the Win7 system, if needed, or use the space for additional storage for whatever I may need the space for in the future. I would like the file system for that space to be Ext 4, if part of that space can be expanded to as NTFS, if Win7 needs space in the future. I doubt very much that will be the case.

GParted or Kparted can take care of expanding the win7 partition. You will have to shrink the ext4 partition on the drive to do this. If you want to reserve the space for possible expansion, just do not partition it. If you put files on it, it will take longer to shrink. You could also create another NTFS partiton and re-assing all documents, pictures, videos, and music to go to that drive. You could then mount it in Kubuntu as a NTFS drive and be able to access that data as needed. I do this now with Win7 and Kubuntu.

I would like to install Kubuntu 15.04 on the 128GB SSD and will put any future beta OS's in that drive.

I would like to install Kubuntu 14.04 on the 256GB SSD. And finally, I would like to format the TB HHD that contains all my drive information and set the mount point with a file system Ext4 and mounted at /home.

Since I do not know how and where Kubuntu or Windows save all of their files, I am hoping this can be done, as well as, properly locating and saving those files that are involved in GRUB and initial setup of the MB and stuff,

I have never made complex changes with my system where I have not lost important data or email records or configuration, but as you can see, in the past I have not requested much help setting up my drives, because what I want is how I thought I had set up my drives. Everything has functioned fairly well; I was unaware my drives did not load as I thought.

Sata drives do not always show up as they are set in the BIOS. For your system, the best way to tell what is what would be the size, since all your drives are different...

Does this appear a wise way to set up my drives? Thanks for advice and help

Hope this helps some

[Shabakthanai]

I like your idea about NTFS and will consider making the change. As far as identifying by size, I have two TB drives, one shows itself as 900+ GiB of space the other as 800+ GiB of space, and it remains confusing when trying to identify from Devices in the left column of Dolphin. It would be nice if labeling a drive as well as when you set the mount point would show the Label instead of volume in Dolphin Devices. Do you know if that is the case?

Hope this helps some