Pre-install setup help, please.

[chezler]

oshunluvr, Thanks for the welcome, and for all your input.
I've seen a few of your threads, as well as GreyGeek's. I think that with the info I've gleaned so far, and knowing I can come here foe help, BTRFS seems like the logical choice.

I'm sure I'll play around with other distros, and probably have to do a few re-installs along the way. Part of learning.

If things settle down here at the homestead, I hope to get that new ssd in herein the next several days.

Been reading on Rod Smith's gdisk. Need to get up to speed on that. Still have some questions on that,...such as; Working in Win10 on my laptop, setting up my ssd plugged it to a docking station, Do I install gdisk to Win10 or install it to a thumb drive? --- If its installed on a thumb drive, would it be better to swap my drives so that I have my blank drive in the computer and work from there.
Everything I read about gdisk, they are working from a Linux system.
Curiosity; Is R. Smith's fdisk the same fdisk I use to use to set up HDDs or is this a different animal with the same name?

I look forward to spending time here on the forum. Thanks again for all your help.
Charlie

[Qqmike]

the fdisk is the same as you have known. Also,

To work around such problems and to satisfy personal curiosity about GPT, I wrote gdisk. This program's user interface is modeled after that of Linux's fdisk utility for manipulating MBR disks, although gdisk necessarily deviates from fdisk in many respects. I subsequently added the sgdisk command-line-driven version of the program, as well.

http://www.rodsbooks.com/gdisk/whygdisk.html

[chezler]

I don't know how to mark this as "Solved", but I have enough info to get a good start, and am preparing my computer for the change.

"Things" have been causing me to keep putting it off (a day here, a week there) but I'm slowly getting to it.
Preparing for a trip to see my gran-kids, so the laptop is on hold for now, and It is going in my desktop first.

I want to thank every one for all the info, it's been a big help. I'm sure I'll need more advice as I go so, I'll talk to ya soon.

P.S. I posted in the GEEK NEWS section about the new MS service agreement. If anyone uses ANYTHING related to Microsoft, it's worth a read.

Good day to all
Charlie