I'm a beginner and have a little experience with linux command and terminal on google colab. I'm planning to dual boot Ubuntu with windows 10 on my 500GB ssd. I plan to do most of my ml/al using python, docker, writing latex on linux and gaming on windows. I won't do some heavy ml/ai training, just write and check python code then do the rest on kaggle/colab.

My hardware: intel i5-12400f, 16GB ram, gtx 1650, 1 500GB ssd, 1 1TB hdd (currently storing some game, homework, latex file).

- Should I buy another ssd or just dual boot in the current ssd? The current one that Windows sit on is 327 GB free.

- Can Ubuntu pick up my hdd to store large dataset, docker container (I have been using a 30gb google colab container for ml/ai)?

- What about nvidia driver to test code with gpu? I heard it's kinda tricky to install nvidia driver on linux, correct me if I'm wrong.

Although I'm plan to use Ubuntu, but I'm open to suggestion. Thanks for helping me

With a 500 gig and 1T drive, I would install Ubuntu ( or what ever distro ) on the 1T drive. That saves shrinking the windows partition(s) to make room for Ubuntu. BTW, if you do shrink windows, use windows tools only for that task.

You didn't say how you have the 1T disk partitioned. I'm guessing its ntfs. If it is, use windows tools to shrink it. Install Ububtu on a linux file system, not ntfs. Permissions will not work correctly on ntfs. ext4 is very good, and probably is in use by Ubuntu.

Any linux system can store large files. Not sure what else you are thinking about here.

There are two basic ways to install video drivers. Most distros have them in their repos. This is the easy way.
Second way, you can download the run file directly from Nvidia for your card. You run the installer from a command prompt. It asks some questions, you answer, and it builds the driver and installs it. Just slightly more complex. You do this as root user, in Ubuntu with 'sudo'. Your card is supported by the latest production branch.

Hope this helps.

You can down load the drivers from this site: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/drivers/unix/

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for the reply!

My ssd is kingston snvs 500GB and hdd is seagate barracuda 1TB. I know ubuntu can run on hdd but does it affect container or developing performance?

Yes, the 1T drive is partitioned as NTFS.

Sorry for not providing more info. I meant if I installed Ubuntu on the same ssd as Windows, can it use the hdd as external drive (like drive C and D).

Also, just to be sure, can I re partition 1T drive to ntfs if I buy new drive for Ubuntu and transfer data to it?

The simple answer is yes. You will need to add what ever partitions on the 1T hdd to fstab to mount those at boot time. Keep in mind you may run into permission problems with that set up. NTFS ( windows ) does not treat permissions the same way linux does.

Its not clear to me what you are concerned about here. You could install Ubuntu on the 1T drive, and later remove it to another new drive. The space that was Ubuntu can then be formatted to NTFS. That will work.

It wasn't clear in your original posting that the 1T drive was a spinner. As far as running Ubuntu on it, you would see slightly slower times loading the system and writing files to the HD, compared to a SSD. At the cost of SSD's today, adding another for Ubuntu would give you better resonsivness on Ubuntu. Keep in mind we all ran on spinners up to about 5 years ago.

1 members found this post helpful.

Thanks for being patience and answer my concern! Hope you have a great day! Thank you very much!

I'd effeminately recommend that the OP use to separate HDDs or SSDs to prevent potentially messing up the Windows boot manager can easily be fowled up. How ever it's very un likely I'd also recommend that he OP allow the Ubuntu installer to auto detect Windows and configure Grub/Grub2 to chain load the Windows installation.

I used to like the computers that had hard drive switches so you can't mess up other drives. Wish they'd come back.

1 members found this post helpful.