One thought occurred to me just now:
If I wanted to add dual boot capability to the Win 11 Pro desktop machine later, and have it boot off that new SSD that I need to initialize, would I likely be best off to set some space aside “unallocated” as a future home for that (Linux) OS? Then, I should look up the drive size requirement(s) for various versions of Linux?
That is one cool thing about the Linux installer... You have the option during install to either wipe and do the whole drive, or install dual boot/”Along side” in Linux terms.
But it will actually do all that partitioning for you during the install.
It will check the drive for existing operating systems.
If it sees one it will ask you if you want to install along side.
Then it will allocate and create the partitions and volumes it needs to do it’s thing.
So no need to partition it ahead of time, it is all part of the Linux install and it will scoot the windows over for it’s own partitions next to windows.
It generally creates three partitions for itself. System, Home, and “Swap”. And in total they add up to about 25 Gb as a minimal base setting for the initial size. But some installers have a slider so you can increase that Linux size during the install if you like.
But Linux is like windows. If you start to run out of room with that 25 Gb it will ask you if you want to increase the size of that partition and then it will reallocate more for itself from unused space.
So no need to do any partitioning before hand. It will detect and create for itself. :)
Now... One note though, when you do this, because you have all those drives, I would temporarily unplug all but the one main drive you want the Linux to go on. That way there is no mistake which one it installs to. The Linux will pick up and see those drives fine on the fly after you plug them back in again and reboot.
https://www.partitionwizard.com/
You should expect to put up with some nags to buy the full version, but it is certainly not necessary if all you want to do is resize partitions. It is much easier than doing it the manual way in most cases. Some Linux distributions such as Ubuntu will resize your Windows partitions for you when you install them.
I should warn you however that adding Linux distributions even Ubuntu, but especially Debian will often screw up your ability to boot into Windows until you use a free boot repair tool.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Boot-Repair
The previous tool usually gets things working again with just the automatic settings, although I make it a habit to always image the entire drive using the free edition of Macrium Reflect whenever I am adding additional operating systems.
The free edition is no longer on Macrium’s website, you have to get it from Major Geeks. Just check that you are using it for personal use only and do not bother to register it.
https://www.majorgeeks.com/mg/get/macrium_reflect_free_edition,3.html
It is the same edition that is included with Hiren’s Boot CD. So you can use it that way as well if you don't feel like installing it in your Windows system.
I have had up to half a dozen operating systems on the same disk, which takes a bit of wizardry. It is definitely safest to use a separate hard drive for each OS. If Linux's Grub and Window's Boot Manager will not play nice together you can instead choose the boot partition using your computer's UEFI/BIOS boot manager when you first start the computer up.