New OS on 2nd drive

[Mitrovah]

So I want to explore Linux on a 2nd hard drive which already has all my videos, if i install Linux on my 2nd drive can I still view and access the videos through my main drive which has Windows, I formatted the 2nd drive already will I have to to do it again to install linux on it?

 

[stillblue]

If you mean can you view videos stored on the windows drive while in Linux. Absolutely. You can access all the files, but not the programs but there are several video players for Linux. Same thing for documents, music, pretty much everything.

 

[Mitrovah]

actually it would be the reverse, I want to view my videos on a linux drive through my windows. But my videos are already on the 2nd drive which is the drive I want to install linux on.

 

[popatim]

If the partition the videos are on is formatted in fat32 or ntfs then windows (or linux) wont have a problem. If the partition is formatted in a linux format then windows will not be able to access them natively but there are a couple of 3rd party apps that allow you to at least read the files, most wont let you write to the drive though.

 

[stillblue]

So I want to explore Linux on a 2nd hard drive which already has all my videos, if i install Linux on my 2nd drive can I still view and access the videos through my main drive which has Windows, I formatted the 2nd drive already will I have to to do it again to install linux on it?

Let's be sure we're speaking the same language. A drive is a physical entity, hard drive, USB drive, DVD drive. A drive may have one more partitions. A barn may be a hay barn or it could be partitioned into hay, horse and oat partitions.
When you say you intend to put Linux on your second drive, you would erase every thing on it unless you make a partition for it by shrinking the existing partition on the drive and Adding another for Linux. Just like putting up walls in your hay barn to create a space for horses.
If you do that then windows will still be able to use the old partition as will Linux. However, anything you put on the Linux will be invisable to windows. Linux can read and write to pretty much anything.