Sd cards arent the same as usbs or ssds. They seem the same because it’s like the same thing right? But they’re not.
Most usbs and all ssds have a controller that actually handles writing and reading to and from the memory chip. The controller lets them do things like recognize bad spots and write data elsewhere, perform secure erase functions, wear leveling and all sorts of the kinda stuff we expect of components we’re gonna use as hard drives.
Sd cards almost universally don’t have that controller. The goal for sd cards was to provide bulk storage to all kinds of embedded devices like cameras and later, phones. Because there’s no controller, there’s no wear leveling, no overprovisioning, no secure erase. That’s fine because the goal was always to just slam the sucker full of pictures and never erase it till it gets full, then start all over again.
But if sd cards aren’t acceptable hard drives then how come we use them in little sbcs like raspberry pi and whatnot?
Well the install process in that case almost always writes the system to the card first instead of doing a million reads and writes to figure out what repositories are available, updating packages, etc. sbc systems using sd cards as their storage are also (or should be!) configured to do minimal writes, with constrained log sizes and minimal swap.
So don’t use an sd as a usb or hard drive.
People might say that I’m wrong in replies to this post. They’ll say that sd cards are fine and that they have over 20k write cycles on their hyinx megacard128. Sd fails silently. I am not wrong. You literally just had problems installing from an sd. I can’t tell for sure if your problems came from using an sd or misconfiguring the new partition scheme but it sure as heck didn’t help that you used an sd as your install media.
Okay, now you said you have windows back up and running. Is it fully recovered and working good?
Is it using the whole drive?
Do you have all your files back?
Have you made a backup?
If you answer these questions I can walk you through the process of setting up windows to dual boot Linux in a way that won’t fuck up.