I’d like to delete this thread eventually, but I appreciate all the responses immensely and feel those involved are owed some sort of update for their investment, so I will leave it for the time being.

Some context, and if you already think I’m too melodramatic or whatever, these next two paragraphs are the ones you should skip. First in regards to my meltdown, which I apologize for: it was largely less about this specific situation and more a straw that broke the camel’s back situation; I live with a mental health condition and am in a less than healthy overall space currently. This condition never excuses any of my bad behavior nor absolves me of any of my responsibility, but hopefully may serve to at least explain some of it.

In regards to my knowledge: I once considered myself somewhat savvy, but did not work to keep up with advancements nor ever really stepped from the periphery of the field into the actual deep end. As a teenager, I worked at a computer cable company and worked a MarketPro Computer Shows booth on weekends. I did actually build my PC at that time from components with minimal, but not zero, help. I’ve installed and reinstalled Windows countless times on multiple PCs from the 90s through the 2020s, not without many problems along the way at times, but most often successfully. I used to use DOS on my oldest system, I paid for a domain and host for a crude website I wrote in basic HTML, and I knew enough Java (or Javascript? I don’t even remember) from computer class in high school to write you a very, very basic game of blackjack, but that’s about it. In terms of hardware, I’ve plugged things into slots on the motherboard, but never played with what looks like the architecture and chips on the board itself to me. When this current PC first arrived (“built” online custom through selection from CyberpowerPC), I panicked at first thinking I’d gotten ripped off because I’d paid for 2 SSDs and 1 HDD but there was only one storage drive plugged in! The very idea they could be “part of the chips” was unthinkable. And finally, importantly, I had booted Pop! from the USB multiple times without installing to play around briefly and see if I could at least feel comfortable with basic navigation and how to access the terminal, especially in the case of some unexpected failure in the GUI element of Pop, which, as I understand, can happen, and which I thought accounted for the resolution problem and could be solved once install happened.

Now I want to acknowledge my mistakes, though I don’t presume this to be comprehensive:

• Taking lightly a task that deserved more intention.
• Not preparing for the at-hand moment with a clear guide instead of assuming it would just be fine because I’d installed Windows before.
• Not securing some means of support or other emergency plan prior to execution.
• Playing with hardware I did not fully understand (the SSDs).
• Not ensuring I had the most up-to-date, properly sourced distro install.
• Letting my fear of difficulty learning an unfamiliar step along the way (renaming the two identical SSD drives so they appear clearly distinct in BIOS) assume I could just skip it and would be able to figure it out.
• Breaking up my preparation into too widely spaced times: I don’t even remember when I first read about Pop, but I remember liking what I’d heard about how Windows-familiar it was for learners and downloaded the install then. Then at least months later, I read up on the install process, from a couple tech/Linux sites and Reddit posts, and finally, another couple months later brings up to this post.
• Panicking.
• Taking actions while panicking.

The update: Windows seemed very broken. My girlfriend tried to make a Windows install USB from her Mac but was unable to make it work. Eventually, we went to a friend’s house and used their PC. By this point, I was panicking and still facing the problem of identical SSDs, so after repair still wasn’t working, I ended up using the install utility to wipe one of the SSDs completely and reinstall Windows. I believe I selected the correct drive, and of course everything on that drive was lost, but that drive mostly was my Windows install drive due to a past of having to format and reinstall Windows on machines in the past, so comparatively minimal data loss. As of right now, my second SSD is not visible in Windows, but that has been emptied in advance of the Linux install, so losing the capacity sucks, but in terms of data loss, it’s negligible. Frankly, I have not yet been in a stable enough mental state to test if I can still boot Pop from the other drive or not.

For now, I’m going to get my Windows back in the state I want and sit on that for a while. Eventually, I will take a second swing at it, at the very least with current, of-the-minute, from the developer’s site or distributor version of Pop, if not a different distro entirely if that might allow me to use my GPU and not switch my monitor to the motherboard (which is a tremendous solution I had not thought of, thank you to those who suggested it). I still don’t understand if the Pascal thing is unique to Pop or is going to be an ongoing challenge with Linux or how to get the Nouveau driver if that might solve the issue.

To everyone who commented, thank you so much for your support. As somebody who has been chronically online since the 90s and at the border of normie and techie spaces to some degree, I don’t think it’s much overstated to say that the Linux community as a whole has long been the sort of “punk rock rockstars” of the PC space in my eyes. I am beyond sick of corporate overreach, nannying, and exploitation; I long for the knowledge to afford myself the agency over my own machine and a deeper understanding of what’s actually happening under the hood, which is why I want to learn and make the switch. And just like my experience with the punk music community, a lot of you welcomed me in and shared incredibly kind words and, more so, related to me with stories that made me feel not alone or inherently incapable. I know we’re all a bunch of strangers sitting in our relative corners of the world, but that really meant a lot to me, thank you.

A couple of you were less kind in your support but offered support nonetheless. I also appreciate your words and time, and I accept your criticism without disagreement as well. Cheers.