I got an empty SSD as a second drive in my laptop.
So, I don’t understand what is the problem?
There is the Legacy and UEFI thingy in a set up which has to be harmonized I think.
How did you set it up?
I used this method....
https://zorinos.com/help/install-zorin-os/
BUT like you, i was scared of loosing everything from windows
so, I installed zoring on a fresh clean HD, then copied’transferred
what I needed over time to zorin