Linux + Windows Data on same hard drive?

[BaconBoss42]

Hey, I am planning to dual boot windows and linux on the same system with both the actual OS's on a SSD and All my other data, (steam games etc) on a 1TB WD blue. I was wondering if it was possible to have my data from both windows and linux on the same hard drive without conflict, Thanks.

[Misanthrope]

Yes but it has to be the windows drive: While Linux can read and write files to windows drives the reverse isn't true: Windows usually can't read files on a Linux filesystem like ext4

[BaconBoss42]

1 minute ago, Misanthrope said:

Yes but it has to be the windows drive: While Linux can read and write files to windows drive the reverse isn't true: Windows usually can't read files on a Linux filesystem like ext4

Oh, Thanks alot, That's actually very interesting.

[AresKrieger]

Windows 10? Or like 7 or 8

 

10 there is currently a bug with some dual boot setups so i'd hold off 

 

Else you should be fine if you keep what @Misanthrope said in mind

[BaconBoss42]

1 minute ago, AresKrieger said:

Windows 10? Or like 7 or 8

 

10 there is currently a bug with some dual boot setups so i'd hold off 

 

Else you should be fine if you keep what @Misanthrope said in mind

Was going to go with Windows 10 for DX12 but im not going to give up linux. Does the bug not allow linux to read the drive or something else?

[mattyo5807]

13 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

 

[Tosa]

In Linux, you can mount the HDD partition in the /home directory, which in turn will contain one directory for each user, which in turn contains folders like Documents, Music etc. I'd say the cleanest way of doing it would be to create a clean NTFS partition on the HDD while installing Linux, and simply remapping the documents, music, images and videos folders to point to the folders on the HDD. If you want your Steam games on your HDD as well, you might want to create two directories in your user folder, one for the Linux version of Steam, and one for the Windows version, and choose to use these directories as library folders in Steam.

 

This is assuming you're doing a clean install of both Windows and Linux.

[BaconBoss42]

6 minutes ago, Tosa said:

In Linux, you can mount the HDD partition in the /home directory, which in turn will contain one directory for each user, which in turn contains folders like Documents, Music etc. I'd say the cleanest way of doing it would be to create a clean NTFS partition on the HDD while installing Linux, and simply remapping the documents, music, images and videos folders to point to the folders on the HDD. If you want your Steam games on your HDD as well, you might want to create two directories in your user folder, one for the Linux version of Steam, and one for the Windows version, and choose to use these directories as library folders in Steam.

 

This is assuming you're doing a clean install of both Windows and Linux.

Completly flew over my head to partition the Hard Drive. Thanks.

[AresKrieger]

44 minutes ago, BaconBoss42 said:

Was going to go with Windows 10 for DX12 but im not going to give up linux. Does the bug not allow linux to read the drive or something else?

The bug deletes non windows 10 partitions under certain boot conditions, I'm sure it will be patched but until then I'd hold off

[Captain_WD]

11 hours ago, BaconBoss42 said:

~snip~

Hey there

 

The guys gave you excellent suggestions and explanations regarding this! Some things I could suggest on top of it:

- Have you considered running your Linux Distro from a simple thumb drive? You could avoid all the hassle with partitioning, risking data loss or driver conflicts this way. 

- You could even consider a Virtual Machine for your Linux if you don't use it all that often. This way you can have both up and running whenever you want them, unless you need full resources on the Linux OS and you are doing rather heavy things on it.

 

Captain_WD.