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Linux mint/Window dual-boot. Question about NTFS format

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Noctosphere

Noctosphere

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Hello fellow Tempers,

So, after trying to move from Windows to Linux for good, I came to realise that some software just don't work/aren't as good on linux as they are on windows, no matter the effort I try to put on it.
Maybe I'm just too lazy to figure it out, or maybe it's just a bit too complex, but I think that going for a mix of Linux/Windows and going for dual-boot is the best solution.

From my experience, and from previous thread I made some time ago, i learned that NTFS drive format could be tricky with linux. IIRC, the "execute" permission was not granted in linux mint, and so, I could read content, I could write content, but I could not execute content (aka, video games). That's why I went for the main linux drive format, ext4.
However, as far as I'm aware, Windows does not support ext format. NTFS would be the best balance between Windows and Linux, but I would like to do it the right way.
First of all, is there a way to reformat a drive to NTFS format so I can execute code directly on it on Linux (aka. play a video game stored on it)?
Secondly, can I read the same NTFS drive on both Linux and Windows? Or do I need to make separate partition for both (aka, on my 2TB drive, make a 1TB partition for Windows, and 1TB partition for Linux)?

And finally, and that is kinda unrelated to drive format and partition, but I already heard of windows installment that "debloat" windows (Windows11 debloater, tiny11, etc.).
Do you have one in particular that you would recommend me? Or are these the best one would recommend to anyone?
 
As far as I know NTFS is Windows "Propietary"
and was developed by Windows as a FAT32 upgrade.
Now I don't know much about this virus Linux, but FAT32 and FAT and NTFS aren't the same as ext4 which is what the virus uses.

It's totally two different file systems. Is like asking how to make a F1 Car motor work on a Lawnmower... I mint, might be possible, but not efficient nor worth the effort.

Noctosphere said:
Secondly, can I read the same NTFS drive on both Linux and Windows? Or do I need to make separate partition for both (aka, on my 2TB drive, make a 1TB partition for Windows, and 1TB partition for Linux)?
Click to expand...
Yes, you can do NTFS for your Windows part and ext4 for the virus.
I'm not sure if you could access each across each though, might end up corrupting your entire data.

Noctosphere said:
First of all, is there a way to reformat a drive to NTFS format so I can execute code directly on it on Linux (aka. play a video game stored on it)?
Click to expand...
No dude, I don't think this is safe. You might try, but the virus will break it.

Noctosphere said:
And finally, and that is kinda unrelated to drive format and partition, but I already heard of windows installment that "debloat" windows (Windows11 debloater, tiny11, etc.).
Do you have one in particular that you would recommend me? Or are these the best one would recommend to anyone?
Click to expand...
I don't meet te minimum hardware requirements for Windows 11, but why not keep 10?
It's less prone to reinstall bloat/telemetry after you make registry changes to block these "updates".
And is so funny in my case because Win10 keeps trying but "You don't meet minimum requirements" literally blocks itself without me doing anything :rofl2:

Windows 10 is still fine for me, not only because I "can't upgrade", but because 11 is just as awful as Linux Virus standards.


Noctosphere said:
I came to realise that some software just don't work/aren't as good on linux as they are on windows,
Click to expand...
7faf789968190b14974a0e518fdaff25.gif
 
Totally forgot to reply here.

Dual booting is a thing I haven't done in ages. Back in the days of classic BIOS and Grub Legacy it was a breeze.
Nowadays with UEFI, TPM, Secure Boot and Windows applying the minimal version of BitLocker automatically if certain conditions are met, I'd always expect the dreaded "Enter 48 digit recovery PIN" message when having multiple OSs. My Windows knowledge is more or less stuck in the XP era, so take information from me about modern Windows with a grain of salt.

This is the part I do not understand:
Noctosphere said:
From my experience, and from previous thread I made some time ago, i learned that NTFS drive format could be tricky with linux. IIRC, the "execute" permission was not granted in linux mint, and so, I could read content, I could write content, but I could not execute content (aka, video games). That's why I went for the main linux drive format, ext4.
Click to expand...
Please explain why you want to execute Linux software from an NTFS drive. Using an NTFS partition to share data between Windows/Linux is understandable… but running Linux software :unsure:. Maybe it is possible with mount options. These umask, fmask, dmask things… I never tried since not having Windows on any productive computer. NTFS access is stable since very long.

JuanMena said:
and was developed by Windows as a FAT32 upgrade.
Click to expand...
Nah. That creates a time paradox. NTFS came out 1993, FAT32 was part of Windows 95 OSR2 in 1996.
Those two have not much in common. NTFS is a modern journaling file system with ACLs and all the bells and whistles. FAT12/16/32 is on the other hand is… well just FAT.
 
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Noctosphere said:
Hello fellow Tempers,

So, after trying to move from Windows to Linux for good, I came to realise that some software just don't work/aren't as good on linux as they are on windows, no matter the effort I try to put on it.
Maybe I'm just too lazy to figure it out, or maybe it's just a bit too complex, but I think that going for a mix of Linux/Windows and going for dual-boot is the best solution.

From my experience, and from previous thread I made some time ago, i learned that NTFS drive format could be tricky with linux. IIRC, the "execute" permission was not granted in linux mint, and so, I could read content, I could write content, but I could not execute content (aka, video games). That's why I went for the main linux drive format, ext4.
However, as far as I'm aware, Windows does not support ext format. NTFS would be the best balance between Windows and Linux, but I would like to do it the right way.
First of all, is there a way to reformat a drive to NTFS format so I can execute code directly on it on Linux (aka. play a video game stored on it)?
Secondly, can I read the same NTFS drive on both Linux and Windows? Or do I need to make separate partition for both (aka, on my 2TB drive, make a 1TB partition for Windows, and 1TB partition for Linux)?

And finally, and that is kinda unrelated to drive format and partition, but I already heard of windows installment that "debloat" windows (Windows11 debloater, tiny11, etc.).
Do you have one in particular that you would recommend me? Or are these the best one would recommend to anyone?
Click to expand...
NTFS doesn't have an execute permission, but in the fstab you can set the default permissions that a filesystem is mounted with, so that you can add (global) execute permission to file systems that don't support it.

You shouldn't, though. You can access exFAT and NTFS from Linux but you should not use it as a primary drive, you're going to run into issues sooner or later, the support isn't perfect. Accessing files occasionally, like if you have media stored on it is probably fine but i would be wary of regularly writing as that is where you can run into corruption.
 
FFS, I don't know why, but since I started using Windows again, it just sucks ass.
I don't know what happened in-between when I stopped using it and when I installed Windows back, but now, it is just so slow.
It just takes so much time to load anything. And I really mean ANYTHING. Games, discord, my AI stuff now take forever just to load the most basic models. I thought compatibility was a problem with Linux, but I guess "performance > compatibility" because I'm already tearing my hair up from window's snail-speed.
Fuck it, I'm going back to linux XD
 
Noctosphere said:
FFS, I don't know why, but since I started using Windows again, it just sucks ass.
I don't know what happened in-between when I stopped using it and when I installed Windows back, but now, it is just so slow.
It just takes so much time to load anything. And I really mean ANYTHING. Games, discord, my AI stuff now take forever just to load the most basic models. I thought compatibility was a problem with Linux, but I guess "performance > compatibility" because I'm already tearing my hair up from window's snail-speed.
Fuck it, I'm going back to linux XD
Click to expand...
Windows 11?
Normal.

Windows 10?
Not normal.
 
Noctosphere said:
First of all, is there a way to reformat a drive to NTFS format so I can execute code directly on it on Linux (aka. play a video game stored on it)?
Click to expand...
There is a way to allow permissions to read an NTFS drive on Linux. There is an official guide from Valve for gaming that explicitly says it is not recommended but it is technically possible.
Noctosphere said:
Secondly, can I read the same NTFS drive on both Linux and Windows? Or do I need to make separate partition for both (aka, on my 2TB drive, make a 1TB partition for Windows, and 1TB partition for Linux)?
Click to expand...
You can read the same NTFS formatted data from both OSes from what I know. Can't say I have any personal experience with it but it seems like that is how it works. You could make a partition that was ext4 or some other file system and it would work much better for Linux.
Noctosphere said:
And finally, and that is kinda unrelated to drive format and partition, but I already heard of windows installment that "debloat" windows (Windows11 debloater, tiny11, etc.).
Do you have one in particular that you would recommend me? Or are these the best one would recommend to anyone?
Click to expand...
My biggest warning would be to not use a custom iso. You do not know and usually have no way to verify what changes were made to the OS before it got packaged up into the iso. A tool that I use personally to debloat Windows is winutil. I have used this tool for a while and it works great. It is open source and has plenty of eyes on it.
 
I have been using the same drive with NTFS partitions for several years and I don't remember having ever encountered any problem reading, writing or executing from them on Linux.

The closest from an issue was going from Windows to Linux after a reboot and the partitions were write protected, but that always went away after rebooting back to Windows then back to Linux again.

I personally would feel more concerned about Windows supporting EXT4 than Linux supporting NTFS, but maybe it is the exact same situation the other way around, so probably nothing to be worried about.
 
VinsCool said:
I have been using the same drive with NTFS partitions for several years and I don't remember having ever encountered any problem reading, writing or executing from them on Linux.

The closest from an issue was going from Windows to Linux after a reboot and the partitions were write protected, but that always went away after rebooting back to Windows then back to Linux again.

I personally would feel more concerned about Windows supporting EXT4 than Linux supporting NTFS, but maybe it is the exact same situation the other way around, so probably nothing to be worried about.
Click to expand...
on arch sometimes i had issues with certain games (example: vrchat didnt want to run properly from an ntfs drive) unless i set specific permissions to mount the ntfs drive

right now i have it setup like this and ive had no issue specifically

apparently they putting ntfs support directly in the kernel recently but right now i use the ntfs-3g driver (i had issues with just ntfs)
 

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MarioMasta64 said:
on arch sometimes i had issues with certain games (example: vrchat didnt want to run properly from an ntfs drive) unless i set specific permissions to mount the ntfs drive

right now i have it setup like this and ive had no issue specifically

apparently they putting ntfs support directly in the kernel recently but right now i use the ntfs-3g driver (i had issues with just ntfs)
Click to expand...
Oh right the kernel added NTFS recently, another reason to not worry about it, you are correct.
 
Noctosphere said:
FFS, I don't know why, but since I started using Windows again, it just sucks ass.
I don't know what happened in-between when I stopped using it and when I installed Windows back, but now, it is just so slow.
It just takes so much time to load anything. And I really mean ANYTHING. Games, discord, my AI stuff now take forever just to load the most basic models. I thought compatibility was a problem with Linux, but I guess "performance > compatibility" because I'm already tearing my hair up from window's snail-speed.
Fuck it, I'm going back to linux XD
Click to expand...
Had that happen as well, to a degree. But before windows 11 was much of a thing, let alone became an AI mess.
Linux Mint doesn't allow executing code by default, so it's a bit of figuring out if you want to get rid of all the brakes. But i initially just went with Linux alternatives for programs. Not always possible, but i found that windows became less and less needed.
Worse: once i started that partition, it was slow as hell. As if Microsoft decided that because it had been a while since i updated windows, I was barely allowed to use it.

Don't know what to say... The ntfs partition was always visible to both partitions. I might have had to set it to auto mount in Linux, but can't remember.
 
Taleweaver said:
Had that happen as well, to a degree. But before windows 11 was much of a thing, let alone became an AI mess.
Linux Mint doesn't allow executing code by default, so it's a bit of figuring out if you want to get rid of all the brakes. But i initially just went with Linux alternatives for programs. Not always possible, but i found that windows became less and less needed.
Worse: once i started that partition, it was slow as hell. As if Microsoft decided that because it had been a while since i updated windows, I was barely allowed to use it.

Don't know what to say... The ntfs partition was always visible to both partitions. I might have had to set it to auto mount in Linux, but can't remember.
Click to expand...
Well, it seems like I will have to give it yet another shot. Too much customability is also a down side when you are not used to it.
For example, when I want to install a program that is not available on linux and have to go through wine, when I have to choose "which directory I want to install it in", sometime, the "Z" partition is just not there and I have to deal with "windows paths" (that doesn't really exist at this moment), sometime, the installer just plainly crashes/doesn't install everything I need, and other times, it just doesn't do anything.
I don't know if the problem is on the "lack of linux support" from some software, or if the problem is purely on my side, but trying to figure out how to make every single program to work on linux is kinda annoying.

Aside from Linux Mint, is there other Linux distos that you would recommend to some noob like me?
 
Neat thing that it seems in Kernel 7.1 a new NTFS driver is included.

Edit: Ironically enough. I would recommend CachyOS. Install with Limine as bootloader and BTRFS as filsystem. You will get snapshot support out in the box. Something breaks your install? Rewind! Boot a snapshot from Limine and restore it with like BTRFS Assistant. Reboot! Tada! Back like nothing happend.
 
I can recommend winhance for debloating windows. Also, do not install windows and linux on the same ssd, use 2 different drives.



My personal meta right now is desktop win11, chimera os on decent laptop and steam deck.
I play Gta online so I don't see the day where I don't have a windows x86 machine heating up my house.
 
Noctosphere said:
I don't know if the problem is on the "lack of linux support" from some software, or if the problem is purely on my side, but trying to figure out how to make every single program to work on linux is kinda annoying.
Click to expand...
My recommendation for this would be to find alternatives that work on Linux. AlternativeTo is a good resource for this. Most of the time it will be challenging to get software to run on Linux in wine. It simply isn't there yet for an end user to just install Windows programs and have them immediately work. I have heard some good things about WinBoat but I haven't used it personally because I usually find alternatives that work well enough for my use cases.
Noctosphere said:
Aside from Linux Mint, is there other Linux distos that you would recommend to some noob like me?
Click to expand...
It mostly depends on what you want out of an OS. For the most part Linux Mint is the best if you want it to work out of the box. I was on it for a few months as my daily driver OS. Then when I got more comfortable and wanted to be on the latest software I switched to CachyOS which has been pretty good so far. Their snapshots make it easy to roll back when you have problems. However it is usually WHEN you have problems not IF and some people don't like that.
 
Magsor said:
Also, do not install windows and linux on the same ssd, use 2 different drives.
Click to expand...
May I ask why exactly?
I have them both on different partitions of the same drive, and have used this setup for almost 10 years at this point, and I don't see anything wrong with this.
To be fair, I have been using a laptop, with only 1 SSD installed inside, so this was more due to a necessity than a choice, but my point still stands.
 
What you're asking for is technically possible, but I wouldn't advise it. I used to do this on my Steam Deck.

Linux can read and write to an NTFS partition, and in some cases you can even run games from it, but it's not a good idea. You get conflicts due to things like Windows Fast Startup (which I highly recommend disabling if you're dual-booting), differences in how permissions work, case sensitivity, and symbolic links. It's particularly known to be problematic if you're trying to use NTFS to share a Steam Library between Linux and Windows.

I have managed to do this using a Btrfs partition. It will work, but results may vary. I'd say about half my games were able to work in either Windows or Linux, but thanks to Btrfs I was able to only store one copy of the game, rather than taking up twice the storage for two installations. But it really wasn't stable, many games would either run in Linux or run in Windows, but not both. It really seemed unstable, gave me all sorts of issues, and in the long run I ended up deciding it wasn't worth it.

So I just dual-boot now, but it's very rare I use Windows at all, maybe once or twice a month. It's on a little 256gb partition on my 2TB SSD, the rest is dedicated to Bazzite.
 
thebigC said:
My recommendation for this would be to find alternatives that work on Linux. AlternativeTo is a good resource for this. Most of the time it will be challenging to get software to run on Linux in wine. It simply isn't there yet for an end user to just install Windows programs and have them immediately work. I have heard some good things about WinBoat but I haven't used it personally because I usually find alternatives that work well enough for my use cases.

It mostly depends on what you want out of an OS. For the most part Linux Mint is the best if you want it to work out of the box. I was on it for a few months as my daily driver OS. Then when I got more comfortable and wanted to be on the latest software I switched to CachyOS which has been pretty good so far. Their snapshots make it easy to roll back when you have problems. However it is usually WHEN you have problems not IF and some people don't like that.
Click to expand...
ive used winboat:

main issue: gpu acceleration, even basic level is non existent, anything that relies on it will fail to run, ive had issues testing certain things cause of it

also everything runs as admin my default *some* programs do not like this and dont run properly (plus i believe it to be a security risk anyways), you can tweak uac in the desktop back so it prompts admin to stop this behavior

i personally use it to run my windows specific programs (fatxplorer, wii backup manager, imgburn, ps3 disc dumper, etc..) the ease of use is great

if you want to make a shortcut for something with uac setup properly simply login to the desktop and right click it and set compatibility settings to say run as admin (may not be required but i had some things i use that dont prompt admin yet still need them, exa: makemkv and imgburn)

generally tho it runs pretty smooth and i would greatly recommend to just login to the desktop to do what you need to do since sometimes it gets a little confused if you dont

i use cachyos and generally performance is great (especially on my server where i see things that took a minute or more now taking no more than 12 or so seconds) tho i have sometimes had issues where i would update it and it would decide to just not build my kernel properly and id have to boot live rescue to reinstall it, that aside ive had generally no issues and this issue is very uncommon for me
 
MarioMasta64 said:
i use cachyos and generally performance is great (especially on my server where i see things that took a minute or more now taking no more than 12 or so seconds) tho i have sometimes had issues where i would update it and it would decide to just not build my kernel properly and id have to boot live rescue to reinstall it, that aside ive had generally no issues and this issue is very uncommon for me
Click to expand...
Didn't know Cachyos was used for servers but if its working well for you that is pretty cool. Usually rolling release distros are not recommended compared to something considered more stable like Ubuntu server. I would love to see some comparison of distros to see how much of a real world difference it makes running a bleeding edge/optimized os compared to something like Linux Mint. Also Cachyos (as in the operating system running on your pc) does not build your kernel for you it just installs one that is already built from the internet. You don't have to use a live boot to fix it if you are using btrfs. You can use snapshots to restore from backups quite easily and I have done it the couple of times my system broke.
 
thebigC said:
Didn't know Cachyos was used for servers but if its working well for you that is pretty cool. Usually rolling release distros are not recommended compared to something considered more stable like Ubuntu server. I would love to see some comparison of distros to see how much of a real world difference it makes running a bleeding edge/optimized os compared to something like Linux Mint. Also Cachyos (as in the operating system running on your pc) does not build your kernel for you it just installs one that is already built from the internet. You don't have to use a live boot to fix it if you are using btrfs. You can use snapshots to restore from backups quite easily and I have done it the couple of times my system broke.
Click to expand...
i have a bad way of saying words, i know this i meant when it generates the intraramfs and stuff sometimes it fails, i dont read the logs, and then i just reboot and have no kernel

also this assumes i use btrfs but i dont like btrfs for personal preference reasons (id rather fix my os manually than have to give up storage space for snapshots)

also yes
1777182195149.png
they have many different versions of the kernel for different purposes
Post automatically merged:

differences are listed here
https://wiki.cachyos.org/features/kernel/
 
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