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Multiple Hard Drives and Linux Mint/Windows 8

Tags:
  • SSD
  • Windows 8
  • Hard Drives
  • Linux Mint
Last response: in Linux/Free BSD
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a b * Windows 8
February 21, 2014 8:41:59 PM

My computer has a 250 gb Samsung EVO SSD and a 1 tb HDD. The SSD has both Windows 8 and the just recently installed Linux Mint 16. So far everything is working fine there.

My HDD is the big data drive where I have movies, documents, etc.

My question is, can Windows and Linux share the data on the HDD freely (assuming it's not a program that is only readable in a certain OS)? As in, even though I set up and copied all the data to the HDD under Windows, will Linux be able to access it just fine without causing any issues to Linux, or even worse, to Windows? As in, I could watch a movie from the HDD through Linux, or open a word document, or save files to the HDD, and it shouldnt cause any issues with either OS.

*Of course assuming that I don't touch any files that are for Winodws 8 specifically (I think I moved my Index to there at some point)

The summary of my question: is the data on the storage HDD freely usable by both OS without issues? I feel like it should, but I would like to make sure before potentially trashing everything

More about : multiple hard drives linux mint windows

February 23, 2014 1:25:29 AM

NTFS-3G is required to do what you ask. Some would argue if the word "freely" is applicable. Nonetheless, it should be available in your Linux distros repositories. FYI: Michael Horowitz's Linux vs Windows is applicable, if old -- search for NTFS-3G in the Edit => Find menu of your browser once on page.
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l
February 23, 2014 4:52:04 AM

Most distributions include ntfs-3g by default. In addition yo could also use the built-in kernel NTFS driver...
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a b * Windows 8
February 23, 2014 8:36:11 AM

It seems like the driver did come with this one.

||/ Name Version Architecture Description
+++-==============-============-============-=================================
ii ntfs-3g 1:2013.1.13A amd64 read/write NTFS driver for FUSE
un ntfsprogs <none> (no description available)

So at this point I would, for example, be able to type up a word document in Linux and save it as a .doc in my Documents folder, on my data drive, if I chose to do so, and access documents saved in word during Windows? Or playing movies saved in my Movies folder on Windows?
Or if I'm using program that utilizes external media and has versions for both Linux and Windows, and that media was originally stuck in the Documents folder in Windows, then the Linux version would be able to access that media in that Documents folder? (The program I'm most worried about is the flashcard program Anki, which sometimes uses external media. I would prefer to use the media I have already downloaded instead of copying it all again)

If the above might make things buggy I could just make something like a Linux data partition on my HDD, it's got more that enough space, I would just prefer to not have multiple copies of the same thing floating around when I don't need them
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February 23, 2014 9:12:27 AM

Ntfs-3g is considered stable/safe to use. It will worm fine between windows and Linux.
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