Will be installing either Mint or Pop_OS on a new laptop which has a 512gb SSD. Will keep Windows for gaming, at least for now, with the games installed on an external HD. But otherwise, this is to experiment with living in Linux.

I understand that I can unallocate HD space from Windows in order to make room for the LInux OS, leaving at least 25 or 30gb for the Linux OS itself.

Do I then extend that space further, so to speak, to allow for any other programs I might install as well as for data? Do I create a third partition for data that will be shared between the two OS?

What’s a reasonable breakdown?

e.g.
Windows 100gb; Linux 400gb or
Win 100gb; Linux 30gb; Data (NTFS) 370gb?

  • @0x4E4F
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    56 months ago

    Windows: 150GB. Linux: 100GB. The rest: Data.

    And don’t forget to disable hybrid shut down in Windows.

        • @0x4E4F
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          6 months ago

          That is a good option as well, but for experienced users only and only if you have a lot of RAM and a UPS (or on a laptop with a working battery). Otherwise, power failiures mess that thing up.

      • @0x4E4F
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        6 months ago

        You can make a swap file on the main partition where Linux is installed, that’s not a problem.

    • speckOP
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      6 months ago

      Nice,. thank you. And ntfs for the data format is what I’ve understood to use

      • @b9chomps@beehaw.org
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        16 months ago

        NTFS is the standard for Windows. Nowadays Linux can handle reading/writing NTFS pretty well, but you should probably use the very established ext4 or maybe btrfs for its partition.

        • @0x4E4F
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          6 months ago

          For Linux, if you’re a beginner, EXT4. Experienced users - BTRFS.

          And ntfs-3g is even better at writing on NTFS than Windows is. There are fragmentation examples online, Windows makes a fragmented mess while ntfs-3g takes great care regarding fragmentation. Plus reads/writes a lot faster than Windows does.

      • @0x4E4F
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        -16 months ago

        Yep, use NTFS. You can access it in both Windows and Linux. You’ll need to install ntfs-3g in Linux. It comes bundled in most mainstream distros, but just in case.