Dual Boot with an OS and Data drive

Hi, I want to dual boot linux mint and WinX on one drive and keep the other as a data drive. I'm not sure how I should set up the data drive to have them work as seamlessly as possible. Should I divide the data drive into separate partitions or should I keep it as one partition and it will automatically serve as storage for both?

 

Do some research on what type of partitions both OSs can read/write/mount, and then you can make one large data partition for both to use.


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* ExFAT would work for both but its implementation in Linux is not as easy as in Windows...You'll need to install the exFAT FUSE and exFAt Utils - I even found a guide (Check the first reply to the question:

http://askubuntu.com/questions/100278/how-do-i-install-and-mount-an-exfat-partition

* You can use FAT32 which does not require adding packages - but the maximum individual file size is 4GB. The advantage is that it runs on pretty much everything with a USB port but the file size limitation means that when you will inevitably need to transfer a file bigger than 4GB, it won't work.

* NTFS works but the most elegant way to get it working is the commercial software: Paragon NTFS. The cost-free version is less straight forward:

https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-mount-partition-with-ntfs-file-system-and-read-write-access

* There is also the option of running Linux through a virtual machine that runs on Windows - graphics and performance take a hit but depending on what you are using it for, it could be fine. Very easy to set up these days too - could have it running in under an hour. I run Linux and FreeBSD through virtual machines most days and I find it a better solution than dual booting, which requires a restart to switch between OS'. Downside is that you want at least 4GB of RAM, with 8GB being even better - I sometimes run them from an 8GB machine and it works well if you aren't also running a demanding task in Windows at the same time as the virtual OS. Look up either Virtual Box of the free version of VMWare if you want to try.

 

Avoid FAT32, it has been superseded by other file systems at this point. ExFAT or NTFS are your best bet as benni mentioned. Be wary of file systems that some versions of Linux support and Windows doesn't like ZFS for example. ZFS is awesome because of the safeguards built into it, but Windows doesn't support it, so if you start digging into different file systems, remember that Linux tends to support more than Windows