Question

35

Windows Ubuntu dual boot - Share files between OS

rated 0 times [ 35] [ 0] / answers: 1 / hits: 113018 / 2 Years ago, thu, september 8, 2022, 10:08:08

Well I have a netbook, so I can't play games on windows either, no problem. But I'm getting a new desktop PC with better hadware and it will be able to run the most popular games and I want to have Windows on it to play games and software not compatible with ubuntu. I also want to have Ubuntu, as my primary OS, so I will set a dual boot.

In this computer I will have a small SSD with both OS and a second drive (a 500gb HDD) to store my files. I want to avoid copying files from one OS to another every time I, ie, download a file. My question is: Is there any way that I could make both OS use that HDD for home, like set it as NTFS and make ubuntu mount it on /home and also make windows to store user files, like My Documents, My Videos and Downloads, etc, on that partition?

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3 Years ago

answered 2 Years ago ithriv · Accepted Answer

Putting /home in an NTFS partition is not advisable as Linux cannot preserve ownership and permissions on NTFS partition.

I would recommend keeping /home in the default / partition in the SSD and creating sym links to the folders with most data (Documents, Music, Pictures, videos etc.) in a "Storage" partition formatted NTFS, that both Ubuntu and Windows can read and write to.

Since /home also stores all your config files, keeping /home in the / partition in the SSD helps keep things speedy.

A detailed How To is at: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/35807/how-to-harmonize-your-dual-boot-setup-for-windows-and-ubuntu/

After following the instructions in the "How To" create the sym links like this:

Open Nautilus and delete the folders you will not use in
/home/[user], such as Documents etc. You should already have
Documents etc. in the Storage folder. (In linux a partition is a
folder as well).

Navigate to the Storage folder and you will see the Documents etc.
folders there.

Right click on Document folder and select make Link. This will
create a folder Called "link to Documents".

Similarly, create "Link to Music", "Link to Pictures" and all the
other sub-folders in the Storage folder.

Copy these "Link to..." folders to your Home folder /home/[user].

Finally, right click on "Link to Documents" and rename it
"Documents". Repeat for the remaining links.

Alternately

Delete the folders in /home/[user] as before.

Open a terminal by pressing Ctrl+Alt+T and enter

ln -s /media/storage/Documents /home/[user]/Documents

ln -s /media/storage/Downloads /home/[user]/Downloads

ln -s /media/storage/Public /home/[user]/Public

ln -s /media/storage/Pictures /home/[user]/Pictures

ln -s /media/storage/Music /home/[user]/Music

ln -s /media/storage/Videos /home/[user]/Videos

Hope this helps