I’m running EndeavourOS and Windows 11. Each OS is on a separate disk, but I have a data disk that is currently NTFS that mount in both OSes. NTFS causes problems for some things in Linux, and I’m worried it’ll bork the drive for windows eventually, so I’m keen to find an alternative. I’ve read about the WinBTRFS driver so wondering if that is a better way to go?
I don’t want to run a server with a share to access this data because it is way to slow for my needs.
NTFS is considered pretty stable on Linux now. It should be safe to use indefinitely.
If you’re worried about the lack of Unix-style permissions and attributes in NTFS, then getting BTRFS or ext4 on Windows may be a good choice. Note that BTRFS is much more complicated than ext4, so ext4 may have better compatibility and lower risk of corruption. I used ext3 on Windows in 2007 and it was very reliable; ext4 today is very similar to ext3 from those days.
The absolute best compatibility would come from using a filesystem natively supported by both operating systems, developed without reverse engineering. That leaves only vfat (aka FAT32) and exfat. Both lack Unix-style permissions and attributes.
Most compatible is FAT32 which is also the most limited.
I am not sure I would trust the WinBtrfs driver with anything important. What problems are you having with NTFS?
Linux has two NTFS stacks: NTFS-3G and NTFS3 ( in the Linux kernel since 5.15 ). NTFS3 is more feature rich I think but that said it also lacks a few things. NTFS-3G is more mature, reportedly faster ( odd for a FUSE driver ), and some people still report it to be more stable.
I would use exFAT for a shared data drive. Just don’t use it for programs since it lacks unix file permission support.
What’s your Win 11 use case? If you don’t need native performance I’d recommend Linux and BTRFS for everything and run Win11 off a VM. Dual booting is fine but I’ve personally struggled with allotting the appropriate space for each partition.
Please use different disks for each OS, you’ll save a lot of time and trouble later. It can be done, sure, but you’re setting yourself for a world of trouble in the future.
Just a recent issue
DO NOT use WinBTRFS. It caused me some cryptic filesystem errors that I never found a real solution to. NTFS is the better option if you must have a shared disk, but I really suggest different partitions for each OS.
