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I have currently installed Ubuntu to my laptop as a partition since I will start using it for work. I actually prefer Ubuntu as my main OS, so I will just keep Windows for irrelevant things as games and programs as Office packages and Photoshop. This is the distribution I currently have for my partitions:

  • Windows OS (195GB) - ntfs
  • Ubuntu OS (180GB) - ext4
  • /home directory for Ubuntu (25GB) - ext4
  • Shared data partition for both OS (75GB) - ntfs

In a first instance I tried to keep the /home directory partition as the one which will be used as the shared data, but I found out that Windows does not allow to write on ext4 partitions on a native way and some problematics programs or not immediate solutions had to be used.

For these reason, I created another partition with ntfs extension in order to share my programming projects and other stuff between both operative systems. This is later mounted on Ubuntu on /media/data/ on start and accessed by symbolic links I created on my /home directory.

As far as I have been testing, the implementation works fine and I have not experience any problem opening files in both OS, but I am not sure if this solution is an advisable one or if it may lead to possible future problems or losses of information. Is there any risk on this implementation greater than the one I would have on a default one?

Otherwise, do you recommend me to perform any changes or to implement the partitions in any other way?

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Ubuntu can reliably read from and write into NTFS directories. However, Windows cannot reliably read from and write into ext4 directories, even with drivers and add-ons which are intended to give you that capability.

The shared NTFS partition is not likely to cause you any more trouble than if you didn't have it.

Make sure not to use Hibernation from either Windows or Ubuntu, as it puts the drives in an unwritable state as far as the other OS is concerned. I've removed Hibernation from my Windows 10 OS and never installed it in Ubuntu.

It's unlikely you will need 180 GB for the Ubuntu OS, so later on you may wish to resize things, which you can do by booting from a LiveUSB. There are many posts here which explain how.

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  • Thanks for the answer. How did you removed Hibernation from Windows 10? I don't know if I have it enabled, but I guess so. About the excessive size of Ubuntu OS I thought the same. Do you know what a propertly size for that OS would be?
    – Luiscri
    Apr 9, 2020 at 11:05
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    Ubuntu, before Snaps, would comfortably run for years in 30 GB. Now, I'd give it 50 GB and monitor its use of space monthly or at every new app install. As to Windows, well, that's an issue for SuperUser.com if cnet.com/how-to/… does not explain it adequately.
    – K7AAY
    Apr 9, 2020 at 15:08

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