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I have an extra external hard disk that I want to use as both:

  1. an Ubuntu 20.04 linux boot drive and;
  2. additional storage for my Windows machine.

I want so that

  1. if I connect this HDD before boot, it boots Ubuntu.
  2. If I connect HDD after boot, Windows mounts the NTFS partition.

But how do I partition this do I place

  1. the NTFS partition in (far left) front, and then swap, and then ext4(/), and then FAT32 (/home) or;
  2. NTFS partition at the end (far right) of Ubuntu partitions?
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  • Is the HD external ?
    – kannzzmm2
    Commented Jun 17, 2020 at 10:35
  • Yes I will add it to my question
    – user23139
    Commented Jun 17, 2020 at 10:47
  • 1
    Are you booting in UEFI mode or BIOS mode? (In other words, is Windows installed in UEFI mode or BIOS mode?) If the computer was delivered with Windows 10, we can guess that it is booting in UEFI mode, but you can check it from an Ubuntu live drive according to this link.
    – sudodus
    Commented Jun 17, 2020 at 10:50
  • in my opinion you can install ubuntu on the external hard disk(with 4 partitions /boot, swap, /root /home), and leave free space for example 100 gb and after that boot into windows and create a new NTFS Partition for storage
    – kannzzmm2
    Commented Jun 17, 2020 at 10:57
  • 1
    @user68186, Maybe, let us follow the progress of the OP's task ...
    – sudodus
    Commented Jun 17, 2020 at 11:55

1 Answer 1

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... But how do I partition this do I place

  1. the NTFS partition in (far left) front, and then swap, and then ext4(/), and then FAT32 (/home) or;
  2. NTFS partition at the end (far right) of Ubuntu partitions?

  • First we concluded that the internal drive with Windows boots in BIOS alias legacy mode, but you decided to boot this external drive in UEFI mode anyway.

  • With Windows 10 you can put the NTFS partition 'anywhere'. I would put it at the end (behind the operating system).

    • Older Windows operating systems could only read partition number one in USB drives, but current Windows 10 can read all partitions, if there are Microsoft file systems (FAT32, exFAT, NTFS) or UDF. So if you intend to connect the external drive to a computer with Windows 8 or an older version, partition #1 should contain the NTFS file system.

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