this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2023
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Separate drive for games while dual booting? (OSes - Games - Data) (self.linux)
submitted 1 year ago by pepperonisalami to c/linux
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Hello Linux community,

I'm getting a 2TB pcie gen 4 SSD to replace a 1TB gen 3 SSD.

I'm going to start dual booting Linux (looking at Endeavouros because vibes), because it seems that sooner rather than later, Windows will be enshittified. I'm a beginner though in using Linux, only had a bit experience with Raspbian on a raspberry pi for a personal data server. I'm looking to game mainly on Linux, and slowly phase out Windows, eventually only for specific uses if any.

So the plan is: 2TB gen 4 - Win & Linux + general software (productivity, CAD, coding, etc.) 1TB gen 3 - Game library 2TB SATA HDD - Data, long term storage

So my goal to separate the game library is not for performance, but rather to utilize the available hardware, and organization.

Is there any downside to doing this? Are there known issues with Proton and Wine with this config? NVDIA GPU if that's relevant.

If you guys have experience or any input please help a dude out.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I dual boot Linux on my gaming PC and remember having issues with games installed onto an NTFS partition. I don't remember if it was an issue with some specific software, such as Wine/Proton or Steam, just a general Linux issue (maybe symlinks?), or if I was trying to do something weird... Either way, I ended up needing to create a separate partition with a Linux filesystem for the games.

Last I checked, there isn't any easy way to get Linux filesystem drivers on Windows, and even then, I don't know if it would run games from there. So, if nothing else, you might end up needing storage space dedicated to installing games only for Linux.

[–] pepperonisalami 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I see, you're probably right...I remember trying mounting ext4 drive on Windows and couldn't get it to work. I'll probably experiment a little with NTFS, maybe the devs have worked it out? But I'll keep your warning in mind. Thanks for the input!

[–] faethon 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

you could try using BTRFS, there is a driver for windows. NTFS support can be flakey from Linux and is in general not recommended. If you are using steam for your games library, there is a support article from valve that helps setup dual boot accessable game library. I have set that up in my dual boot system (windows 10 / Endeavour OS). It works, and also the steam sync feature works nice so game progress is shared across both OSses.

See also: https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Proton/wiki/Using-a-NTFS-disk-with-Linux-and-Windows

[–] pepperonisalami 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So the article from valve is to support those who use NTFS anyway, but if I'm formatting the lib drive as BTRFS, it should be buttery smooth? (Probably not that smooth but gotta make the pun)

Thanks for the recommendation, will definitely look into this!

[–] faethon 2 points 1 year ago

Yes, NTFS indeed. That is the setup I am using right now as well, because the games drive already was NTFS. For steam this works nicely.

However, for other use cases I was creating symlinks to directories on another NtFS drive in my system, and this borked some files. So that is how I found the BTRFS option. Have not tried it myself though…

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