I'm considering making the switch from Windows 11 to Cachy OS and I've been diving into some research about file systems for my drives. I've heard that Linux tends to have issues with the NTFS file system, and I might have to completely reformat my drives to avoid any conflicts. Can anyone share the current compatibility situation regarding NTFS on Linux?
6 Answers
Linux Mint can access NTFS just fine, but you might encounter issues. For instance, if your Steam library is on an NTFS partition, games using Proton could fail to work, plus you may run into read-only states until you fix it with Windows tools.
Just remember, Linux can read/write NTFS but can't be installed on it. You need a partition formatted to ext4, btrfs, or zfs. A vfat or fat32 partition is needed for /boot. The rest can stay NTFS if you want.
If this is your first Linux distro, I'd suggest going with Linux Mint instead of Cachy OS. It's typically more beginner-friendly!
NTFS is mostly fine these days. There was a recent update to the driver that boosted performance, so it’s still being refined. However, I recommend switching to a proper Linux file system when you confirm that Linux works well for you.
It's generally best not to keep your Steam library on an NTFS partition since it can lead to games not launching properly.
Plus, there's a risk of data corruption on the NTFS drive. It's a risky move!
Linux can read and write to NTFS, but switching to native Linux file systems like ext4 is strongly advisable for the best performance and compatibility.
You can resolve the read-only issue by clearing the dirty bit in Linux, allowing you to mount the drive as read-write.