I have a Windows PC with a Ryzen 7 9700X, RX 9070 GRE, and 16 GB of DDR5 RAM. Windows is installed on one SSD, and I installed CachyOS on a second SSD. For now, I still need Windows for work, but I want to learn Linux gradually.
Is it safe to access my other NTFS partitions from Linux for entertainment, such as playing movies and music or opening photos? I would use them in read-only fashion and keep any files I need to edit on a Linux-native partition. I also have some external NTFS drives that I may need to use occasionally.
I have already disabled Windows Fast Startup and do not use hibernation. I would safely unmount external drives, and I can run Windows disk checks when necessary. Could using the NTFS partitions this way cause file-system corruption?
3 Answers
Yes, this should generally be safe, especially if Linux is only reading the NTFS data. The important part is disabling Windows Fast Startup and avoiding hibernation, since those features can leave an NTFS volume in a partially suspended state. Windows may then assume nothing changed while it was offline, which can create problems when Linux accesses the same drive.
For shared data, a separate NTFS partition is usually preferable to using the Windows system partition. Linux can normally read and write NTFS, but keeping Linux writes limited—or using read-only access as you plan to—reduces the risk considerably.
NTFS external drives used for bulk videos, photos, and other storage generally work fine with Linux. Playing media and viewing images from them is a low-risk use case. Just make sure the drives were fully shut down in Windows before switching over, and safely unmount them before unplugging them.
That is reassuring. I have several external drives and was mainly worried that accessing them from Linux could somehow corrupt the entire disk.
Read-only access is about as safe as it gets because Linux is not changing the file-system metadata or file contents. Avoid running programs or games directly from those shared NTFS partitions, and keep active Linux work on a Linux-native file system such as ext4 or Btrfs. Also, Fast Startup is different from the unrelated UEFI fast-boot setting, so make sure the Windows feature is the one that is disabled.
Fast Startup is already disabled, and I never use hibernation. My system boots quickly enough from the M.2 drive that I do not need either feature.