I keep World of Warcraft on an external NVMe SSD formatted as NTFS so I can use it from Windows on different PCs. The game already works on my CachyOS installation, but I would like to launch it directly from that external drive instead of switching operating systems whenever I want to play. The drive also contains game-development projects and music files that sync to cloud storage, so losing or corrupting the data would be very inconvenient. Is it safe to use the NTFS drive for gaming under Linux, or could Proton, Steam, or filesystem issues damage the drive or its contents?
4 Answers
For anything important, keep a backup regardless of the filesystem. If you want a dependable Linux game library, give the SSD a Linux filesystem such as ext4 and use a separate Windows-compatible partition or drive for files that must be shared. That avoids most Proton and permission issues.
The SSD itself will not be damaged just because Linux reads from it, but NTFS is a poor choice for a shared Linux gaming library. Proton and Steam can be unreliable with NTFS, especially when the drive was not cleanly unmounted by Windows. You may run into permission problems, missing files, a read-only mount, or filesystem errors that require Windows to repair them.
If the drive has to remain usable on both operating systems, exFAT is convenient for ordinary shared files, but it still is not an ideal replacement for a proper Linux Steam library. I would use it for documents and media, not for a Proton prefix or a large game installation.
Before switching between systems, fully shut Windows down and disable Fast Startup or hibernation. Windows can leave an NTFS volume marked dirty, causing Linux to refuse to mount it or mount it read-only. That will not usually destroy the SSD, but repeated filesystem problems can eventually lead to data loss, so keeping the valuable projects separate is the safest approach.
NTFS can work when mounted with exactly the right options, but Steam is particularly picky, so it tends to be more trouble than it is worth.