I'm transitioning from being a long-time Windows user to trying out Linux, likely starting with Cachy since I enjoy gaming. I want to test it on an old laptop before fully committing my daily driver to Linux. Currently, my setup has the OS on the C: drive, games on D:, and storage on E:, all formatted in NTFS. Once I install Linux on the C drive (which won't be labeled as C in Linux), will I still be able to access my other physical drives from Linux? Or is there a specific program or workaround I need to use? Should I consider moving data from my storage drive to an external exFAT drive temporarily and then formatting all three drives for Linux? I've kept my OS and games on separate drives for performance reasons; is that necessary in Linux too? Also, both my laptop and main machine have Nvidia cards. Although I know AMD cards might perform better with Linux, are there specific steps I need to take to make Nvidia work properly? Any extra tips or advice would also be appreciated! Thanks in advance.
5 Answers
NTFS can be a bit glitchy because it's a proprietary system that had to be reverse-engineered for Linux. While it can be read and written to, it’s not ideal for heavy use and can lead to corruption. If you're going Linux-only, it might be best to back up your data, reformat with a native Linux file system like ext4 or Btrfs, and simplify your life immediately. It'll be less hassle in the long run!
You will need to explicitly mount your additional drives in Linux. For instance, I set up a double drive RAID and mounted it under /mnt/steam so Steam could read from there. Just a heads-up, though—make sure your drives are a good match if you consider RAID; otherwise, it might be unnecessary.
I've never really tried RAID before and my drives are different sizes, so thanks for the heads-up!
I've always preferred keeping my OS, games, and data on separate partitions too. Your setup will definitely work in Linux; you can mount drives however you want. By default, Linux starts with a single root file system, and you can configure the system to have your other drives accessible at boot, usually managed via a file called /etc/fstab. Many beginner-friendly distros even offer a GUI to help manage these settings, but some of us prefer editing the file directly for clarity.
Good to know that my setup preference won't be an issue! If my games are on a secondary drive and Linux crashes, they'll still be intact, right? I can just remap to them after fixing Linux, correct? Thanks for the help!
You should have access to your NTFS drives, but it’s a bit hit-or-miss. For things like Steam games, it’s a safer bet to go with a file system that's native to Linux. Regarding the Nvidia cards, depending on your distro, you might need to install the proprietary driver yourself, so just check if it’s included in your chosen one.
After some digging, I saw that Nvidia, while not the best, is fairly supported in the distros I'm considering! I’m more about stability than maxing out FPS, so that's a relief. Thanks!
If you want smooth sailing, formatting those other drives might be the best idea since Steam doesn't recommend using NTFS for Linux. About the Nvidia drivers, it usually just means installing them from your distro’s package manager, given that some distros come with them pre-installed. Just don't stress too much about choosing a gaming distro; most popular ones will serve you just fine without huge differences.
I was leaning towards formatting anyway since it will clean things up and reduce future issues!
That makes sense! Since a lot of what’s on my storage drive is Windows-specific, it sounds like the perfect time to clear out old files. Thanks for the advice!