I seek to install Ubuntu and Windows on separate drives, and have a third drive for files I can access from both operating systems.
These files will mostly be documents, music, pictures, and other non-programs, but I wouldn’t mind sharing my Steam library if that can be done properly.
My research says the best method is a NFS share hosted on a journaling file system contained in another PC, but I’m curious if there’s a reliable alternative for all three drives in one machine?
I could use ExFAT for the third drive’s file system (Since both operating systems can use it natively) but I’d like to have journaling for extra reliability.
I’ve already disabled fast startup/shutdown in Windows, because I’ve read that can cause issues.
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Good idea! I’ve also heard from my friends who dual-boot Windows and a Linux distribution of their choice on the same machine, that the Windows is pretty aggressive on the bootloader. So be ready for some shenanigans. Kudos for researching already on the ExFAT. I would also use that were I to dual-boot myself.
Is there some reason you’re keeping Windows on a second disk? Proton allows the majority of the Steam games to run smoothly on Ubuntu, even more so on the advent of the Steam Machine.
Let us know how you experimentation goes! We’re here for you <3
Is there some reason you’re keeping Windows on a second disk?
In addition to keeping the two bootloaders separate, I don’t want to limit the capacity of either operating system by sharing a drive. 
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Are you referring to physical drives? If not, you are probably referring to partitions rather than drives. Windows users can get confused over this, because Windows confusingly uses the name “drive” to refer to a drive and to refer to a partition.
In any case, to answer your question, NTFS is a pretty good choice, because it’s a proven file system; Ubuntu comes with NTFS access by default; and Windows cannot access Linux file systems (e.g. ext4).
One caveat is that if you don’t shut down Windows cleanly, or if the partition has some error, the partition will be unavailable to Ubuntu, and you’d have to boot into Windows to use chkdsk to “clean” the partition.
Another caveat is that NTFS doesn’t have the full ability of Linux’s permissions-based file systems, so any folder and file on NTFS is automatically available to any user on your Ubuntu system. That’s fine if you’re the only user.
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For the intended purposes this shouldn’t be a problem.
And, yes, it’s even possible to add that partition to the (Ubuntu) Steam locations and install games there. If it has a negative impact on performance, last time I’ve tested, it’s negligible.
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paddylandau: Are you referring to physical drives?
Yes, not partitions.
celticwarrior: If it has a negative impact on performance, last time I’ve tested, it’s negligible.
I would think that performance would increase in my case, with the OS and games on separate physical drives.
It depends.
I was talking about file systems.
I’ve been running Linux and Win 11 since 2021 on different drives with secure-boot enabled. The most I’ve ever had to do is reinstall the grub and I set Win 11 to boot first so Windows update reboots without intervention.
The system has survived all the Win 11 feature updates without boot loader problems. I did use boot-repair available in Ubuntu to get both operating systems booting. The diagnosis was to reinstall grub witch I allowed boot repair to do. If you leave secure boot enabled you should read up on Mok Utilities.
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