0

I have a computer running Windows 8 and I would like to run a Linux VM on it. I would, preferably, like to create a partition which both Linux (Ubuntu) and Windows can access to hold my source code on it.

I would like to have the linux VM read a hardware partition instead of a virtual HD and have Windows also be able to read it (thus, being able to run the same code from both OSes).

If I do this, what is the best filesystem to use? Is there a FS which will run optimally for both Windows 8 and Linux?

drjrm3
  • 1,556

3 Answers3

4

You didn't mention which virtualization software you are planning to use. Both VMWare and Virtualbox (probably others as well) support the concept of sharing folders. This means that you can setup your guest to have access to the host's file system. This is a simple solution and you will not have to make any special partitions to share between the systems. The feature was designed for the reason you mention.

cmevoli
  • 276
  • 1
  • 3
2

Samba is the simplest answer. Create real partition Make sure it gets a drive letter activate file sharing and give everyone full access (You can setup security on your own)

Launch your virtual linux and install samba mount or smbmount your file share.

(detailed instructions upon request)

stderr
  • 10,569
  • 2
  • 36
  • 50
cybernard
  • 14,924
0

If you are only needing to use it with 1 OS at a time, and are able to control which OS has access to it, you should be able to get away with a single FAT32/VFAT or NTFS partition and assign it to the VM (and mount it on the host when the VM is down). This is dangerous though because if you forget and mount the same partition on both OS's at the same time you will get data corruption.

If you are needing to access the partition from both OS's simultantaneously your best bet is probably to use SAMBA in the linux partition and do filesharing - which is probably not what you want to here. (In order to provide you with the answer you want you would need to run a filesystem which is designed for it - and the ones I'm aware of don't work under windows AFAIK. (GFS and GLUSTERFS)

davidgo
  • 73,366