Question about SSD dual boot of Linux and Windows 8 with an HDD to store data and applications for both operating systems?

Question

Long story Short. My current hard drive has a pirated and slightly corrupt copy of windows 7 on it and a lot of registry issues.

I need to wipe it completely clean If I hope to ever use it again and I plan to use it only for application storage from now on.

I am buying a brand new SSD with only 120GB from Samsung and I seek to install both a genuine Windows 8.1 and Linux onto it (I prefer windows 7 interface, but windows 8.1 has benefits for c++ programmers, that I intend to use).

I intend to use my old hard drive for data storage, so I can use the speed of the SSD and the storage capacity of my hard drive in conjunction.

My main question has to do with the dual boot, I'm unfamiliar how the hard drive will store and handle applications from two different Operating systems and how it will handle "junk" if I use the windows cleaning utilites on the hard drive.

Will my planned configuration be ok? Also note, I never want to use the SSD for anything other than the operating system. I do not want any junk on it at all period if I can help it.

Answer 1

Your proposed solution should work, but be sure you install windows first. The windows boot loader will not recognize linux, but the linux will recognize windows. When installing the system, partitioning the drives and create one for windows OS, one for Windows storage, one for Linux OS, and one for Linux storage will be your best solution in my opinion. Since windows uses NTFS filesystem, and linux uses EXT by default, each OS would need its own hard drive partition (Linux can recognize NTFS, but having could create problems).

Answer 2

Windows doesn't know how to read EXT4 (the standard Linux file system format) and some Linux programs aren't too happy with NTFS (the standard Windows file system format) since it's case insensitive. A better idea is to partition the hard drive and make one EXT4 partition for the Linux programs (mount it at /usr) plus an NTFS partition for the Windows programs. Data you want to share between them can go on the Windows partition.

Answer 3

It will work, but you will have to partition the disks. Make sure to align the partitions correctly on the SSD.