Linux Host: Safe to create VM Guests on NTFS partition?

[AlexG]

My system:
- Ubuntu 8.04.2 Hardy Heron (2.6.24-24-generic)
- Installed VirtualBox v2.2.4 r47978 for HH8.04 .
- 4 Gb Ram with dual boot partitions:
- Vista: 180Gb free
- Linux: 110Gb free
- Ubuntu always mounts the NTFS via "fuseblk" mount.

I have a dual boot system with 110Gb on the Linux side and 180Gb (NTFS) on
the Vista side. I hardly ever use the Vista partition (but I still want
to keep a MS OS just in case) , and I thought one way to make use of the idle
NTFS disk is to create VM guests on the NTFS partition.

Questions:
1. Is it safe to create VMs on a mounted NTFS partition?
2. Is there a speed penalty for using fuseblk?
3. Has anyone done this before?

Thanks in advance,

AlexG


PS: VirtualBox is one of the best Open Source software that I've ever seen.
Thanks to the team who created and released it to the public. I am in sheer awe!

[TerryE]

It will work BUT the ntfs-3g driver is slow compared to the native Ext3 FS. Why not just shrink the NTFS Partition and either extend the Ext3 partition or add another Ext3 one?

[AlexG]

It will work BUT the ntfs-3g driver is slow compared to the native Ext3 FS. Why not just shrink the NTFS Partition and either extend the Ext3 partition or add another Ext3 one?

I thought that there would be the performance hit when using NTFS.

Re: re-partitioning, I don't want to lose what I have on the Linux side. What would be the best/safest [re-]partitioning tool?

Thanks.

[baf]

I like gparted. But if it is important get/borrow an external disk and make an image before you do anything. Then nothing will go wrong.

[fixedwheel]

the best/safest [re-]partitioning tool?

fdisk, resize2fs, tune2fs, fsck, ntfsresize ... all available on a linux live CD (edit, found this ext3 tutorial, usage of ntfsresize is quite similar ...)

if your partition layout is 255 Heads and 63 Sectors you can go the easy way and use gparted, but from my experience gparted messes up with existing other Head&Sector number schemes (overwrites them to 255, 63), in most cases linux did not care about and continued to work but Windows was broken check first with fdisk

[Sasquatch]

I use Paragon Partition Manager most of the times for partition changes. You have to pay for it though, and comes in two 'versions'. One that you install on Windows and apply changes from there, which are done after a reboot, and one that you burn to a CD and use like a Linux LiveCD, where you can perform disk changes directly.

[graysky]

I do this using the ntfs-3g driver... I don't think it's noticeably slower than my ext4 partitions when running a guest OS.