Install Linux to SSD or HDD for virtualizing Windows with QEMU?

Question

In my PC I have 1 TB slow HDD and 120 GB fast SSD. I am curious which one of my drives should be used for Ubuntu installation.

I plan to use Windows without dual-boot - by virtualizing it with QEMU (IOMMU, VT-d). E.g. I am going to use QEMU virtual HDD files as HDD in guest Windows.

I wonder if there is any difference if the virtual HDD file will be on "clean" SSD, or it will share same drive with Ubuntu installation. Can I improve Windows guest performance by keeping host OS on another HDD than guests's HDD, or it is completely irrelevant for QEMU?

Answer 1

I would:

• Make sure, I have at a minimum 8GiB RAM.
• Install Linux into to a 12-15GiB Partition @SSD, add Swap@SSD, if wanted/needed.
• That should leave ~ 80GiB free on the SSD. Make a Partition, SSD3.
• Give that to the Virtual Machine for later use as Windows system drive.
• Create 2 Partitions on HDD, ~200GiB HDD1, and the Rest, HDD2
• Give HDD1 to the Windows Machine too, that will be "D:" with "\Users" on it.
• LVM HDD2, use on Linux, and Windows (by local-machine CIFS sharing)