So I'm in a rather annoying situation where about half of the work I do requires a Linux based environment to work on, and the other half requires a Windows based environment. Unfortunately I need to switch between the environments on a regular basis and the time taken to re-boot into the other environment is quite prohibitive of this.
I have tried running Linux most of the time with a Windows VM to work in when necessary but I have found that to be quite restrictive in terms of performance, the same when running Windows as the host and Linux within a VM.
What I would like to do is set up my work machine to dual boot Windows and Linux alongside each other, but set up VMWare Workstation or a similar product to allow me to boot one partition as a VM while working in the other as a host, and vice versa with the other partition as the host and the first as a VM. Ideally this would allow using each host for it's main tasks and swapping to the VM when needed for quick things.
RAM isn't an issue on the machine, I have 16GB available and can get more if necessary (probably not) and both operating systems will run from an SSD with a HDD for data storage , or being able to hibernate as the host and restart the machine Just to re-iterate, what I'm imagining is:
/dev/sda1 - Windows C: drive
/dev/sda2 - Linux / drive
/dev/sdb1 - Linux /home drive
/dev/sdb2 - Windows D: drive
Where both Windows C: and Linux / can be booted as both native host operating systems and as a guest inside the other.
Has anyone done a set up like this before? If so are there any guides you'd recommend? What problems can people foresee happening? Is there another possible solution that I'm missing?
I realise that this may not be the ideal solution, I've asked about getting multiple machines and a KVM but our IT administrator shot that idea down.
