Hey,

Another day, another question... When it comes to Windows and Linux working together on a network, it's my understanding that they can share files. When it comes to a system that is dualbooting (hypothetically) Windows XP and Suse 10.0, they each have their own file systems. How difficult is it to share files between the two different file systems and do you encounter any problems? If you do encounter problems, what are most common and how do you circumvent them? I know it may sound like a stupid question, and I think I know the answer. I just like to consult with you guys first because infinite more knowledge.

Thanks,

Brandon

On Windows you can install ext2/ext3 extensions to read/write to ext2 partitions. I advise against this in general because I never want windows to touch my linux partitions.

On linux, you can get kernel modules to read and write to NTFS partitions. But I advise against this unless you're desparately repairing a windows system. Write support is still experimental, and I've had mixed results (though I always did it in a desparate situation that was either chance repair or reinstall anyway).

The way most people handle this problem is to create a shared FAT32 partition for files you need in both systems. The downside to this, I think, is that large multimedia files like DVD movies stored on the hard drive don't function well (maybe at all) on FAT32 filesystems.

I have always used fat32 on any drives that I want to be able to read and write to from either Windows or Linux because of the reasons oulined above by pljvaldez.

I've never had a problem with multimedia files like you've described though and have stored lots of large media files / DVD movies. I don't see any downsides to it.

Thanks,

I was betting on the FAT32 FS working. I'm not really big into ripping and burning DVDs or multimedia for that matter, so I shouldn't have any problems. Thanks for your input.

Regards,

Brandon

In that case you've never had a file bigger than 4GB,
because that's the limit of file sizes on FAT32.

But I guess the term "large" is a bit ambiguous. Personally
I find CD-ISOs large, too. ;}


Cheers,
Tink