Hello

I have a windows (8) PC and a HDD
I have just got a nice new SSD and I want to change my setup so that the windows OS is on the SSD and my data files are on the HDD.
There are guides online that teach me how to do that so although I am not really familiar, I'm relatively comfortable following those.

Once that's done, I want to install linux OS onto the SSD too, and dual boot.
My understanding is that that should be straightforward enough.

My question is about my data files, like photos and documents etc etc.. I guess windows wants them to be spread out over "My Documents" and "My Photos" and so on.. but I'd like to be able to access them all from linux too without too much messing around.
Is that straightforward to do? Or would I have to duplicate these files once for each OS.

Slightly more complicated question.. if I currently have my data under Users\username\MyDocuments on windows then if someone else logs on with a different username, they can't access my files.
Can I retain some form of privacy protection under linux too if I somehow teach it that some linux login is allowed to see that same folder, but other logins aren't allowed to (apart from root etc)

Hopefully my questions make sense, and hopefully these problems were all solved long ago.

Cheers!

once you mount your windows partition you will be able to browse the windows files/directories.no, linux will ignore windows security settings.

Thanks for your reply!
Would I be able to add new and separate security settings on the linux side that windows could safely ignore?
So that both OS have their own settings for the same set of directories?

windows isnt programmed to read linux filesystems.
(linux is bilingual; windows is not).

edit: now that i read your question again, it seems like you wont be able to do that because even though you can make new files on ntfs filesystems from linux, you wont be able to modify permissions.

I'd be sure I knew how to make either a full backup to usb and or make recovery disks and know how to restore windows 8.

I'd remove the connector to the windows disk, install linux to the ssd. Then return the windows 8 connector. (not powered on of course).

To use linux usb boot menu F key to select choice.

You can access all of windows 8 from linux. You can encrypt windows and linux with a common app like truecrypt. Be warned that weak passwords can be broken by some pretty cheap computers in a matter of hours and can be hacked online by companies.