a shared win/lin partition. fat32 my only option?

murray_linux · 06-14-2004, 12:58 PM

Hey folks,

I'm going to have a storage drive for both of my OS'es (windows and linux).

I will require read and write access, and performance would be a plus. Is fat32 my only option? Seems kinda dated. I know NTFS can sorta do write now, but i don't think it's perfected yet.

Thoughts?

Thanks,

Murray

david_ross · 06-14-2004, 01:28 PM

fat32/vfat will be the best option. There is only stable read support for other filesystems in the non native OSs.

Another option would be to run another system as a fileserver and store your files over the network.

murray_linux · 06-14-2004, 01:39 PM

many thanks

thejokker · 06-14-2004, 02:27 PM

just a disclamer here, i have heard that the new kernal for linux can curroupt the fat32 drive or the windows drive if you have a dual boot system. havent read anything on it, only word of mouth from some other linux geeks.

david_ross · 06-14-2004, 02:40 PM

I can't say that I've had any problems on this dual boot:

Code:

rossy - Mon Jun 14 20:39:10
~> uname -a
Linux dellboy 2.6.6-rossy #2 Mon May 10 19:02:00 BST 2004 i686 unknown unknown GNU/Linux
rossy - Mon Jun 14 20:39:10
~> mount
/dev/hda5 on / type reiserfs (rw)
/dev/hda2 on /fat type vfat (rw,umask=0000)
/dev/hda3 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
/dev/hda6 on /home type reiserfs (rw)
/dev/hda7 on /usr type reiserfs (rw)
/dev/hda8 on /var type reiserfs (rw)
/dev/hda9 on /tmp type reiserfs (rw)
/dev/hda11 on /data type ext3 (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
proc on /proc type proc (rw)

murray_linux · 06-14-2004, 04:01 PM

hmm, how do i create a vfat partition + format it from within linux? I tried mkfs -t vfat /mnt/hdb1, but i get the error mkfs.vfat: No such file or directory.

Any thoughts?

murray_linux · 06-14-2004, 04:20 PM

nm, found it:

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...ht=vfat+format

Cerbere · 06-14-2004, 05:20 PM

Another option is to use something like ext2fsd, which lets you read (but not write) from your linux system (I use it with an ext3 filesystem). That way you can't write across from Linux-->NTFS, nor from Windows-->ext#; but you can read each from the other. For me, this eliminates the need to have one partition common to both for read/write.

Enjoy!
--- Cerbere

gnashley · 06-15-2004, 01:45 AM

I just always have a FAT around. Keeps everybody happy.

jschiwal · 06-15-2004, 03:57 AM

Most usb/firewire/key storage devices are already formated for fat32. An exception would be a network storage device. For that you would need drivers installed for both windows and linux.