I know this problem is probably somewhere in the forum, but I can't figure out a search string for it.
I have a dual boot system with XP pro on one hard drive (ntfs) and Lycoris on another drive. From linux I can access the windows drive move files, etc. But when I am in windows OS I cannot access the linux drive. I can see it only thru the computer management utility (disk management) in XP.
I was wondering how to set it up so when I work in linux and have to boot into XP I can still access my files.
Thank you and please don't flame me if it has already been over worked here in your forum.
Nick

I thonk you need some software to do that.

No, there's no software needed. There's nothing wrong with your system. The problem is that not all kids in the playground want to share. Windows will not recognise ext2 and ext3 partitions, Linux systems have no problem with FAT32 partitions but NTFS specifications have never been published so Linux can read them but not write to them (I believe).

Bert

is that the general answer to my question? The bad part is that running a dual boot system will be a thing of the past. I've tried to give linux a chance but there is just so many stumbling blocks laid out. I cannot get rid of windows, like some suggest, due to our accounting software and UPS program etc., that will not be coming out in linux version any where in the near future.

If your linux drive is ext2 or ext3 then you can use explore2fs.
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm

You can create a FAT32 partition to share files between the OS's. Both XP and linux can read / write to it.

I used partition magic and created a fat32 partition on the hard drive that houses linux. Windows sees it fine and can read and write to it, but in linux now I can't find the partition at all. Any help?

If you need to share data files between WinXP and Linux, then set up a FAT32 partition and store those common files there. As was noted both WinXP and Linux have no problem reading and writing data files on a FAT 32 partition, but WinXP doesn't (want to) understand Linux filesystems and NTFS is pure proprietary, closed code.

So leave WinXP on its NTFS partition, leave Linux on its own filesystem partitions, and put common data files (MP3, video, photo, word processing, spreadsheets, etc.) on a FAT 32 partition.

Doesn't Partition Magic tell you the partition number?
You can use fdisk to find the partition
fdisk -l /dev/hdx
The listing will tell you which partition is formated how.
The partition number will be hdxy.
Where x is the drive i.e. 1st ide controller primary is hda
secondary is hdb, 2nd controller is hdc,hdd respectively.
Then you can add it to your /etc/fstab to mount on bootup
create mount point
mkdir /mnt/data
edit /etc/fstab and add line
/dev/hdxy /mnt/data vfat auto,user,umask=0 0 0

Thank You! Editing the fstab was exactly what it needed. Now everyone plays together!
Now I can start exploring Linux more since I can now access important files from either OS. It really screwed me up before if I was working on something and got a phone call and would have to reboot just to get to some file.
You guys are great, thanks again!
Nick

Ahhh, only if I had XP
Is there any way I can have Windows Vista 64bit see the disk that I have Ubuntu installed on? I still want to save some things to that disk from Windows.

One can download Ext2ifs which will allow a user in XP to read/write any Ext2/3 partition.

Fat32 partition is one alternative for the neutral ground for both systems but I heard good feedbacks from users opting to go with Ext2ifs. I did find Ext2ifs easy to use and available in the control panel of XP once installed.

That's great for XP users.
I asked about Vista.
Anyone know?

odds are that if it works with XP it will work with Vista
M$ would like people to upgrade from XP to Vis-stool

Found the answer here http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927392/en-us

Soon we can
http://www.ntfs-3g.org/

Sam