is it difficult to share a partition between Linux and XP?
 

Hi All,

I am very pleased with how easy it is to set up a dual boot machine with Ubuntu or Linux Mint (haven't tried to dual boot others yet). I am wondering if it is difficult, or possible, to share a partition between the two OS. Not the boot partitons. I would like to have the OS on one partition, and my files/folders on another partition.

Can I use the same partition for both Linux and XP? I understand I would have to leave it NTFS. Or better to have two partitions for storage, one for Linux and one for XP?

Thanks for any help.

not sure why you'd want to combine the 2 into one partition. seems dangerous to me. i've always kept my windows installation on a seperate partition from all my media (music, movies, games, docs, etc..) just in case i got hit with a virus or something and needed to re-install.

but with my fairly limited knowledge of both systems i feel pretty confident in saying that it is not possible to have both installed to one partition. i don't even think linux can be installed to NTFS. if so it's certainly not the recommended type.

just curious why do you want to combine the two? is it Hdd space your worried about?

No. Linux and Windows permissions and ACLs are different. You can however have a separate partition that both can read and write to, and use it for saving documents. It would be a good place for mp3s or downloads. Because Windows will have write access to it, be sure that you mount it with the noexec, nosuid, and nodev mount options. FAT32 is a good option for this unless you want very large files ( >4GB ) saved.

I was not planning on trying to install both OS on one partition. Thinking of using one partition for storage for both OS.

I will have to look for instruction on all the mounting instructions.

Why do you recomend FAT32 over NTFS? I thought I had been able to copy from Linux to NTFS in the past, but maybe my memory is not so good.

Thanks for the help.

there have been problems in the past writing to NTFS in linux. If memory serves me it's because NTFS is proprietary and m$ hasn't released the howto on it. there are options out there for writing to NTFS but they aren't always stable and there's the risk that you might destroy data. you can read data and copy from it but writing to the partition is another story.

FAT32 however is easily accessible by both windows and linux. there is the issue of files going over 4gb (i was copying some streaming porn once and the file got over 6gb...couldn't transfer to the FAT32 partition) and some naming conventions don't work(i don't remember what characters it doesn't like...all's i know is i couldn't transfer some of my MP3's without changing their names.)

Hi,

You can use 'ntfs-3g' to r/w from the Linux to the NTFS partition.

You still don't want both OSes installed to the same partition if that is what you are thinking. If you want a partition that both OSes can access, FAT32 is the best choice. If you have a problem develop with an NTFS filesystem, you need to repair it in Windows.

FAT is not necessarily the best choice, especially if the user needs large file support. To run down the pros and cons as I see them...

Fat32 Pros: mature, well-understood filesystem; has native Linux (kernel level) support; many filesystem tools available for maintenance and rescue (but not everything, there's no defragger, for instance).

Fat32 Cons: file size limited to 4Gib; easily corruptible; easily becomes fragmented.

NTFS Pros: more stable; no (realistic) limit on file size.

NTFS Cons: No native linux support, although the ntfs-3g solution appears to be stable; very few filesystem tools available; also subject to fragmentation, but better than fat.

Neither one supports the *nix permission system, of course, and you must use umasking when mounted on linux.

So it's really up to your individual needs as to which one to use.

BTW, there are also a few options available for accessing a Linux partition from Windows, such as the ext2ifs Windows driver. The Gentoo wiki has a good page on available options.

PS @jschiwal: If you read carefully, you'll see that nhg never said he wanted both OS's on the same partition. He specifically excluded the boot partitions from consideration.

NTFS works just fine in linux. I use it all the time. Have or make sure ntfs-3g is installed via package manager and it will work like any other. Permission may be a problem but that happens no matter what format and can be fixed. Make an extra partition for data set it up to mount in linux. When you boot into windows it will show up as a E or F drive what ever if the partition has a label it will show. You can make the partition in linux with any number of programs qtparted ect or make it in windows just use fat32 or ntfs. If your not into hasseling with things just use fat32 4gig is a vary big file not to many people have em. When you boot back into linux it will mount where you had it and your good.

Advanced option. Install virtualbox and install windows into it and run windows on your linux desktop. Thats how I use my windows only lexmark all in one printer without rebooting and the file share between OS's is near seemless no network. You can open and run windows programs and linux programs in differant windows at the same time. I mount an ext. USB hd drive to a share file located in Linux and both windows and linux can use it at the same time, they both think its just another folder. Bingo. PS usb drive is NTFS formated, its all I ever use in them.

In different Pcs i use different shared partitions between win and linux to store downloaded stuff before burning it on cd/dvd and backup of documents i use both FAT32 and Ntfs and i have never had any problems in writing and erasing files from them.

Both Fat32 and Ntfs allow you to write and erasing files without stability problems if you use a new/recent distro with new/recent kernel with a new/recent version of ntfs-3g,of course you don't have to use a fedora 3 or a mandriva 9.2 or anything else from preisthoric times

Whoa. That sounds cool.

I appreciate the responses. I was just messing around with an older PC, and went through a steep learning curve on how to mount a hard drive in Linux I installed after the OS installation. I think now I could set up my newer PC to dual boot, and have XP and Linux share the drive.

Now maybe I will have to step back and look into this virtualbox.

Thanks for the help.

Missed a day here was out of town. You will love virtualbox I download everything in linux and if its used in windows I just drop it into share folder. Then click on my Num 4 desktop and windows is already up and running and the file is in my computer under share folder. Just love it. No re booting and I can run P2P in linux and never turn it off.