Sharing a Partition

[BlaineSch]

So I was thinking about a setup for my computer, I have a decent sized HDD I am using and was thinking about having it with XP and Linux all in one but then I realized I would like to share some files. Is it possible to have 3 partitions and share the last (no OS) just files that both partitions with an OS could access? I am thinking each partition could be accessed by another but I may be wrong.

[Jordan]

You could have two partitions and share the files. If one partition is running Windows on NTFS you can access all of those files from Linux.

[BlaineSch]

So you would recommend doing that, making the windows one bigger and saving all linux ones in the Windows partition so I can access them all from one place? I will definitely play around with it. I knew you could do this from a livecd but I was not sure about separate partitions.

[Hignar]

I'd recommend a third partition to share files between OSs. First reason is that Linux doesn't always play nicely with NTFS. Chances are you wouldn't have a problem, but better to be safe etc.

Also a separate partition means you run no risk of messing up either OS or losing data if you need to reinstall.

I'd suggest using FAT32 for the additional partition unless you'll need to store files in excess of 2GB, in which case NTFS is probably the only option as windows won't read a linux partition.

[BlaineSch]

If I was in windows could it read the other partition if it was fat32?

[Orjan]

Yes. most usb memory sticks use fat32 or even fat16 on smaller ones.

[BlaineSch]

Well I knew it was something like that, my concern was it being all on the same drive lol I have never seen it access one thing and think its 3 things? Make sense? lol

[Orjan]

it's all built by quarks, forming atoms

[marwex89]

lol @ örjan

I've played with this a bit (as you might know if you read my last tutorial), and a shared no-OS-inhabited FAT32 partition works wonders! Very handy.

[BlaineSch]

LiveUSB? I was actually meaning to read that, I knew I could do a LiveUSB but never really needed it before since most usb's dont go very big unless your willing to invest in it lol.