SHARE WINDOWS AND LINUX FILES

[pH]

So you have Linux and Windows installed on the same machine. What is the best way to access and transfer files between the OSs? That is, how do you make the same files ystems and files accessible when you are running either OS?

There are some considerations to note:

* Linux supports Windows types of partitions (e.g. FAT, FAT32, etc), but
* Windows does not recognize Linux types of partitions (e.g. ext2, ext3, etc)

A common solution is to mount the Windows partitions (e.g. C:) in Linux. However, this can be very dangerous. You could inadvertently damage critical system files for Windows while logged into Linux. If you mount the Windows partitions read-only, then access only works in one direction; you can see Windows partitions in Linux, but you have no way of transferring files from Linux to Windows.

In my opinion, sharing key partitions or file systems is not a clean solution. The OSs should know as little as possible about each other. With the dual-boot setup I use, Windows only knows about Linux to the extent that I made a 1-line edit to C:\boot.ini and copied a 512-byte GRUB boot loader file to C:\. Other than that, Windows can't see any of the Linux partitions and Linux can't see the C: partition.
Recommended Solution

I recommend creating a separate partition that is accessible to both Windows and Linux. I'll refer to this as a "share" partition. It must be of type FAT32 (same as vfat) or FAT to be accessible and writable by both OSs (NTFS is not yet an option as Linux does not support writing to NTFS partitions). To make the share partition visible and writable by both OSs, do the following:

1. Create a FAT32 partition that you want to be visible by both OSs. I don't explain how to do that here. I believe you can create the FAT32 partition in Windows using Start->Run->Administrative Tools->Computer Management->Disk Management. Many Linux installation programs (e.g. Red Hat) allow you to create FAT32 partitions during the installation process.
2. For Windows, you don't have to do anything to make the FAT32 partition accessible. The OS will automatically detect it and assign it a drive letter (e.g. E:)
3. For Linux, do the following steps to make the FAT32 partition accessible:
1. Create the directory that serves as the mount point (e.g. mkdir /osshare). The mount point is the location in the file system where you want this FAT32 partition to appear.
2. Put an entry in the /etc/fstab file for the share partition. Be very careful in editing this file, as it's used at system startup! For an example, check out the /osshare entry in my /etc/fstab file. The umask option determines the permissions for all filesystems on the partition.
================================================== ======
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
/dev/hda6 /osshare vfat umask=000 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
/dev/hda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 noauto,owner,kudzu,ro 0 0
================================================== =======
3. Upon your next reboot into Linux, the share partition should get mounted automatically. If you wish to mount the FAT32 partition immediately, use the mount command, e.g.: mount /osshare

Once you've set up your share partition, you can use it for transferring files between the OSs.

I hope you found the content on this page useful (and accurate).
Replay……….

[Nevinyrral]

Very nice! I have been meaning to do this, but I guess just been to lazy to figure out how. Thanks.

[pH]

i am happy to know that it was helpful for you my friend
thanks for the replay

[Guttu]

Yess dats the clever way to do
But it is not asdangerous u sed
to mount partitions in Linux

the only thing I can say is dat they are
difficult to mount in linux
Its safe to give all access to linux as it is more stable
than the windows

[indianbaba]

Thanks pH. i found the information useful.
BTW, u are using the word replay for reply, which is not correct. Is it done intentionally or u are not aware of it?

[pH]

thanks baba for the replay(sorry reply!) i am not good in English!!
m happy to know that the inform was useful for you