[solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

Atreides · 2009-11-27 23:23:52

If I were to dual boot XP Pro and Arch, is there any way I could make some files accessible in both OSes? It would be incredible if that's possible, then I could have a "Documents" folder containing all my pictures/docs/music which I could access in either OS.

Not sure if this is the right forum for this question, I apologize if I put it in the wrong place.

Last edited by Atreides (2009-11-27 23:57:06)

ngoonee · 2009-11-27 23:24:56

Separate partition. You could have an NTFS/FAT partition, which both can read, or an ext2/3 partition and install an ext2 reader in Windows. No go for any other linux FS though, I think.

sand_man · 2009-11-27 23:28:12

I would go for ntfs-3g. I wouldn't let Windows modify or even look at my Arch filesystems

Relevant wiki page http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/NTFS_Write_Support

Last edited by sand_man (2009-11-27 23:28:54)

Atreides · 2009-11-27 23:35:33

Alright, so I definitely need to make a separate partition?

ngoone- Which one would you recommend? Sand man seems to indicate that it would be best to go NTFS.

Sand man- Haha I don't even have a functioning install of Arch yet. I presume ntfs-3g allows Arch to read NTFS partitions? So it would be better to make a windows partition which Arch can read, rather than the other way around?

jocheem67 · 2009-11-27 23:50:08

I've been doing some research when I was using Ubuntu a couple of years ago. There was a windows ext2/3 driver , but it never really worked well. Often, accessing a linux partition from xp, I got the popup asking if I wanted to format that (ubuntu)partition:)

So it seemed and seems better now to go the other way: just create a backup partition using ntfs ( don' t use fat32 ), or use a spare disk. From within Arch or other distro's you'll be able to use that partition through hal and ntfs-3g..

A minor backdraw might be that filepermissions and time and date on files might be screwed up. However I'm not sure of this...
I never experienced any problems using my ntfs backupdisk from within any linuxdistro!

Atreides · 2009-11-27 23:56:52

jocheem67 wrote:

I've been doing some research when I was using Ubuntu a couple of years ago. There was a windows ext2/3 driver , but it never really worked well. Often, accessing a linux partition from xp, I got the popup asking if I wanted to format that (ubuntu)partition:)
So it seemed and seems better now to go the other way: just create a backup partition using ntfs ( don' t use fat32 ), or use a spare disk. From within Arch or other distro's you'll be able to use that partition through hal and ntfs-3g..
A minor backdraw might be that filepermissions and time and date on files might be screwed up. However I'm not sure of this...
I never experienced any problems using my ntfs backupdisk from within any linuxdistro!

Thanks, I guess I'll try and have windows do as little as possible . I'll make a secondary NTFS partition, which I'll then try and make viewable in Arch. I'm glad you've never had any problems with it, I'll hope I'm just as lucky.

I'm going to go ahead and mark this thread as solved, and make another one asking how I should partition my drive.

beroal · 2009-11-28 00:30:50

Atreides wrote:

I presume ntfs-3g allows Arch to read NTFS partitions?

ntfs-3g can also write to a NTFS partition.

sultanoswing · 2009-11-28 00:38:32

http://www.fs-driver.org/

...but it doesn't support ext4.

perbh · 2009-11-28 02:53:53

What is the problem?
archlinux can easily read and write ntfs - if you want to make really easy on yourself, just make a link from your home directory into 'My Documents"

Let us assume windows is on /dev/sda1 - then in your /etc/fstab, you have:
/dev/sda1 /win ntfs-3g defaults,uid=0,gid=0,umask=000,locale=en_US.utf8 0 0

and make the following link in your home directory (assume your window login is 'anon'):
ln -s '/win/Document and Settins/anon/My Documents' /home/documents
(note the quotes - they are required because of the spaces in the pathname)

Last edited by perbh (2009-11-28 02:54:36)

Atreides · 2009-11-28 03:17:54

Thanks for the extra help, I'm glad there is a way to do this.

I made another thread where I'm working out how to break my small drive up (60gb).

perbh · 2009-11-28 03:30:54

Atreides wrote:

Thanks for the extra help, I'm glad there is a way to do this.
I made another thread where I'm working out how to break my small drive up (60gb).

The thing is - if you only have 60 gigs, you don't want to split it up too much.
I would suggest the following (still assuming your xp is on sda1 and that is your _only_ partition at the moment ...
1) tar off your xp partition to some external media (these days you get a 1TB usbdrive for under a 100 bucks - its a no-brainer)
2) use fdisk to partition your disk - something like this:
sda1 - ntfs - 40 gigs (xp) (because you will use 'My Documents' for both windows and archlinux)
sda2 - swap (2x memory)
sda3 - remainder (~18 gigs) - ext3/ext4/reiserfs/xfs/jfs/whatever (your archlinux root filesystem
3) install archlinux (sda3), put grub on the mbr
4) put back your xp-tarball onto sda1
5) update /dev/sda3/grub/menu.lst to allow also booting from sda1

Note that you cannot (unless you use grub2) use ext4 for the root filesystem. In this case you need a seperate boot-partition which you can use ext2 on ...

Atreides · 2009-11-28 03:56:07

perbh-

As of right now, you are correct that I only have one big partition with XP on it.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by tar, should I just backup my whole windows partition? I have a desktop I can do that with, but do I need to "tar" it or just copy it over?

So it would be better not to have a separate partition for documents? And is 4gb of swap (2gb of RAM) too much?

Here's what I had suggested to me in another thread.

sda1 ntfs 10 g --> C:\
sda2 ntfs 30 g --> D:\ (storage)
sda3 swap 1g
sda4 ext4 19g --> /

So install Arch before XP, then put grub on the mbr (not sure how to do this, will have to look it up), then use Arch to put XP back on sda1?

And would I need to create a separate boot partition in order to use ext4?

I really appreciate the input, and I apologize for not knowing what most of this, have only had vm experience with Arch (or any distro) thus far.

ngoonee · 2009-11-28 05:48:59

I used to have an NTFS 'data' partition where things were shared. In the end I converted it to ext3 simply because using an NTFS partition in linux for anything other than pure data storage is a pain in the proverbial ass. Missing things like proper symlinks, proper permission sets on files/directories, tends to upset some apps. This became a problem due to the way my 'data' partition wasn't really a data partition per se, of course, if you're only using it to save documents, movies, and music then use NTFS.

Otherwise, please use ext3 and one of the drivers for windows access to ext2 partitions. Its also a mental shift, to say that "Arch is my main lady, Windows is the play thing that I'll probably be dumping down the road" .

Atreides · 2009-11-28 16:52:01

Thanks for the input ngoonee, its good to hear about other peoples experiences.

I'm afraid for now I'm going to have to go with a NTFS data partition, I'm not yet confident enough to make Arch my main lady

Arch Linux

#1 2009-11-27 23:23:52

[solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#2 2009-11-27 23:24:56

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#3 2009-11-27 23:28:12

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#4 2009-11-27 23:35:33

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#5 2009-11-27 23:50:08

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#6 2009-11-27 23:56:52

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#7 2009-11-28 00:30:50

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#8 2009-11-28 00:38:32

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#9 2009-11-28 02:53:53

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#10 2009-11-28 03:17:54

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#11 2009-11-28 03:30:54

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#12 2009-11-28 03:56:07

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#13 2009-11-28 05:48:59

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

#14 2009-11-28 16:52:01

Re: [solved]Any way to make files accessible in both XP and arch?

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