Shared /Boot or /tmp and FAT32 vs NTFS

NictraSavios · 2011-05-11 19:40:45

Alright, so I have 3 system. Debian 5 Gnome, Backtrack 5 Gnome, and Windows NT 6.1.

Soon I will add arch to the mix, but since i'm moving to a new hard drive anyway, I was wondering, is having all 3 share a /Boot a good idea? What about a shared /tmp? Since its erased on restart anyway.

And i have a 75GB shared data Partition in FAT32, i was thinking, since it doesn't have journaling, should i switch to NTFS? Are there any Windows & Linux Supported alternatives to NTFS? What about ext3/4 or btrfs drivers for Windows?

Thats it, short and sweet.

chr0nik · 2011-05-11 19:57:52

I just use a NTFS partition for shared storage between windows and linux. It seems much easier that way since ntfs-3g has yet to give me any headaches in linux. I also use Linux Reader from DiskInternals for read-only access to a number of common linux filesystems. There are some other free alternatives to that method with much better integration (e.g. kernel mode drivers, shell integration, etc.) like Ext2 Installable File System for Windows, but I can't speak to the quality as I have not used them.

thayer · 2011-05-11 20:29:57

Sharing a /tmp should be fine, as should a shared swap partition. For the latter you'll need to be careful of your suspend-to-disk operations, else you'll risk losing session data if you hibernate in one distro and subsequently boot into another.

Most users don't even bother with a separate /boot these days; the file space necessary is moot and as long as you have a Live CD/USB you can recover from any issues that benefit from a separate /boot.

NTFS is definitely the better choice for shared data; no 4GB max file size limit and the ntfs-3g driver is very stable.

NictraSavios · 2011-05-11 20:36:48

Are there any other directories that can/should be shared? Trying to minimize space.

thayer · 2011-05-11 22:02:13

I'm not sure about sharing other directories; personally, I don't share anything except the swap partitions because I don't like the idea of contaminating my installations.

My setup looks something like this:

/windows    ntfs    20GB    # c: drive for winxp installation
/archlinux  ext4    20GB    # / for arch linux installation
/shared     ntfs   100GB    # s: drive for winxp installation ('My Documents')
/other      ext4    10GB    # / for testing distro(s)
swap        swap     1GB    # shared between archlinux and whatever distro I'm testing

/shared is where I keep all of my personal files.

Under linux, my /home directory contains only my dotfiles and two symlinks:

Dropbox   ->   /shared/Dropbox
Shared    ->   /shared

Under Windows, I've moved 'My Documents' to the root of S:\; for example, My Pictures is simply S:\Pictures.

Last edited by thayer (2011-05-11 22:43:31)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-05-11 19:40:45

Shared /Boot or /tmp and FAT32 vs NTFS

#2 2011-05-11 19:57:52

Re: Shared /Boot or /tmp and FAT32 vs NTFS

#3 2011-05-11 20:29:57

Re: Shared /Boot or /tmp and FAT32 vs NTFS

#4 2011-05-11 20:36:48

Re: Shared /Boot or /tmp and FAT32 vs NTFS

#5 2011-05-11 22:02:13

Re: Shared /Boot or /tmp and FAT32 vs NTFS

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