best ntfs5 rw support

[gaijin_judoka]

I would like to set up a dual boot winxp/linux box. I want to use winxp for my music and game software and ween myself to linux for everything else. I would like to make my data partition ntfs though so I am wondering what distro currently has the safest rw for ntfs5. I'm assuming it's going to be one with the 2.6 kernel. I'm thinking about Mandrake 10 when it comes out. I could also just make my data partition FAT32. Any and all opinions welcome.

THANKS

[Hayl]

ntfs support is kernel-dependant _not_ distribution-dependant.

any distro will do.

that being said, _writing_ to NTFS is not recommended under any kernel. read_only is fine though.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by gaijin_judoka
I would like to make my data partition ntfs though so I am wondering what distro currently has the safest rw for ntfs5.

Have a read of http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/ntfs.html#3.2

[retsaw]

Try looking at captive ntfs (http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/) it uses the windows ntfs driver for full read/write compatabilty so should be your best bet and should work with any distro, though I haven't tried it myself.

[hard candy]

I think most people who seem to know what they are talking about recommend creating a common FAT32 partition for each OS to write/read from to transfer data.
Example:
hda1- Winxp NTFS
hda2-Fat32
hda3- Ext3, reiserfs
Copy a letter for example to the FAT32 with Open Office from linux, then copy it to the WinXp partition with OpenOffice installed on WinXp.

[mdwatts]

Originally posted by hard candy
I think most people who seem to know what they are talking about recommend creating a common FAT32 partition for each OS to write/read from to transfer data.


That is certainly good advise and what I always do on any pc I plan to multiboot with Windows and Linux.


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 4 32098+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 5 642 5124735 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda3 643 1152 4096575 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 1153 9729 68894752+ f Win95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 * 1153 1790 5124703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda6 1791 2428 5124703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 2429 3066 5124703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda8 3067 4341 10241406 83 Linux
/dev/hda9 4342 4979 5124703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda10 4980 5617 5124703+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda11 5618 6892 10241406 83 Linux
/dev/hda12 6893 9598 21735913+ b Win95 FAT32
/dev/hda13 9599 9729 1052226 82 Linux swap


'hda12' is the shared fat32 partition.

[gaijin_judoka]

Thanks again for all the replies. The reason I wanted to try to use ntfs5 for the shared partition is that it's obviously superior to fat32 in the win world but does it really make that big of a difference when it is only holding data? Also can I defragment that drive with win defrag or should I use a third party solution? BTW I won't be building the box for about a month but I'm just trying to get all my ducks, or should I say penguins, in a row.

[asklepios]

i personally use FAT32 on a 20GB partition which acts like a backup and buffer space for me. i can backup my Linux files (like various rc's, configs, downloaded packages and howto's that i regularly save) and it helps me to transfer my files to windows for tasks like faxes etc. yes NTFS is superior to FAT32 but then do you have a choice. defragging FAT32 can be done using windows utility but i always recommend diskeeper lite.