NTFS and/or VFAT on the Same HD

[Caveman]

Trying to install Fedora Linux on a Windows XP box... Can I format the WinXP operating System partition as NTFS and make another partition as FAT32 and be able to read these files with WinXP?

 

[n0cmonkey]

Yes, I believe there is a FAQ on this.

 

[Caveman]

I read the FAQ; I got A's in every English class I took and know that the "wording" of the FAQ on this subject leaves many open doors. I'm still not sure I could have Win XP on a NTFS partition that would be able to read/write data files from a FAT partition...

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Caveman
I read the FAQ; I got A's in every English class I took and know that the "wording" of the FAQ on this subject leaves many open doors. I'm still not sure I could have Win XP on a NTFS partition that would be able to read/write data files from a FAT partition...

I actually haven't read the fact, just saw that it was there.

It should work just fine.

 

[Caveman]

It's not that I don't implicitely trust Monkey's advise, but I was hoping to get a cross section of opinions here...

Q: Can a partition formated in NTFS format dedicated to storing the Win XP OS manipulate (read/write) files on another partition of the same disk that's formatted in FAT format?

 

[wseyller]

WinXP supports NTFS or FAT32

 

[Caveman]

Thanks for trying to help but you didn't answer the question I asked; the fact you wrote was already assumed.

The question I want to know the answer to is:

Q: Can a partition formated in NTFS format dedicated to storing the Win XP OS manipulate (read/write) files on another partition of the same disk that's formatted in FAT format?

 

[sciencewhiz]

If you get a crossection of opinions, I would be quite disappointed in the people who answered. (Perhaps you want a crossesction of people answering, not a crossection of opinions).

Yes, Windows XP installed on an NTFS partition can read data stored on a FAT partition on the same disk.

 

[Caveman]

Thanks for the definitive answer (not opinion : )...

Reason I'm inquiring is that my wife and I are setting up a dula boot on a laptop of Win XP home and Linux.

We want to be able to read/write files from both operating systems from a common storage area yet gain any "advantages" of using NTFS where possible.

Config we have in mind is 3 partitions for a 40Gig HD:

qty 1, 7-Gig NTFS partition for the Win XP OS
qty 1, 7-Gig FAT partition for the Linux OS
qty 1, 26-Gig FAT partition for the "common" data file storage area

-OR-

qty 1, 33-Gig FAT partition for the Win XP OS and "common" data files
qty 1, 7-Gig FAT partition for the Linux OS

Took guesses on how much to allocate for Win XP and Linux... Which config looks better (I'd expect some opinions here, but am looking for "answers")...?

 

[JohnG86]

I would use your top partition setup with the FAT32 partition at the end. How much data do you need to have on the Fat32 partition? 26 gb seems a bit high for storing files and not giving the Windows and Linux partitopns space for programs to be installed with the designated operating system. I would have a 10 gb partition for the FAT32 partition and have the OS partitions bigger to allow space for programs to be installed with the OS so they dont have to be with your shared files. You may want to make a list of things that will need to be accessed in both OS to figure out if you need more space for the FAT32 partition or if the OS partitions can have the space.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: Caveman
Thanks for trying to help but you didn't answer the question I asked; the fact you wrote was already assumed.

The question I want to know the answer to is:

Q: Can a partition formated in NTFS format dedicated to storing the Win XP OS manipulate (read/write) files on another partition of the same disk that's formatted in FAT format?

The question is flawed. The partition does not access anything, the kernel does the work. Since the kernel supports both FAT32 and NTFS, there are no issues.

FAT partition for the Linux OS

There are few Linux distributions that allow you to install on FAT. In fact, it's quite stupid. Use a real filesystem for the Linux install.

 

[drag]

7 gigs for Linux should be good enough. I like to use 10, but that's just because it's a round number.

A typical full installation (which I recommend) will use 4-5 gigs depending on the distro. I have 15 gigs of software installed on my desktop, but a big hunk of it is from big games (ut2004 is like 4 or 5 gigs itself).

For Linux you need a minimum of 2 partitions, one for files, the other for a swap partition. Use about 500megs for that.