What's the best way to share files between linux and windows 7 on a dual/multi boot computer?

Solution 1:

Easiest thing - A nas network share that will just work in both or a USB pen drive!

Apart from that, As Ubuntu can read from NTFS but Windows can't read from EXT2/4 etc.

In your setup, I would personally have a 50GB partition for Ubuntu and then you have a choice:

The rest for Windows and simply access the NTFS partition from Ubuntu (which should work) or creating a new drive of a few GBs, format with NTFS or Fat32, and use for sharing files.

I personally wouldn't share home directories cross operating systems, it may work - but in my books, it is asking for trouble later on.

Solution 2:

As far as interoperability goes, FAT32 is the one that's most likely to 'just work'. However the linux implementation of NTFS is pretty solid, so either a NTFS partition or a FAT32 partition will be good enough.

You can also install an ext driver on windows, for accessing the linux partition if needed

Solution 3:

I was having the exact same problem you are having now.

• Virtual machines are not an option for me as I'm a developer and need access to the physical hardware.
• FAT does not meet my requirements as I often have to create DVD images - I would get stuck with this (FAT32 only allows files with a maximum size of 4GB).
• I did not want to use NTFS, because the native Linux support for it isn't complete (writing is not fully supported) and the NTFS-3G driver uses too many resources - downloading a file from the Internet with a 100Mbit connection almost freezes my Core i3.
• ext3/4 would be a good solution, but I'm using TrueCrypt to protect my data, and the ext-driver for Windows causes a BSOD if you try to mount a TrueCrypt volume.

This is the solution I've came up with:

1. Install Windows + Linux

2. Make your data partition ext3/4

3. Setup your data partition in Linux (create fstab entries)

4. Get QEMU or VMware for Windows. Install a minimal Debian system and assign the physical data partition as a second hard drive to that.

5. Setup Samba within the new VM, allow it to share that partition to its host. This way I can use the partition under Windows, and I don't have any of the above hassles with FAT or NTFS under Linux. I can also use TrueCrypt!

Solution 4:

I used an NTFS partition for this. It's the easiest and safest I think. FAT32 is probably an even safer option, but FAT32 doesn't support files larger then 4 GiB (I think?). There are ways to make Windows read EXT partitions, but the ones I've tried didn't feel too safe or stable... might have changed by now though, but I don't know :)