NTFS FAT and Linux

Many users ask whether Linux can read and write to their NTFS (XP 2000 or NT) partitions? The answer is that some distro's like Mandrake can "see" mount and read from NTFS partitions, but one should NEVER attempt to write from Linux to an NTFS partition, as NTFS uses extremely complicated techniques and Linux WILL screw up the NTFS data, and possibly the entire file system resulting in a very dead Windows XP / 2000 or whatever system!

The usual suggestion is to create a FAT partition which can be seen, read and written to by both Linux and NT / XP / 2000. One word of caution... in a fit of simple mindedness I did just this, by "shrinking" my existing NTFS partition, which was immediately "below" my linux, and then "inserting" the new FAT artition between the now smaller NTFS partition and my Linux partition. This was STUPID of me, as linux no longer booted.. after much head scratching I realised that the answer was obvious... Linux had booted from a "mount point" on hda6 but my new partition had "bumped up" the drive designation so that "hda6" was now the FAT partition... ooops.. so I removed the FAT partition, moved linux down to be immediately above the NTFS partition, (making sure to re-run lilo) and created the new FAT partition "above" my Linux swap file.. result bliss... I could have reallocated my mount points, but I'm lazy...

Hope this helps?