i was wondering if there is a way for linux to be able to write to an ntfs partition or am i fighting a lost cause as i want to share files between windows and linux, and i dont really want to have a fat partition on my pc if i can help it.

write support on NTFS partition from Linux, is still under research (i think so), however it is quite possible that you can read your data from NTFS partition, using Linux. In other words, when it comes to NTFS, you get READ access, no WRITE access.

if you have compiled kernel from sources, you must have seen there is option for enabling write access for NTFS partitions but its not recommended.

i think Dapper Dan or Dan leff can guide you more better.

Don't bother with enabling write support in the kernel (even 2.6.x)... right now the file size has to be exactly the same, to the byte, before you can write successfully without corruption. Since that's next to impossible, I wouldn't bother.

"i think Dapper Dan or Dan leff can guide you more better."

Thanks for the compliment outstream, but I'm afraid that stuff is way over my head.

"Thanks for the compliment outstream, but I'm afraid that stuff is way over my head"

oh c`mmon dude you are such a good Linux geek, its just a simple NTFS problem

NTFs write support is really still experimental at this time, even in the 2.6 kernel series. Some distros have read support and will recognize NTFS filesystems, as read only.

This is being actively worked on.

It is much easier to make a vfat partiton and use it as a transfer partition for files that you will need to have available to both Windows and Linux.

I suppose that if you really need to access that drive r/w, then you could do what I did - I installed XP and told it not to use ntfs! Of course if XP is already installed, you are probably SOL until Linux developers get a bit further along in that...

"It is much easier to make a vfat partiton and use it as a transfer partition for files that you will need to have available to both Windows and Linux."

Can you, from Linux, write files to fat32, and then copy from fat32 to paste into NTFS?

Of course if Windows was preinstalled on the system, such as on a Dell or, in my case, an IBM Thinkpad, the default install is NTFS. My rescue/restore disks do not give an option to use vfat - so don't think about re-installing Windows unless you have a full copy of XP. Then you can elect which filesystem to use.

"Can you, from Linux, write files to fat32, and then copy from fat32 to paste into NTFS?"

I believe no write support really means that, no support. But, that is an interesting question. I'll have to try it and see what happens!

I see what your getting at, in Windows you can write from vfat to NTFS.

It is much easier to make a vfat partiton and use it as a transfer partition for files that you will need to have available to both Windows and Linux.

Can you, from Linux, write files to fat32, and then copy from fat32 to paste into NTFS?

I do that all the time... No problem. Just keep one partition as a fat32 transfer area. Linux will write to the fat32, but 'you must' do any writing to NTFS from windows. USB keys also work nicely for transfering smaller files to Windows/ntsf if you don't have a fat32.

thanks everyone, i guess i'll keep a fat32 partition to transfer files, and hopefully soon linux will be able to write to ntfs.

just found this what do you think?

"I read and studied and found an answer: Captive
(captive is a patch/extension for a linux/GNU kernel so the computer can read-write on a ntfs, VFAT, etc...)
Captive mount a ntfs drive so it can read, write and compress...
Now the problem.... I can:
mimithebrain@h___ # mount -t captive-ntfs /dev/hda2 /mnt/windows"