I am building a dual boot system on a new Dell Precision 64-bit M6300 laptop. The operating systems are Windows XP PRO x86_64 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1 64-bit. I have destructively partitioned the (single 160 GB) hard drive where roughly 1/3 is NTFS for Windows and the balance is Linux (EXT3, swap, /boot, etc.). Both systems are now fully installed and functioning correctly.

The Linux side will be used for computational software and I need to be able to share dump files, plots, graphs, etc. with the Windows side for report production in Word and PowerPoint. I have recently discovered an obscure reference that states that I must make a third partition for file sharing in the FAT32 format which both systems should recognize.

My questions are:

1) Is the need to create the new FAT32 partition for sharing correct in my situation, with the given hardware/software?
2) Can I use the Linux "Disk Druid" utility to non-destructively partition the EXT3 partition, where there is existing space, to create the new FAT32 partition?
3) Assuming yes to "1) and 2)", once the FAT32 partition exists, will Windows automatically recognize the partition (in File Manager) so that I can turn on "File Sharing" through the Control Panel?
4) How do I deal with the security settings on the Linux side to allow file sharing as the current build includes "SELinux" security protocol?
5) Is there anything I haven't asked that I should have?

Thanks for your help.

if memory serves me correct...then linux can't read NTFS (hence the suggestion of making a fat32 partition)

i would imagine that you could use disk druid to resize the linux exfs partition...it you can't you could use GParted to accomplish it (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/)

as far as security settings...or turning on sharing...that's not required since you're creating a partition on the same machine....what will happen is you'll create the partition...then windows SHOULD see the partition as a new drive once it's formatted correctly etc...in the linux environment you may have to mount the partition

http://www.experts-exchange.com/Security/O...Q_20813038.html directions for mounting the partition

now...this link that i found suggests that you can mount an NTFS partition in linux
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/mounting-wind...o-ubuntu-linux/ it applies to ubuntu...but most distros are similar in functionality....if this method is do-able in red hat...(i.e. if red hat can read NTFS) then you could just mount your windows partition directly in the linux environment and just dump all your linux graphs etc...into a common folder on said partition

Thanks! I will give the Linux-to-NTFS a try first, then let you know how things went.