Is it possible to share a hard drive between Windows and Ubuntu?

Friday, 12th March 2010

I have two hard drives on my computer. One is C which the computer boots Windows XP from, and the other is drive F which is only used for storage.

I want to install ubuntu on drive F, and still be able to use it for storage. I would also like it be so that I can drag files onto drive F in windows, and be able to see them in Ubuntu. Is this possible, and if so, How?

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Tags: between, Drive, Hard, possible, share, ubuntu, Windows

4 Comments

raf p

Friday, 12th March 2010 at 12:13

it is possible.

[Reply]

zbalat

Friday, 12th March 2010 at 13:11

Split the F drive into 2 partitions (use GParted). One for Ubuntu and one for storage.

Using GParted (Free) format the storage partition as NTFS.

Install Ubuntu on the other partition. Windows will be able to use the NTFS partition but won’t see the Linux partition.

GParted: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

[Reply]

yrjokin

Friday, 12th March 2010 at 13:19

Dual Boot.
The best way is to put Ubuntu on the C drive and use F for data.
You would need to shrink the existing windows partition and put Ubuntu in the space you made.
Then you choose Ubuntu or Windows at boot. I barely ever use Windows at all.
You can see anything on the windows partition from Ubuntu but not vice versa (well not as-is anyway). While in Ubuntu you can drag and drop from windows to drive F or to sda2 (Ubuntu) from sda1 (Windows) (those may be hda0 hda1 etc too depending on if you have sata HDD’s)
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_windows_xp_and_linux_xp_installed_first.htm
When reading the options on the partition table page just avoid the option that deletes windows. If you choose manual install you will need to select 2Gb for ‘swap’ 5 to 15 for / and the rest for /home .

To try Ubuntu without changing anything use wubi but this may not give you the same access as above because there won’t be a new partition created. This is just to see if you like it and if it works with your hardware etc etc. It will most likely but better safe than sorry. There is an amazing array of free software available. Feel free to email me.

http://wubi-installer.org/

[Reply]

Michael

Friday, 12th March 2010 at 13:51

Yes, it is possible. When installing Ubuntu just split the F partition into two partitions, of which format one into NTFS format (this one will be used for storage) and the other one into ext3 format (install Ubuntu on this one).

It might happen that when your done installing it, you don’t see your NTFS formated partitions in Ubuntu. What you need to do is mount them. Open up the Terminal (Applications>Accessories>Terminal) and type in :

sudo gparted

It will than prompt you for a password, put in your account password (what you used in the installation, and what you use to login
When GParted opens up, you will see all of your partitions there. You will be able to recognize them by their size and format (NTFS are the ones you need), right click both of the NTFS partitions and select mount. After this you will be able to access them from the Computer.