Problems changing OS from Windows XP to Ubuntu -- File Permissions??

[Thomas Templin]

On Monday 28 March 2005 02:22, Deric Stowell wrote:
> Hi, All.
>
> Recent;y i changed over from Windows XP Pro to Ubuntu Linux and
> used the NTFS-formatted data drives. I usually only have the OS
> installed on the FirstDrive/FirstPartition, so i know I have a
> clean install. However, I have been having some problems with
> opening files that i want to be able to use from the NTFS drives.
> I noticed that they are all set as Read-Only, even though i mount
> them as R/W in the /etc/fstab file. So then what I did was to
> open the files I needed in whatever application, then created a
> new folder in my home directory and saved it there. seems to work
> Ok, i guess, but it seems such a long way around a small problem.
>
> Is there some command that will just re-do all the files'
> permissions? I want to get them off the drives so i can reformat
> all the drives with ext3 or ext2. Also, does having a space in
> the folder or file name make any difference? (i noticed that i
> have to put quotes around them if in a shell.) What is the best
> type of FS to use for storing large files? documents? images?
Read/write NTFS access from Linux is only very experimental!
You will definetely destroy the NTFS partition if you use write 
permissions from a Linux system!

There are two (three) common ways to share data between Linux and 
Win XP.

1. Using LTools from Win XP
This will give you rw permissions to ext2 partitions:
http://howtos.linux.com/howtos/Filesystems-HOWTO-6.shtml
See Chapter 6.6 Accessing Ext2 from DOS, Windows 9x/NT and other 
Unixes (LTools)
I would suggest to have an extra partition to share files between 
both systems.

2. Using a FAT Partition
For this you shoul add a FAT32 Partition for data which may be used 
from Win Xp and Linux. Linux is able to write and read FAT32

(3. Use a removable media, e.g. an USB stick which has a FAT32 
Partition)

Bye,
Thomas