Sync folders in Linux/Windows on the Same Computer.

I'm running Linux Mint on a laptop, dualbooted with Windows 7.

I'd like to be able to sync my documents, music, videos, and picture folders across partitions. In other words, I'd like to be able to save to one folder no matter which operating system I'm running, and be able to retrieve those files in either operating system. Is there an easy way to do this?

Windows can't read the Linux partition, but Linux can sure read Windows' partition. The easiest (I think) way would be to have the actual files and folders live on the Windows side and either access them directly from inside Linux or use Symbolic Links to make them look like they're located in your /home directory.


About Symbolic Links:

Say that you have all your music in C:\Users\BillyBob\Music and you want to be able to access it in Linux by just going to /home/BillyBob/Music. You would do this from the Linux command line:

ln -s /media/Windows/Users/BillyBob/Music /home/BillyBob/Music

This creates what is known as a Symbolic Link that points at the Music folder in the Windows partition (assuming that your Windows partition is mounted at /media/Windows of course.) When Linux sees a symbolic link, it just follows it and treats the destination like it was the original target. This is means that symbolic links are completely invisible to programs (that is, they don't realize that a directory they're reading data from is actually a symbolic link)

I haven't tried this but it is close to what you want.
Accessing Linux Filesystems in Windows | Linux Journal

Note that their are 3 pages to read up on there.

I don't believe there is not a Windows driver for the EXT4 filesystem, which Linux Mint uses as its default.

If you are using Windows 7 you can give thisa try: Read ext3/ext4 Partition from Windows 7.

Windows can't read the Linux partition, but Linux can sure read Windows' partition. The easiest (I think) way would be to have the actual files and folders live on the Windows side and either access them directly from inside Linux or use Symbolic Links to make them look like they're located in your /home directory.


About Symbolic Links:

Say that you have all your music in C:\Users\BillyBob\Music and you want to be able to access it in Linux by just going to /home/BillyBob/Music. You would do this from the Linux command line:

ln -s /media/Windows/Users/BillyBob/Music /home/BillyBob/Music

A slightly silly question, but what if I have a space in my windows link? My Music folder for example is 'C:/Windows/Users/BillyBob/My Music'.

A slightly silly question, but what if I have a space in my windows link? My Music folder for example is 'C:/Windows/Users/BillyBob/My Music'.

Not so silly. You'd need to escape the space using a backslash:

ln -s /media/Windows/Users/BillyBob/My\ Music /home/BillyBob/Music

Edited by Andrew, 16 February 2011 - 09:14 PM.

Honestly the best way of doing this is to set up a FAT partition and save your docs there. You can also setup apps like firefox so that you share 1 profile between both operating systems from that partition. This make is easy for windows and *nix to read/write without all the extra headache.

I found this way of a shared data partition simple to set up & easy to use:

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/35807/how-to-harmonize-your-dual-boot-setup-for-windows-and-ubuntu/