Sharing Multiple Partitions, Windows and I64?

[mjy]

Hello:

3 Questions:

1) When installing, if I also want to install Debian or Ubuntu or Knoppix,
can any directories other than /home be on a separate partition so
that these all can share the same files? If so which ones?

2) I was unable to see my windows partition aka C:\ drive from Linux.
What do I have to do to enable this? Can I see/share any of Linux
partitions from XP or Vista?

3) I have a 64-bit Intel Dual Core 2. But I am using the 32-bit live
Fedora 7 Live CD. It seems to work (other than the lack of seeing
Windows disk). Would I benefit by switching to the 64-bit OS and
can I upgrade to 64-bit if I install 32-bit? Is it just the kernel that
is different?


Thanks in advance:
Michael

[markkuk]

1) Sharing /home between different Linux distros may lead to problems because of different versions of desktop envirenment and other apps that store configuration information in $HOME. You can safely share /tmp, /boot and swap (except if you use suspend-to-disk on a laptop you can't share swap).
2) Install ntfs-3g with "yum install ntfs-3g" and mount the Windows partition: http://www.ntfs-3g.org/index.html#usage
3) You can't upgrade from 32-bit to 64-bit, a full reinstall is needed. All applications are compiled with 64-bit support, not just the kernel.

[mjy]

Thanks for the answers to the first 2. Exactly what I was looking for.

For the third, good answer, but I am not sure if I should then
use the I64 version unless there is always going to be a 64-bit
package corresponding for every 32-bit one.
I suspect that the 64-bit programs will be a little faster or more
optimized for a 64-bit machine than the 32-bit distribution. But is
it worth using the 64-bit distribution?
Have any statistics been done to compare the two?
Will every I32 package work on a 64-bit pc?


Thanks in advance:
Michael