linux&win share partition, disable write-cache?

[Duncan Lithgow]

Tony Prawiro wrote:

> of course each thunderbird has its own default mail folder
>
> i forgotten to mention that i manually moved the mail folder of both 
> thunderbirds into same partition:
>
> linux thunderbird data dir to /mnt/hda9/mails (i created a symlink of 
> .thunderbird/blahblahblah/theMailFolder to /mnt/hda9/mails)
>
> windows thunderbird data folder to D:\mails
>
> my aim is i want to receive emails both from windows and linux into 
> the exactly same folder so my mails are integrated into  single 
> partition, single directory.
>
> imho yes, it is some sort of write-cache issue. i imagined that both 
> OS is actually trying to write the same partition/file at the same 
> time... and that's not just happened in this case.
>
> another case:
> i tried to "touch" a new file to /mnt/hda9/ directory and the new file 
> won't visible by windows. i have to dismount and remount the partition 
> again (using Computer Management : remove drive letter, then assign a 
> new drive letter again) so the file visible by windows.
>
> Thank you.
>
>
>
> Date: Wed, 11 May 2005 15:29:39 +0800
> From: Edward Dekkers <edward at tripled.iinet.net.au>
> Subject: Re: linux&win share partition, disable write-cache?
> To: Tony Prawiro <tonyprawiro at gmail.com>,    For users of Fedora Core
>     releases <fedora-list at redhat.com>
> Message-ID: <4281B463.6070708 at tripled.iinet.net.au>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> Tony Prawiro wrote:
>
>>> dear linuxers,
>>>
>>> i have winxp home and core three installed on my laptop as dual boot;
>>> and i frequently switch from one into another and vice versa using
>>> hibernate.
>>>
>>> so i frequently hibernate my windows, then boot into linux, and then
>>> hibernate linux, and then resume into windows, and so on that the
>>> cycle repeated several times a day until i rebooted them...
>>>
>>> my problem is, i want both operating systems to access (read/write)
>>> the same partition (let's call it D: or /dev/hda9, the point is they
>>> are the same). but as i have experienced, this will corrupt my data at
>>> the partition when i switched operating system.
>>>
>>> to make things more clearly, the case is, i'm using thunderbird e-mail
>>> client both at windows and linux. i stored windows thunderbird mail
>>> folder to D:\mails and i stored linux thunderbird mail folder to
>>> /dev/hda9/mails. when i receive new mails from linux thunderbird, all
>>> seems okay. but when i hibernate my linux and switched into windows,
>>> thunderbird windows complains there is a file corrupt and suggests me
>>> to run chkdsk utility. and you can guess, chkdsk truncated my inbox
>>> and my mails are gone.
>>>
>>> i realized that sharing a partition for 2 OS is a bad practice. but is
>>> there really no solution? how about disabling write-cache on both OS?
>>> is it possible to "disable write-cache just for selected partition" ?
>>> how to do that in fedora?
>>>
>>> thank you for any solution, opinion, or idea.
>>>
>>  
>>
>
>> Is that even the answer?
>>
>> Do Linux and Windows Thunderbird share the exact same mailbox & 
>> configuration data?
>>
>> I don't think so. I really don't think this is a write cache issue.
>>
>> You need to speak to mozilla regarding the differences and see if you 
>> can work around it.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Ed.
>
>
I've had this working for a while but it gave me all sorts of headaches. 
I could swear i read an article about it on mozillazine - but now I 
can't find it. There are lots of other things that come up about it 
though. Have you tried a search before asking?

Duncan