Accessing files on a Mac from Windows in dual boot

Yes - i have and i use i VMWARE  but wanted to know about the functionalities of dual booting because virtualisation has its drawbacks, particularly when troubleshooting with networks - ie the Windows NIC gets allocated an odd IP address, but not just for that reason, i just wanted to see how it compares to dual booting.

Since they're on 2 different partitions your answer is no.  The other OS has not booted and therefore you have no access to those other files.

On a side note, if you change your NIC type in Fusion from NAT (private IP) to Bridge it will issue a local network IP.  This may only help you for part of your networking issues, but I always run in bridged mode because of that :)

If this were a pure Windows question, I would say to have 3 partitions.
1 for each OS and 1 for just data.
If you are storing your pictures and documents on the 'data' partition, they would be accessible by either OS.

The data partition would have to be FAT32 for both OS's to be able to read and write to it without the use of third party software.

Mac OS can read Mac Format, FAT32 and NTFS
Mac OS can write to Mac Format and FAT32, but not to NTFS

Windows can read and write to FAT32 and NTFS, but not Mac Format

Hmmm - all interesting stuff thanks stephen -  Younghv, if i were to make 3 partitions , which program do i use, still BootCamp? will it still be able to be read by the MAC?

I don't think you're able to do this natively within OS X.  I have a boot camp partition created and the only option for creating further partitions on an exisiting OS X partition is a MAC OS EXTENDED partition and FAT32 isn't an option.  Conceiveably, you could erase all partitions, then use something like partition magic to create a FAT32 partition (which will be shared.)  Then, run your OS X install as normal and then use boot camp to create the windows partition.  

Whoa Nellie!
Time for me to back off.
I don't even know what "BootCamp" is.
For all Windows-based computers, I use "Boot-IT NG" - which has been flawless for me and several of our top Hardware Experts.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm

If you read the tip at this page:  http://macwindows.com/winintelmac.html#bootcamp

you will see the trick to reading the Mac partition while booted from Windows is to install MacDrive 6 under Windows.

If the Win partition is FAT 32, you will be able to read and write to it while booted from OS X.

If the Win partition is NTFS, then you will need the freeware MacFuse installed on the Mac side:

http://www.lifehack.org/articles/lifehack/how-to-read-and-write-ntfs-windows-partition-on-mac-os-x.html

strung, that certainly is another option.  I've never used MacDrive under Windows, so I'm assuming it's safe to attach the partition without Windows trying to intialize it?

I don't understand what you mean by: so I'm assuming it's safe to attach the partition without Windows trying to intialize it?

See also:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10315168-1.html

Geez - this all sounds long winded, i wish my clients would stick with Windows instead of moving to Macs because its in fashion (Trust me, its not for the better reasons!) - though i appreciate all your comments!
i may resort to having an external USB drive with all the documents to which the mac could connect to in either Mac or Windows mode. Both should be able to read it right ?

It's really not that complicated.

Out of the box, either OS can read the other's partition, but not write to the other partition.

The freeware software at my earlier link will allow the Mac OS to write to the NTFS partition, and MacDrive will allow Windows to write to the Mac partition.

Both can read as long as it's formatted as FAT32.  You can install macfuse to read NTFS but the MAC will read FAT32 natively.

If you do want a three partition solution, here is one:  http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=20071101065229169

But again, unless the third partition is FAT32 (the common format), it won't solve your problem.

Ok , thanks for this , final question - I use VMWARE myself and like its easy use, save for the networking i was on about, but will try the bridged solution for that - do you agree that is probably the best virtualisation software for the MAC?

Yes

Guys - thanks for all your help - i thought i awarded the points a couple days ago but got a reminder so sorry it seemed like i was ignoring you!