As i mentioned a week or so back. I had to reinstall windows on my laptop so i decided to set it up as a dual boot. That's working out fine but every time I need a file made in Linux I have to copy it to USB drive and reboot to Windows and every time I need a file made in Windows while in Linux i have to put it on a USB drive and reboot. Sorry, that looked confusing even to me. Is there a way to share data between the two other than a USB stick?

ok. I'll experiment with that for a while.

You are correct. Linux can read NTFS partitions (but it will ask for admin privs to mount them) (on my Ubuntu, the Windows partition shows in several places as 'Local Disk'). As far as I now the Linux FS for NTFS has become reliable enough in write mode but you may want to avoid letting is loose on your master Windows partition. An possibly useful compromise is to divide your disk in 3, Linux (extfs), Windows (NTFS) and a partition easily shared by the two (FAT32).

The IT people at my employer discourage dual boot. They say, with some reason, that you tend to use always the same OS. They recommend using a VirtualBox in one of the OSes to run the other one. Of course VB runs a bit better under Linux than under Windows...

If it gives me any trouble I can always just remove it and go only Windows again. It was only an experiment anyway, I'm not sure I like it this way yet.

There is no problem mounting your Windows NTFS partition for read/write in today's Linux. If you are concerned, you can create a separate small NTFS partition for sharing that both Os's can access.

There are no problem to read the Windows parition from linux (also the request of permission may be deactivated )
The contary is no possible BUT nobody force you when using Linux to save your files inside the "Linux partition":
i have a "Document" partition that may be read from Ubuntu as from 7, i preferred NTFS because FAT 32 has some limitations (i.e. against too long files names ) and i prefer avoid bad surprises.

The good thing about a "Document Partition" is that allow also to reformat any other partition without need of a back up first (well there is always something to back up, as browser bookmark,custom fonts,some misplaced files...
but remain the difference to have to back up a whole HD or just a few hundreds MB.because documents ,images ,music and video are already safe in their own partition )

For reading the Linux Extended filesystems (ext2, ext3, or ext4) from Windows, there is the EXT2READ application. There are some other utilities which permit Windows to access ext2 and most ext3 partitions seamlessly (that is to say, any file open/save dialog will treat the Extended filesystem just like a Windows partition); however, to my knowledge none of these yet support the ext4 filesystem.

Linux-based distributions are readily able to mount a Windows filesystem (FAT16, VFAT, or NTFS) by adding an entry to your /etc/fstab file. Most distros will offer to do this automatically during installation; if not, doing so post-install is not that difficult and I should be glad to instruct if provided details on your setup.

As others have suggested, having a third, intermediate partition (which is basically what your USB pendrive is providing) will ensure that you don't accidentally corrupt the other system's files but as long as you pay attention to what you are doing, such is not necessary (especially if you stick to read-only access of the other system).

Good suggestion. A small ext3 partition will allow read/write from both Windows and Linux.

Btw - is you name really Saul Goode or is just short for "It's all good"?

I have no trouble mounting my Windows partition from my Ubuntu. I don't need to access it all the time so I don't want it to automatically mount. but the name is available in my Menu/Places. So when I DO need it, I simply click on it, and there it is! It's treated like a removable drive - sort of.