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I was reading this article - how do I Access or mount windows NTFS partition in Linux that mentions:

NTFS3G is an open source cross-platform, stable, GPL licensed, POSIX, NTFS R/W driver used in Linux. It provides safe handling of Windows NTFS file systems viz create, remove, rename, move files, directories, hard links, etc.

So, is it compulsory to have NTFS3G on a Live Linux CD so that when I am moving my files from one NTFS partitions to another NTFS partitions of a disk will ensure that it will not corrupt the files in the NTFS partitions?

Or in another words, does a Live Linux CD or DVD in general (without NTFS3G) provide safe handling of Windows NTFS file operations (such as moving files)?

Also does it apply on a certain version of NTFS too?

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The original code in Linux for NTFS partitions could change an NTFS partition, but required you to do a disk check after rebooting into Windows NT. I am not sure when this was, it might have been those in last millenium with SuSE 4. And not working from a live CD, but from a dual boot machine.

That changed with NTFS3G, where this is no longer necessary (praise the coders), hence the explicit mentioning of safe handling of NTFS file systems.

I am not sure, but I don't think live CDs were common before NTFS3G became mainstream, so I don't think you will find any that would corrupt NTFS to require a disk check. Any Live CD from 2008 onwards should probably be ok. (Question is why not take a recent Live CD to work with).

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  • So, may I assume that the Linux Kernel 2.6.27 and later should be probably ok as you mention that any Live CD from 2008 and year 2008 is where Linux Kernel version 2.6.27 is born?
    – user275517
    Dec 5, 2013 at 8:53
  • 2.6.27 is from October 2009. I am not sure which Live CD you want to use is based on that, and whether it in particular supports NTFS3G. But my question stays, why run a risk and not use a more recent Live CD, guaranteed to include NTFS3G.
    – Anthon
    Dec 5, 2013 at 9:16
  • Just to add to Anthon's answer: When I was dual-booting a while back, I modified files on the NTFS drive from Linux all the time with no problem. Although I've heard there was a theoretical possibility of issues, in practice (for me, anyway) it was rock-solid. Using kernel 3.2.0 and later...
    – Ash
    Dec 5, 2013 at 9:29

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