[TriLUG] ext3 driver for dual-boot shared files?

[Tom Roche]

summary: I spend most of my desktop time in linux, but must sometimes
use winxp. I currently keep sharable files in NTFS and mount that from
xubuntu, but have lost data. Would keeping the sharable files in ext3
and accessing them from winxp with an ext3 driver work better? or
should I try something completely different?

details:

I have used win* and cygwin forever, but recently switched to linux on
my daily-use TP, which had winxp preinstalled. I merely created
partitions in its freespace and installed xubuntu. I still must goto
winxp occasionally, notably for ArcGIS and the TP's ThinkVantage
utilities (neither of which appears to be available for linux), so I
left most of the data files on an NTFS partition, and mounted that
from xubuntu. This has worked pretty well for sharing applications
that I want on both sides (notably emacs and firefox).

... until today, when, on switching to winxp, it chkdsk'ed and blew
away some shared files. Some I didn't care about, some were in
c:\found*, some I restored from my weekly backup, but others are just
gone. So now I'm thinking about alternatives, e.g.  keeping the
shareable files on an ext3 partition, and installing an ext3 driver
(e.g. from fs-driver.org) on winxp. This seems sensible given that I
mostly access these files from linux, and might also make my
rsync-based backup easier. 

Has any one done this? If so, how did it work? Are there preferred
alternative drivers? Or should I be thinking about something
completely different.

TIA, Tom Roche <Tom_Roche at pobox.com>