Hello,

I have a macbook pro (santa rosa) with Leopard, Vista and Hardy installed. I recently upgraded from Gutsy and this has stopped Vista from loading (I should be able to find a solution to that on these forums for the short term). To the point, I want to re-partition my hard drive and re install the three os's, with a fourth partition that can be used to store files, music, programs, etc. My aim is to have all of these files readily accessible from each operating system, with minimal fuss - I am hoping to be able continue bit torrent downloads from one system that were started in another for example. Another example is to have the web browser in each system use the same book marks. This brings me to the following questions:

1. What file system is best to use in the fourth partition? (holding all of the common files, etc) This is something I have had difficulty finding an answer to.

2. I understand that the swap partition for linux is not necessary (I have 4 gb ram) - I want to be sure of this.

3. Can programs from different operating systems work harmoniously with common files (see the bit torrent and web browser examples above), or is this just a dream? If so are there any resources that must be read to successfully attain this?

Cheers,

Dan