I am running Mac OS X 10.4.1 w/VMWare with only minor issues, heres one I'd really like to know how to get around:

I have two HDs on my desktop,
1: Macintosh HD

and 2: Local Disk (with my Windows XP OS on it).

I can only read from "Local Disk", and I'd like to read and write.
How can I do this without loosing data?

Get a program for Windows called Norton PartitionMagic. Your problem is that the Windows disk is NTFS file system, which is not write-supported by Mac. Use PartitionMagic to convert it to FAT32.

What file system is your Local Disk using? If your hard drive is formatted using NTFS, OS X only supports reading, not wrinting to the drive/partition. The only way to get NTFS full read-write support on OS X right now is possibly do it the "WINE" way like this person did and use the Windows ntfs driver over an api emulation layer. Actually, since Darwine has been officially ported to Intel, this might very well be an achievable concept. Any suggestions?

EDIT: Yeah, if you really want to have read-write support, do what Eggman said.

Wow, dang you guys replied quickly!

I don't think I want to do that, isn't the maximum file size 4GB on a FAT32 HD?

I'd have to get rid of Mac OS X if I did that.

I'll just stick with my 6.0GB HD for now, when I get a new computer I'll make a 30GB FAT32 drive so I can place songs and Garangeband tunes on there, thanks for your help.

My Local Disk is NTFS.

I'm not going to try Darwine because PPC applications are extremely slow on VMWare.

All I use Mac OS X for is Internet/Chat. Windows XP for listening to music and my games.

Thank you.
If you don't mind, you can delete your Mac OS, convert to FAT32 and reinstall Mac. If you have FAT32 on your system, VMware automatically splits your drive into a number of 4GB files, then internally combines them.
The way Darwine works is by using parts of Windows (specifically, its internal structures) to emulate a program. It is done at near equal speeds, especially because Darwine is now universal. Do a Google search for Darwine to find the latest version.
Haha. I run Mac natively and wiped my Windows drive a long time ago!

NTFS is good for Windows, bad for everybody else. The exact standards for WRITING to these kind of volumes is a Microsoft trade secret.

The fact we can even read these partitions is by virtue of some very clever investigating of the individual byte codes and maybe some reverse engineering (which if discovered, MS will sue sue sue).

See how wonderful proprietary file systems are?

I still want to keep Windows XP on my computer because I want to play Battlefield 2, America's Army etc.

It will eventually be replaced with Windows Vista (heard Halo 2 for PC will require Vista).

I could just install Mac OS X with the 6.0GB HD and save the rest for windows, buy a 20GB external HD and convert it to FAT32 format.

Depending on what your needs are in terms of read/write capability, you might be able to get by with a USB flash drive. I use one by Lexar that works in OS X and Windows so I can work in MS Word regardless of what OS I'm using at the time.

If you have a large hard drive, you can use Partition Magic to shrink your existing Windows partition and create a third FAT32 partitition to tranfer files between Windows, Mac OS X, and just a bout any other modern OS you install on your computer. I used this back in the day to transfer files between my Mandrake Linux and Windows XP.

Ohh, yeah I forgot you could do that!!

I'll just do that.

I'll buy a 160GB HD with my computer, here's what I'll do:

Split into three partitions:

1: 80GB FAT32 Partition for Mac OS X
2: 20GB NTFS partition Windows XP
3: 60GB NTFS partition for Windows Vista

Sounds good? If I can still get all my old programs and files to work under Windows Vista, I'll just erase the 20GB NTFS WinXP partition and turn it into a 20GB FAT32 partition. That should work fine. I'll need to make sure my BIOs will allow me to do that, they probably will because I'd like to choose a good MOBO.