@ Forester

Greetings.

My scenario is very simple, and I can probably refine my question to be simpler.

I have a 2G SD Card which acts as a LiveUSB, made from a Knoppix 6.X LiveCD.
I assume its format is vfat, readable by either Linux or Windows.

I have a nice Windows 7 set-up, which has three partitions: one is fat32, with OEM stuff on it for booting, service and diagnostics; two are ntfs: one of these is for Windows 7 and file space; the other is ntfs which stores Win7 system images for system backups (or restores, if you prefer). For the time being, I am the more concerned only with the Win 7 OS and some files I may have there.

If I boot Win7, I can mount the vfat Knoppix USB, save, modify, add-to and delete with no Win7 complaints. My usual instance is for saving and resurrecting knoppix-data.img, thereby shortening the time it takes to re-create a few months of accumulated tweaks. I occasionally save a current copy of the whole of the 2Gb USB files contents on Win7, call this File A. On rare occasions, I bring the similar contents of another 2Gb USB file over to Win7, call this
File B. Working within Win7, using its file manager, I delete knoppix-data.img from File B and restore this with a copy of the knoppix-data.img from File A.

I have done this a few times only, but apparently with no ill effects, at least so far. The ill effect I most fear is screwing up either the OS or the files on Win7.

The file manager operations on my vfat files, I assume, are translated to an ntfs environment, operated upon there using ntfs rules, and the results then re-translated back to the vfat medium.

I am aware of remastering as an alternative, an am not at this time interested in that avenue. I am most interested in getting a sound professional appraisal of the simple process I have outlined.

If it turns out there is a hazard that the vfat product may have some difficulties I haven't anticipated, I can live with that. That might be interesting.