I have a storage drive with alot of things I don't want to loose. It's formated as an Ext2 partition but XP computers won't recognize it. How do I convert Ext 2 to NTFS without dataloss? I need a tool such as Partition Magic, but with the capability to do what I just wrote.

AFAIK, you can't do this. Just like you can't convert fat32 to ntfs. What you can do though is efor to sourceforge and/or freshmeat and grab a program for reading/writing to EXT2 from NTFS or the program/kernel patch to allow you to access (read/write) NTFS from EXT2.

You said "XP computers" plural - does that mean you are trying to access it over the network? If so then the filesystem doesn't matter so long as the host computer has write access to the filesystem.

I'm pretty sure Partition Magic can do a pretty good job of doing that, it seems to do well with NTFS and FAT filesystems, and supports EXT2 and EXT3 I believe. But don't take my word for it, the best bet would be to either burn onto DVD's and CD's or store on a networked location.

partition magic can not do any conversion for filesystems already formatted in ext2 or ext3.

"shultzc" once told me of a utility that does allow you to read ext2 from Windows XP:
I haven't tried it though.

I have tried it, it works great. Very handy.

But that doesn't convert the ext2 to ntfs. As far as I know, that is impossible. You'll just have to back up your data, and reformat the partition.

Mary

Ok..
There might not be a reliable NTFS writer in Linux,
but how about writing to FAT (fat32?)? Isn't there reliable support for this format?

And in windows xp, if that was the case here, there is 3.party support for reading ext2 / ext3
and writing in native NTFS. So one would think it should be possible.

If you are trying to access your old Linux data on XP machine,
then there is a program called explore2fs , that kinda works like explorer : )
http://uranus.it.swin.edu.au/~jn/linux/explore2fs.htm

But still you can only read the files, not organize and delete them.
And if you have plenty of Gigs to save, you dont want to do CD backup : /

Thats exactly why I am out looking for a Convert program to. .
Either in win or lin.



I get by with explore2fs for my dual setup,
but now I have to move some partitions arround..




regards from Norway

You can write to FAT partitions from Linux just as safely as you can from Windows, the thing about FAT is that it generally just isn't as stable as NTFS or any journalized filesystem. I guess maybe it's equivalent is EXT2?

Thats what I seemed to recall.

Fat is old and well documented / explained

So then..
It should be super easy to make a little nifty cmd to convert from ext to fat??


Or maybe not that simple, or maybe just not yet..
: )



In 3 years time, Linux is my main desktop!
Until then, unfortunately, I am in need of win.

Love some of the new VJ tools from Linux.. The local MøB project, and vjay etc..
Just need a prog like after effects, and something like reason before I'm totally happy!

: )

Anyone got a clue?
Or know of how to get hands on the top notch apps for linux video?
Thinking about Fire / smoke, things for Irix etc.

Or most welcome, free software that stands the test?

You could try using a type of Wine and some windows programs, maybe a CVS version of Crossover's, although I've never gotten it to install (Never got to install their dependancies properly, oddly enough). Or maybe WineX, but I would try Crossover's Wine port, then try to install after-effects and your choice of programs. WineX is more for gaming, but it might be worth a shot if you can't get Crossover to install properly and don't want to purchase it monetarily

Yes. I was very keen on the wine projects.
They worked for a number of things, some to my supprise..
(one day my girlfriend was on the linux box, downloading songs over
WIN MX! Se has no clue to linux, she just found the progg on the net,
clicked the exe-file, and from there it just worked. AND yes I got to hand it to her..
WinMX under wine works great. One of the best downloaders to run on Lin! )
hehe : )

But unfortunately, neither wine, winex, transgamings wine or the
VMware thing can give the stability and speed running after-effects.
I have heard people can run AE, but never seen anything come out of that. hehe
Diablo 2 on both win and lin was nice though. : )

And the Nr 2 app I like is Photoshop. And I like versions after 5.5 too..
Sure, Gimp rocks, but I cant just stop using the prog I know in and out already.


I at some point also tried installing partition magic on wine \ VWware.
Didnt do me much good though.. : )
Closest thing I got to having control over partitions from Lin,
was a promising software gui to - Parted!

Was hoping there would be like a FAT(+ntfs?) convert plugin thing for this,
or for 7-tools or Partition magic.


And the video thing..

I am attending a workshop next month for a
Live Linux called, dyne:bolic.. (and FreeJ)

- 'Surf, stream, record, edit, encode and broadcast both sound and video, all
just in one CD you have simply to boot. '

I think im sure to pick up a little about linux and video from that class : )
Maybe that will ease my confusions a little : )

Cinelerra and jahshaka are workable,
but there is a long road ahead still I think.


There also is more type SGI and Irix software for video.
Some run on any *nix, but I know to little of the proggs,
cant afford them, use them, find them, crack them..

Where do People find the prima NIX software. (U know, for learning purpouses..) ??



Thanks!