Hi all
I have a 20GB hard disk of which i have installed LINUX for 10 GB and the remaining 10 GB is of NTFS file system.
Know i have already used 9.99 GB of my linux partion know i want to merge the other partioin (which is of NTFS type ) with the linux partion so that i can get a total of 20 GB for linux.
Is there a way to merge two partions of different file systems
Please can any of u help me out to solve this problem.

Thanks and regards
Saravanan

PM will work, but only on an ext2 file system.

hi,
NTFS partition can be mounted as read-only
and there is also an NTFS read-write option in the newer kernels but i did see this --> (DANGEROUS)...

bye

Dear Anoop and Aussie,
First i would like to thank u fr reply to my forum.
Now my requirement is

I want to merge Linux(10 GB) and NTFS(10 GB) partition and make a single Linux partition .Is this possible with Partition magic or is there any other Linux utility

Regards
Saravanan

what you want to do is not the way to do it. the way you should do it is actually much easier. i'd recommend making the ntfs partition into the /usr partition, which will sovle all your problems really. IF you're using mandrake, ,you can simply use diskdrake to turn the ntfs into /usr. if not you need to:

use cfdisk to change ntfs type to linux (83 in list).

use mke2fs to format that partition (presumably /dev/hda1, but i know know)
then do...

mkdir /mnt/usr
mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/usr
find -xdev /usr | cpio -pdv /mnt
umount /dev/hda1

after this you'll have two copies of /usr, so you'll need to remove the old one, so change to runlevel 1 and rename the old /usr and mount the new partition:

init 1
mv /usr /oldusr
mkdir /usr
mount /dev/hda1 /usr

and that's it. everything is still undoableas far as the linux part is concerned, so you should be too worried. go back into X, and if everything works nicely then edit /etc/fstab and add the line

/dev/hda1 /usr ext2 defaults 1 2

which will make the new partition always be mounted.

if you are then happy it's safe:

rm -rf /oldusr

finished. I'm pretty sure that's accurate and complete, but i'd wait for someone else to comment on it as well. unspawn.. tricky..?

If you don't particularly want to keep the information that's held on the NTFS partition, then my advice would be to use something like cfdisk. You should first delete the NTFS partition, and then create a new one, of what ever type you want (ext2, ext3, reiser, JFS, and so on). Format it and then mount it in a helpful place.

If you're running Mandrake, then you can use DiskDrake, which to my mind is bloody marvellous (except that it seems to have a problem with keeping its tables in the right order ).

Back up the data (if any) and cfdisk it is good advice, however, I'd make it into a /home partition, that way if you ever need to reinstall the system you can do it with out loosing any of your user settings/data and downloaded programs, you can also back up /etc/ there and restore after a fresh install.

I am using Red hat linux 6.2

you should still be able to do this with diskdruid. I would advise, however, that you use cfdisk - it has almost (if not all) the power of fdisk but looks much nicer.

i'd certainly have a problem with letting diskdrake do something as low level as that, ESPECIALLY as it asks youif you want to move the partitions around, ah go on, let me please... please.... a bit unnerving, not sure why really.

/home would certainly be an easier partition to move, and it just depends on how you want to manage your partitions as to what you want where, personally i keep lots of ource in /usr/src... so use the space there...