Converting Fat32 Partition to a Linux Filesystem

I have a drive that I was using in both windows & linux, but I am rarely (if ever) in windows now. I was wondering if anyone could tell me how to convert my Fat32 partition into a Linux based one (i.e. EXT3). I'm would prefer a quick file system, because I'm dealing with large files on it.


Thanks a ton,

Billspork

Whatever you do, it's strongly advisable to take a backup of your files first. Make sure you can read the backup properly before messing around with filesystems.

I don't know of a simple conversion utility; but if you find one then the above still stands.

The easiest way is to delete the partition using the fdisk utility (in Linux), and create a new one in its place, with the ext3 filesystem. Then reformat it with mkext3 /dev/partition and copy the files back from the backup. Then change the line for that filesystem in /etc/fstab from vfat to ext3 (it's also a good idea to add the noatime and nodiratime options).

If you don't have the means to take a backup, then you might get away with using something like gnuparted to resize the vfat partition to as small as you can, then make a new partition on the rest of the disk to use as a file store, then change the original filesystem as above. You then have to move the files back over again and delete the other filesystem. You can then use gnuparted to enlarge the filesystem again. However, this is more likely to lose data or damage files, as there's more to go wrong.

Assuming your FAT32 partition is, say, hda5 then as root:

mkfs -t ext3 /dev/hda5

where ext3 is your new filesystem. You can use filesystems other than ext3, of course. xfs is apparently good for very large files, but first check if your distro's kernel supports it.

mkfs.ext3 /dev/hdXX

(The 'X's arent literals, replace them with the correct letter/number).
Also if you want a fast filesystem, do reiserfs. Its faster.

mkfs.reiserfs /dev/hdXX

thanks alot for the help!
most of the files aren't important, but I will be sure to backup the ones that are.


Thanks again,

Billspork

glad to help =]