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qanopus 10-16-2002 05:37 AM

An idea for a great project
 
I was looking through some questions from people on this site. And one question that regularly comes up is, "how do I install linux on my computer when I have already installed windows XP ?" There are two way's of dealing with this problem, and both can be considered unacceptable. You could reformat the HD to fat, use fips to partition the HD, re-install XP on one partition and linux on the other. But this would delete all data on your HD. You could of course also use the quite expensive partition magic program. But this is'nt really ideal as well (like I said it's quite expensive, especially because you'l only use it once)
So why don't make an open source and free program with which you can resize NTFS partitions with ? I know this is quite hard, even writing to NTFS partition from linux is in experimental state. But there are two commercial program's out there that can do it. And if they can do it, so, in principle, can we ! Unless of course the got help from m$, but I don't know that.
So to make a long story short, lets setup a project to make an partition re-sizer for NTFS.
Any thought's

Half_Elf 10-16-2002 06:00 AM

just a little problem: Since Microsoft will never give out his technical info about NTFS , you will have to guess every move, every fs bits (there is 128 bit in NTFS!!!) you will have to do or use. This is why the support for writing on a NTFS fs is not complete yet (and may never be) and why it's not really possible to built a free, open source, NTFS resizer progs.

Sorry

qanopus 10-16-2002 07:17 AM

what about reverse-enginering existing commercial prog ? Is that illegal ?

qanopus 10-16-2002 07:19 AM

Where can I get known technical info on NTFS ?

Thymox 10-16-2002 07:41 AM

That's just the point... unless you work for MS, have someone on your development team that is on loan to you from MS, or pay them a silly amount of money, you're not gonna get tech. info on NTFS.

qanopus 10-16-2002 09:18 AM

Yes, but we (the open source community) are not completly blank on how NTFS works are we ? I mean, we can read NTFS partitions so we must know something.

bubba169 10-16-2002 09:58 AM

Basically Microsoft won't let it secerts out maybe it is because they are really open source maybe they are scared of open source taking some of the market share. Who knows, I do feel that MS would like to be the only software vendor & would love to dictate who makes what hardware, games, etc... Now as you said Schatoor we are open source & we can read NTFS so can this be done? I would like to say yes but I'm no software guru I don't know alot about software (hardware's my thing) but I do feel that one day NTFS will be overcome but having to guess at every bit of it will take alot of time & it will be a labor of love. I know that I don't have the knowledge to do it but I would beta test any software to help out.

Bubba169

acid_kewpie 10-16-2002 09:59 AM

so read ntfs.c in the kernel source. I would assume you have minimal coding and linux experience if you are not aware of the issues raised here, in which case, just buy partition magic ehh?

Mik 10-16-2002 09:59 AM

I'd say look through the source code yourself to see how far they got.

vi /usr/src/linux/Documentation/filesystems/ntfs.txt
vi /usr/src/linux/fs/ntfs/*

Vlad_M 10-16-2002 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Half_Elf
just a little problem: Since Microsoft will never give out his technical info about NTFS , you will have to guess every move, every fs bits (there is 128 bit in NTFS!!!) you will have to do or use. This is why the support for writing on a NTFS fs is not complete yet (and may never be) and why it's not really possible to built a free, open source, NTFS resizer progs.

Sorry

Typicall MS bullshit. This kind of thing makes my blood boil.

Lets make an inferior, restrictive OS. Then, lets make sure that the people who have to use it (cos they are forced to at work) CAN'T get to their info (or write it or whatever) from any other OS that they may prefer.

Crap. I hope that they burn.

acid_kewpie 10-16-2002 10:53 AM

and of course doesn't the fact that one doesn't exist already hint at something? not to put you off of course, there's certainly nothing "stupid" about what you're suggesting...

The_Butler_1999 10-16-2002 12:00 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Vlad_M
Typicall MS bullshit. This kind of thing makes my blood boil.

Lets make an inferior, restrictive OS. Then, lets make sure that the people who have to use it (cos they are forced to at work) CAN'T get to their info (or write it or whatever) from any other OS that they may prefer.

Crap. I hope that they burn.

:p :p :D ;)

Half_Elf 10-16-2002 05:05 PM

hummm Just thinking about ntfs.c file in the kernel, I think I'll get a look at it
It should be cool :p hehehe.
Nice idea acid :p

acid_kewpie 10-16-2002 05:11 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Half_Elf
hummm Just thinking about ntfs.c file in the kernel, I think I'll get a look at it
It should be cool :p hehehe.
Nice idea acid :p

I'll get the cocoa ;)

qanopus 10-17-2002 04:40 AM

My "idea" is ofcource pretty obviouse. I would think many people would have given thought about making an NTFS resizer prog. I was just hoping to light a spark in the community so that a development to somthing cool (and nessesery) would occure. Just like Linus did. But he ofcourse started the project first and then people joind in.
I'm just saying, if we happen to know enough about NTFS, lets try and crack the puzzel. I don't know how much is know about NTFS outside microsoft, I'l read up on that. And than I'l think about the entire again. I was hoping some one would read/think with me, thats all


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