converting vfat to ext3 without losing data?

nuzzy · 07-01-2002, 01:29 PM

is this possible?? Wondering if anything similar to converting FAT to NTFS can be done in linux. I'd like to convert a windows drive to linux without losing my data.

Config · 07-01-2002, 01:39 PM

Hmmm... this is not as easy... you could tar the whole partition, copy it to another, convert to the other filesystem and put the files back on.
The problem is that in FAT, you don't have permission control. No file will be protected, unless you change permissions manually.
But I have never heard of any way to convert a partition with data on it. If there is a way, I would be interested as well!

jglen490 · 07-01-2002, 04:44 PM

If all that is on that FAT partition is data, then you can leave it alone, mount it in Linux as VFAT with read/write permissions and have your data available. If it has executables, then that's a different problem, but perhaps one that could be solved with a little WINE

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Novaflare · 07-01-2002, 05:27 PM

If you just want to put the data on a ext3 partition config's answer is the best high level answer. Otherwise you would need a utility like the one I'm building.

If you run across the sources for the file system basics and structures just give me a call. I'll use the information to build a utility to let you move files from one type of partition to another automatically and I'll get you a copy. I'm building a drive maintainence system and I need to experiment on file system types to build it.