what to use to defrag fat 32 partition on Linux only machine?

Lakota · 06-21-2004, 02:09 AM

I have a pc that used to be dual boot, Win XP / Mandrake 10.0 with a huge fat32 partition for storing all my pics and MP3's. I got rid of Win XP a few months ago and am wondering if there is a utility in Linux for defraging my leftover fat32 storage partition.

TIA,
Lakota

linmix · 06-21-2004, 05:50 AM

So how big is huge? Anyway, why keep Fat partitions if you're not using windoze? ext2 ext3 reiser etc don't need defrag, so my advice would be to backup everything that's on your fat drive (not a bad idea anyway), convert it to something more useful (you choose) and put everything back.

SharpyWarpy · 06-21-2004, 07:07 AM

What I do is move all my files to another partition and format the drive then move all the files back. Of course, if you're gonna go to all the trouble of moving the files and moving them back again and you don't use Windows you might as well take Linmix's good advice and format the partition for ext2 or ext3 file system and you are done forever.

acid_kewpie · 06-21-2004, 07:16 AM

what about just using a dos boot disk? simple enough.

qwijibow · 06-21-2004, 11:54 AM

What is it that causes Fat32 partitons to become corrupt ?

is it the file system ?
or the way windwows handles the file system ?