Accessing NTFS partition

junwen · 03-01-2005, 07:45 PM

I have many things stored in a secondary NTFS drive when I was using Windows, in linux, I can only read from the drive but not write, is there anyway to write on it or make the drive into a linux partition and still maintain the files on that drive?
I am using SUSE 9.2 but going to try FreeBSD soon.

187807 · 03-01-2005, 08:49 PM

AFAIK, to date linux has only *limited* write support with NTFS. At least this is what I recall when doing kernel compiles.

A useful filesystem type for exchanging information and using information in both windows and linux is FAT32.

I'm not sure what windows OS you are using, but if it can utilize FAT32 then I'd consider converting the NTFS drive you mentioned to the FAT32 filesystem, which would have essentially full read/write support under both linux and windows.

I'm not a windows user (with a couple exceptions, but those are just for specific programs) so I can't comment on the availability of utilities that could convert NTFS to FAT32 without reinstallation/backup/restore/etc.

jschiwal · 03-01-2005, 11:04 PM

There is a project to add NTFS write capabilities, but I wouldn't rely on it. You probably want to backup the files, delete the parition and create a linux or fat32 partition.

I don't believe you can convert a partition from NTFS to Fat32 nondestrutively. If the drive is less than 1/2 full, One option is to shrink the partition, create a fat32 or linux paritition in the freed up space, move the files from the NTFS paritition to the new partition, delete the NTFS partition, and finally resize the new partition.

gflores · 03-01-2005, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by jschiwal
There is a project to add NTFS write capabilities, but I wouldn't rely on it. You probably want to backup the files, delete the parition and create a linux or fat32 partition.

I don't believe you can convert a partition from NTFS to Fat32 nondestrutively. If the drive is less than 1/2 full, One option is to shrink the partition, create a fat32 or linux paritition in the freed up space, move the files from the NTFS paritition to the new partition, delete the NTFS partition, and finally resize the new partition.

I was wondering... is it possible to do this from Linux? That is, resize a NTFS partition and convert it to FAT32? I know it's possible to do using a program like PartitionMagic in Windows, but is it possible doing it from withing Linux?

jschiwal · 03-03-2005, 03:33 AM

There is a program called 'parted' that will resize partitions, but not NTFS filesystems. When I installed Mandrake Linux on my laptop, the installation program resized the Windows XP partition non-destructively. I don't know if the SuSE partition manager program will do the same thing.

http://www.gnu.org/software/parted/m...ted.html#SEC25

dom_lochet · 03-03-2005, 05:04 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by jschiwal
There is a project to add NTFS write capabilities, but I wouldn't rely on it.

FYI, this project is called Captive: http://www.jankratochvil.net/project/captive/

I never tried it so I don't know if it works fine.

perfect_circle · 03-03-2005, 06:01 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by gflores
I was wondering... is it possible to do this from Linux? That is, resize a NTFS partition and convert it to FAT32?

Are you sure this is possible with partition magic. I think that you can only convert a FAT to NTFS but not the otherway...but i may be wrong

overlord73 · 03-03-2005, 06:13 AM

partition magic can convert ntfs -> fat32.
but a backup is always recommended!