NTFS Converting

darkmonk · External Since: Jun 26, 2006 Posts: 1

I've made the move from Windows XP to Ubuntu 6 LTS , I only have one
problem, I have a 200Gb HDD in a USB 2.0 External Casing, I currently
have it partitioned as 4x 50Gb NTFS drives, At the moment I can only
read from these partitions but not write, Is there a non destructive way
to convert these partitions to another format? I dont want to
lose the data

Many Thanks

grumpy · External Since: Feb 10, 2006 Posts: 3

On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 23:07:17 +1000, darkmonk <darkmonk.spm.TakeThisOut@westnet.com.au> wrote:

> I've made the move from Windows XP to Ubuntu 6 LTS , I only have one
> problem, I have a 200Gb HDD in a USB 2.0 External Casing, I currently
> have it partitioned as 4x 50Gb NTFS drives, At the moment I can only
> read from these partitions but not write, Is there a non destructive way
> to convert these partitions to another format? I dont want to
> lose the data

Simplest way is to buy another hard drive to back your data up onto. You can get a new 300 gig
drive for not much more than $130 these days.

will kemp · External Since: Jul 28, 2004 Posts: 193

On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 23:07:17 +1000, darkmonk wrote:

> I've made the move from Windows XP to Ubuntu 6 LTS , I only have one
> problem, I have a 200Gb HDD in a USB 2.0 External Casing, I currently
> have it partitioned as 4x 50Gb NTFS drives, At the moment I can only
> read from these partitions but not write, Is there a non destructive way
> to convert these partitions to another format? I dont want to
> lose the data

You can't convert the partitions without losing the data on them. You'll
need to copy the data off to somewhere else, then use fdisk to change the
partition type, then 'mke2fs -j' on each of them. (Unless, of course,
Ubuntu has a gui method of creating the file system.)

Grant · External Since: Aug 21, 2005 Posts: 460

On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 23:07:17 +1000, darkmonk <darkmonk.spm RemoveThis @westnet.com.au> wrote:

>I've made the move from Windows XP to Ubuntu 6 LTS , I only have one
>problem, I have a 200Gb HDD in a USB 2.0 External Casing, I currently
>have it partitioned as 4x 50Gb NTFS drives, At the moment I can only
>read from these partitions but not write, Is there a non destructive way
> to convert these partitions to another format?

Safe linux:
In 50GB chunks, do you have 50GB free in linux box? Shuffle data to
linux box, reformat partition in USB, write data out into your choice
of journaled fs, I use reiserfs3 for large partitions.

Not so safe:
Trust a third party tool to resize the NTFS, me not been there
under linux.

Safe payware:
Partition Magic okay under winxp, though it uses 10^6 x 2^10 to
define a GB. Had a play with this recently when a friend dumped
90GB of files from a firewire HDD recently to adjust NTFS partition.

Shrink current partitions to make room for new reiserfs, reboot
to linux, copy data, rinse and repeat. Is very slow 'cos of the
head movement required. Better off bouncing data via second HDD
if possible.

Since you're on USB, I suggest you look at temporarily mounting
the USB drive in a desktop box for the operation -- much faster
and safer, use other IDE cable master (end) so drive is /dev/hdc,
running two HDDs on same cable is asking for dataloss.

Grant.