Topic awaiting preservation: Windows to Linux, the big switch.

Well I couldn't find a more appropriate forum. I am formatting my computer now, as i do every few months. right now I have 2 harddrives. One is a 40gig which holds windows and all the programs. The other is 80Gigs which holds windows as my backup. Right now when i format its super easy. I just put all files i need backed up on my 80gig then reboot, with winXP cd in and format the 40gig. What I'm wondering is if I switch to linux, will linux (lets say Knoppix) be able to see my backup 80Gig and still manipulate files on it (BTW the 80gig is NTFS filesystem). As well, say I dont like knoppix, and I devide to go back to windows. I know that linux creates a few partitions when it installs its kernal and such. Is it a pain in the arse to get all those partitions back to one? Will I have to use Fdisk to make them intop NTFS again? Can anybody tell me of an easy boot CD/disk program that lets me view and customize my partitions with no operating system?

Thanks

Marf

In Linux, I believe there is only read-access NTFS support (and if there is any write-access, it is highly experimental). NTFS is a filesystem that Microsoft has not been at all helpful in sharing information about. It won't be a pain to repartition, as long as you know how to do it. There are plenty of resources around.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=313348

So, in short, you might have to switch to fat32 if you want two-way read/write access. The good news is that if you install this http://www.fs-driver.org/index.html , you can access your Linux data from Windows.

Good luck.

There is NTFS read/write support in the kernel, but like Hebedee says, the write part is still pretty new.
You can also use the "Captive" method which uses Windows' own DLLs to read/write the data.

Linux doesn't require lots of partitions, either; you can have just one if you like. If you do create a lot of partitions, though, it's simple to get them back to one using Windows' partitioner on its install CD.

The only HowTo's I know of are rather specifically for Gentoo and might take some deciphering for Debian (Knoppix), but here they are:
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_Mount_MS_Windows_partitions_(FAT,NTFS)
http://gentoo-wiki.com/HOWTO_NTFS_write_with_Captive_approach

There are probably similar HowTo's specifically for Debian out there.

As for which CD, you'll just have to find one with the default configurations and programs you need. SystemRescueCd (http://www.sysresccd.org/) would probably do it, but it's basically commandline only.

Anyways, billions of useful pages at Google.com; if you want serious help while you do this, get on irc.freenode.net.

I've just setup my first dual boot with 2 harddrives, Debian Sarge 3.1 and XP.
See this: http://www.ozoneasylum.com/26342 for my running account of this adventure
(Don't be scared from that, it was fun and if you're not running WLAN it should be easy!)

Basically I've got this:
2 x 120 GB disks.
disk 1 : 60Gb WinXP NTFS + 60Gb Debian (4 ext3 partitions, just a choice in the installation sequence)
disk 2 : 2x30Gb fat32 formatted partitions, one for userspecific windows data and one for transfers from my LAN and from Linux<->Windows
To be setup on disk 2: partitions dedicated for Linux data

I choose to partition the second disk in fat32 sections in order to avoid write troubles under linux, a drawback was that XP's disk manager refused to allow me to create partitions larger than 32 Gb, higher and NTFS was needed
Since I keep "My documents" and all other data on another disk than the OS I didn't see the need to access NTFS from Linux.

There are some tricks needed to setup a fat32 partition so it's mounted in Linux on boot and to get it read/writeable for normal users. don't know about other distros but in Debian I needed to be root to mount it from the terminal and then the normal user in Gnome could only read, not write.

Basically I needed to add one line in /etc/fstab to fix it, I can look up exactly what and dig up a link where I found the info as I get home tonight.
I took a look at the links above and esp the first one is very clear and almost identical to what I did.

One difference though, in my install all support needed for fat32 was already in the kernel so that part wasn't needed for me. Check the section "Mount Options" for the stuff I'm talking about.

Personally I wouldn't go with knoppix, I tried it as a live cd a couple of times which made me decide that yes to Linux, no to KDE (personal preference totally) and I want the "real Debian".

The little I've run Debian up to now has sold me, the whole apt-get that retrieves and installs applications for you is brilliant and works really really well.

Cheers and good luck!
/Dan

(unbelievable, me helping with linux stuff... I must be turning into a true geek )

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{Proudly running OSX, Debian, WXP, W98, well not so proudly on the last 2...}-
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-
-{"Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.?}-

Hi again.
Before I start, this does not in any way support differentiated access privilegies to the windows partition from different linux users on the PC, I had no need for it so I havn't tried to do it.

Here is the link to where I found the info:
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread22358.html

A bit down I found a goldmine by the user "DMR" where he described the permissions
between Linux and Windows and how to set it up so it works.


Below I'll recap the steps I took to get it working.
First some groundwork...

To find the name of the partition I wanted to mount I looked in the Applications -> System Tools -> Device manager
I located the right harddisk and looked under the tab Advanced and the path was under the
key block.device (Note, that's valid in Gnome, don't know about KDE)

Now my basic steps to auto mount a fat32 partition so all local users can access it:

1. Open the terminal, login as su (gives you root powers, be careful!)

2. Create the folder where you want your windows partition
mkdir /mnt/<your_folder>

3. Set the permissions so all your users can access that partition
chmod 755 /mnt/<your_folder>

4. Test to mount the folder
mount -t vfat /dev/<your_partition> /mnt/<your_folder>

if no errors are shown you should now be able to browse the partition:
In terminal:
cd /mnt/<your_folder>
ls
and all the files & folders will be listed.

Now to get it auto mounted at boot and to allow users to write to it you need to edit a config file, all this is controlled from a file called fstab which resides here /etc/fstab

Still in terminal working as su:

cd /etc/
pico fstab

Now you have a simple text editor with the file open, at the end you add this:

/dev/<your_partition>	/mnt/<your_folder>	vfat	users,defaults,umask=000	0	0

(that's a tab for the large spaces)

press ctrl+o to write your changes to the file
check that it will write to the correct file
enter to save
press ctrl-x to exit

The next time you boot, the partition should be visible on your desktop and accessible
for read and write from your normal user.

As others will tell you, there are certainly different ways to do this,
this method worked for me though so I'm satisfied


Now how the bl**dy h*ll can I get the mac and the other windows machines to access this over my local network then? Activate File sharing on a folder to speak windows-language.
Now that's the next step and involves Samba and some more hacking in config files

Holler if you need more info on that, or go to http://www.aboutdebian.com/lan.htm and read...
That's where I found it. (and no, you didn't have to do every itty bitty step described to get a basic unprotected sharing of a folder running)

Cheers/Dan
(have I climbed one step on the nerdladder now? )

{cell 260} {Blog}
-{Proudly running OSX, Debian, WXP, W98, well not so proudly on the last 2...}-
-{ ?There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence. - Jeremy S. Anderson" }-
-{"Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.?}-