Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id ; Fri, 20 Apr 2001 19:46:06 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id ; Fri, 20 Apr 2001 19:45:56 -0400 Received: from libra.cus.cam.ac.uk ([131.111.8.19]:31890 "EHLO libra.cus.cam.ac.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id ; Fri, 20 Apr 2001 19:45:48 -0400 Message-Id: <5.0.2.1.2.20010421003159.04a028f0@pop.cus.cam.ac.uk> X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.0.2 Date: Sat, 21 Apr 2001 00:48:11 +0100 To: Wayne.Brown@altec.com From: Anton Altaparmakov Subject: Re: Current status of NTFS support Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <86256A34.0079A841.00@smtpnotes.altec.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org At 23:08 20/04/2001, Wayne.Brown@altec.com wrote: >Where does write support for NTFS stand at the moment? I noticed that >it's still marked "Dangerous" in the kernel configuration. It is extremely dangerous. Never use unless you are desperate. It creates corrupt files and especially directories. It also cannot delete at all (not implemented). - If you do write you have to run ntfsfix utility on the partition after umount before rebooting into Windows which will let chkdsk run on next reboot which should fix all problems created by the driver. - ntfsfix is part of the Linux-NTFS project. You can download the source/source rpm or pre-compiled rpm from http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-ntfs/ >This is important to me because it looks like I'll have to start using it >next week. My office laptop is going to be "upgraded" from Windows 98 to 2000. Forget it. Windows 2000 NTFS is supported only read-only. The driver will refuse to mount read-write (unless you are using an out of date kernel in which case it will probably just destroy your partition!). I strongly suggest to use kernel 2.4.4-pre5 at least or a 2.4.x-acXYZ kernel (at least 2.4.2-ac something IIRC) as these kernels contain many important fixes. >Of course, I hardly ever boot into Windows any more since installing a >Linux partition last year. But our corporate email standard forces me to >use Lotus Notes, which I run under Wine. The Notes executables and >databases are installed on my Windows partition. The upgrade, though, >will involve wiping the hard drive, allocating >the whole drive to a single NTFS partition, and reinstalling Notes after >installing Windows 2000 . That means bye-bye FAT32 partition and hello >NTFS. I can't mount it read-only because I'll still have to update my >Notes databases from Linux. So how risky is this? Simple answer: you can't. 100% data loss is unfortunately guaranteed if you start using it like this, maybe not in one day, maybe not in two but eventually you will try to boot into Windows and find it doesn't exist any more... >Also, I'll have to recreate my Linux partitions after the upgrade. Does >anyone know if FIPS can split a partition safely that was created under >Windows 2000/NT? It worked fine for Windows 98, but I'm a little worried >about what might happen if I try to use it on an NTFS partition. It can't. You need to buy Partition Magic or similar utility to do this. There is AFAIK no free NTFS resizer available (yet!). The best solution for you is to ask really kindly (by them a beer?) to have your laptop installed with one partition which doesn't fill your entire disk (i.e. just ask them to make the partition whatever size you want) and to use the FAT-32 filesystem instead of NTFS. Windows 2000 is quite happy to do both of these. You could even save them the trouble and do the partitioning and formatting for them and just ask them to install Windows 2000 on your C: drive using FAT-32. Then pray they will oblige. Otherwise you will have to spend some money on partition magic I am afraid (or equivalent obviously). If you go for the repartition yourself approach you should be able to keep your current linux install. You can use GNU parted to resize you Linux partitions so you have enough space for Win2k (find it on ftp.gnu.org/gnu/parted/). Hope this helps, Anton -- Anton Altaparmakov (replace at with @) Linux NTFS Maintainer / WWW: http://sourceforge.net/projects/linux-ntfs/ ICQ: 8561279 / WWW: http://www-stu.christs.cam.ac.uk/~aia21/ - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/