partition file swap?

Discussion in 'Software' started by moominboy, Oct 31, 2005.

  1. moominboy

    moominboy Gigabyte Poster

    is it possible to swap files from an xp partition to linux partition?

    im thinking not as i can see my first hdd with xp installed on it but not browse, whereas i can browse the full partition on my 2nd hdd.

    anyone know of a way or is it just not gonna happen?
     
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  2. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    Yes you can. The partition types need to be compatible - and depend on which way you are going.

    Linux (and other *nixes) have available a reasonably reliable method of reading NTFS partitions. Writing is more difficult.

    Some more details will help to pin this down.

    Harry.
     
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  3. moominboy

    moominboy Gigabyte Poster

    can't really think of anymore details to provide harry.

    basically ive got a lot of programs, files etc, on my xp part. which i want to move over. now i know it's possible i'll start looking into it a bit more.

    cheers mate! :tongue
     
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  4. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    OK - I now know it is XP to Linux.

    Now I need to know file-system type on the XP end. I am assuming you will be doing this under Linux.

    If it is sourcing from NTFS then look for the 'beta' NTFS reader driver. If from FAT32 it should mount the partition easily.

    Harry.
     
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  5. Boycie
    Honorary Member

    Boycie Senior Beer Tester

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    Yes, i had a similar thought a while ago when i installed Ubuntu and stopped booting in to XP!

    To be honest as Harry said it seems Linux is more friendly to Windows than the other way round. Open office will open .doc files ........

    What i tend to do is use Ubuntu and keep things on re-writeable media asi don't know enought about file systems to use stuff on both without causing problems.

    I have an external Lacie drive which i could partition it half with NTFS and half with Linux but want to learn more first! Not only that, but to be honest Ubuntu has all i need and more. :biggrin
     
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  6. ffreeloader

    ffreeloader Terabyte Poster

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    If you are running the 2.6 kernel ntfs support is probably built into the kernel. All you need to do is mount the NTFS partitions using the /etc/fstab file.

    The ability to write to an NTFS partition from Linux is pretty limited. However, if you are just wanting to read from NTFS it's not a problem. Writing is limited to editing files but the files you edit have to remain the exact same size.

    As to who is the reason for this problem, well, you can look directly at MS. If they would cooperate at all with the open source community the NTFS problems could be overcome pretty easily by the developers, but they won't.

    The main problem is MS's closed source NTFS drivers.
     
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  7. moominboy

    moominboy Gigabyte Poster

    xp is ntfs harry, and just reading wouldn't be a problem, i just had the thought in my head of the os's being like a door to that partition so if linux is booted, xp is closed....?

    poor analogy i know but thanks for the help guys, thats what i'll be swotting tonight then! :tongue
     
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  8. hbroomhall

    hbroomhall Petabyte Poster Gold Member

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    As ffreeloader said - all you really need to do is mount the partition, and then the NTFS stuff will appear in your filesystem.

    It may be best to mount it read-only, or that may be the only option.

    Then all you need to do is use cp -p on the files to get them into the Linux files area.

    All this assumes that you have the NTFS reader installed. If not then you need to fetch it and install it.

    Harry.
     
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  9. moominboy

    moominboy Gigabyte Poster

    will do harry. cheers for the help peeps!

    :tongue
     
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