Reformat an NTFS disk to FAT32?

Jerry Feldman gaf at blu.org
Mon Apr 21 11:31:43 EDT 2008


One other issue that may have been mentioned is file permissions.
Copying file and directories to FAT32 or NTFS will lose all your Linux
permissions. You can use tar as previously mentioned which will
preserve owner and permissions. Or, you can format the USB disk as EXT3.
Note that there is a utility for Windows that can access EXT2/3 file
systems. But, whichever way you select to go should work. Just remember
that when installing a new system, make sure that you use the same
userid for each existing user.  What I do is to save the
old /etc/passwd and /etc/shadow. By doing this you also preserve the
saved passwords. 
I always carry a live CD with me as they have tools you can use to
recover Windows admin passwords. 


On Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:07:08 -0400
"Labitt, Bruce" <labittb1 at tycoelectronics.com> wrote:

> This is what I was going to try - save /home and /usr/local to usbdisk
> then clean install.  I have not had too much luck with upgrades beyond a
> decimal point.  
> 
> N.M ==> N.M+1 is ok, N.M ==> N+1.M, little chance for success.
> 
> Bruce
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: gnhlug-discuss-bounces at mail.gnhlug.org
> [mailto:gnhlug-discuss-bounces at mail.gnhlug.org] On Behalf Of Jerry
> Feldman
> Sent: Monday, April 21, 2008 7:49 AM
> To: gnhlug-discuss at mail.gnhlug.org
> Subject: Re: Reformat an NTFS disk to FAT32?
> 
> On Sun, 20 Apr 2008 23:28:57 -0400
> Bruce Labitt <bruce.labitt at verizon.net> wrote:
> 
> > Well SuSE 9.3 doesn't handle it gracefully.  I wouldn't be going
> through 
> > this grief if it did.  I am trying to get my user data /home archived 
> > onto the usb disk so I can install a new distro.
> > One of these days I can go doze free, but my current employment
> doesn't 
> > yet offer that opportunity. :)
> > Hence the FAT32 formating.
> 
> One solution is to boot a recent live distro, such as knoppix or
> ubuntu or Suse 10.3. All three handle ntfs. The issue is the kernel
> modules. Also, SuSE releases are upgradable. While I always prefer a
> clean install, I have performed upgrade installs on SuSE with no
> problems.  Normally, when I set up a system from scratch I always set
> up a separate /home file system so I can do a clean install without
> blowing away my /home (and /usr/local in my case). 
> -- 
> --
> Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
> Boston Linux and Unix
> PGP key id: 537C5846
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-- 
--
Jerry Feldman <gaf at blu.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
PGP Key fingerprint: 3D1B 8377 A3C0 A5F2 ECBB  CA3B 4607 4319 537C 5846
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