[Sussex] partitions and the like ??

[John Crowhurst]

> Hi list,
>
> Currently, I have hda1(windows), hda2 /boot, hda3 /swap, hda4 is
> extended into hda5 /root and hda6 /home.
>
> The thing is, is that all my mp3's are currently in my /home and
> therefore inaccessible when I have to do something in windows.
>
> As far as I understand it, if I modify my partitioning so that I also
> have a /vfat (well it doesn't really matter what it's called) and format
> it as fat32, both windows and my gentoo install should be able to
> read/write (obviously I'd need to make the relevant entries to
> the /etc/fstab and the mount points for the gentoo).

You need to set the partition type to FAT32 with fdisk (probably a type c)
so that Windows will recognise it. Then you can format it as fat32 so that
Windows can write to it.

> Also, so I didn't screw up any data, I'm presuming that I'd have to make
> the partition as the last part of my /home (pinch some space), because I
> don't want to kill any data, am I right in also presuming that because
> linux doesn't usually take the "scatter gun" approach to writing data to
> the hard drive, that this is probably the best way of accomplishing this
> and shouldn't affect anything data wise ?

Take a backup of all essential data, as you will probably lose it. Some
file systems that Linux uses cannot be repartitioned easily.

Perhaps the easiest way to do this would be to remove partition /home
(hda6), and create two new partitions in its place. Create a new /home on
hda6, and /vfat on the newly created hda7. You may need to create a new
filesystem on /home (which you can recover from your backup) and you
definately will on /vfat (so that windows will see the files.)

> p.s. Hope everyone had a satisfactory crimbo ?

Not bad, glad its over!
-- 
John