[Sussex] partitions and the like ??

[John Crowhurst]

> On Sun, 2004-12-26 at 17:49 +0000, John Crowhurst wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
> Thought that'd be the way. I tried to do the partitioning amendments
> with Partition Magic, but I can't make it change the linux partitions,
> whether this has got anything to do with them both being logical
> partitions? I'm not sure

No, Partition Magic doesn't work with any other partition type than ext2
under Linux.

>> Take a backup of all essential data, as you will probably lose it. Some
>> file systems that Linux uses cannot be repartitioned easily.
>
> Hum! When I fire up the Partition Magic in windows, it's still reporting
> the partitions to be ext2, they're not, I've got them formatted as
> reiserfs.
>
> Which linux file systems can't be repartitioned easily?

Now reiserfs is a database and has to be shrunk using a special tool:

resize_reiserfs

So to reduce a partition by 30G, you would:

~# df /home
~# umount /home
~# resize_reiserfs -s -30G /dev/hda6
~# mount /dev/hda6
~# df /home

You should then see the partition shrink by 30GB. Once you have shrunk the
partition, you can delete it with fdisk and recreate it 30GB smaller (be
careful not to make the partition smaller than the size you have reduced
the filesystem by) and then make the /vfat partition.

Once you have done that, you will need to edit your fstab to include the
/vfat partition, and you need to mkfs.msdos (or mkfs.vfat - its the same
program really, explicitly declaring you want FAT32, or it will give you
FAT16):

~# mkfs.msdos -F 32 /dev/hda7

> I was hoping that I'd just be able to take 20 to 30 gig's off the end of
> the /home partition (which is a not inconsiderable 70 gig's in size) and
> then format the space as fat32 - Would this do the trick do you think -
> I know that this would position the fat32/vfat partition at the very end
> of the disc, but I shouldn't think that I'd need too worry about disc
> access speeds, I'm only considering this for my mp3's so it's not
> exactly what you'd call mission critical!

With any luck, with the partition resize, you shouldn't lose data.

--
John