Move vfat partition to a new disc
Hi, I've a vfat partition on my old disc that I need to move to a new disc and increase the partition afterwards. I'm thinking of using parted but didn't find the proper example yet. Using google I currently found very old Howto's. 1) Is using parted the easiest way to copy a disc partition? 2) If so, how? 3) If not, is dd the best way? Because the new disc is bigger, what to do with the boot partition? 4) Afterwards I need to increase the partition a bit so a new program for school that doesn't work using wine has enough discspace. I think I will use parted for that. Thanks for your help & have a nice weekend, Aschwin Marsman -- aschwin@marsman.org http://www.marsman.org
On Saturday, 8 October 2005 04:15, Aschwin Marsman wrote:
Hi,
I've a vfat partition on my old disc that I need to move to a new disc and increase the partition afterwards. I'm thinking of using parted but didn't find the proper example yet. Using google I currently found very old Howto's.
1) Is using parted the easiest way to copy a disc partition? 2) If so, how? 3) If not, is dd the best way? Because the new disc is bigger, what to do with the boot partition? 4) Afterwards I need to increase the partition a bit so a new program for school that doesn't work using wine has enough discspace. I think I will use parted for that.
Thanks for your help & have a nice weekend,
Aschwin Marsman
Is this a bootable partition (old Windows)? If yes, I would try copying it with dd and increasing it later, after I checked it's working - but be carefull of where you copy or it won't boot. If it's only data, why not simply create the new partition and copy the files on it? I never used parted on FAT (I usually use the Paragon Partition Manager for that) but I guess it should work well. Thierry -- The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself? Frank Zappa
On Sat, 8 Oct 2005, Thierry de Coulon wrote:
On Saturday, 8 October 2005 04:15, Aschwin Marsman wrote:
Thanks for your quick reply.
I've a vfat partition on my old disc that I need to move to a new disc and increase the partition afterwards. I'm thinking of using parted but didn't find the proper example yet. Using google I currently found very old Howto's.
Is this a bootable partition (old Windows)? If yes, I would try copying it with dd and increasing it later, after I checked it's working - but be carefull of where you copy or it won't boot.
It's XP that came for "free" (M$ tax) with the laptop. Is it sufficient to create a VFAT partition of the same size on the new disc?
I never used parted on FAT (I usually use the Paragon Partition Manager for that) but I guess it should work well.
I will try, and when it doesn't work it just frees diskspace ;-)
Thierry
Have a nice weekend, Aschwin Marsman -- aschwin@marsman.org http://www.marsman.org
On Saturday 08 October 2005 09.48, Aschwin Marsman wrote:
It's XP that came for "free" (M$ tax) with the laptop. Is it sufficient to create a VFAT partition of the same size on the new disc?
I doubt so. First, AFAIK, XP turns FAT to NTFS when first started - but maybe not always? If so, I don't know how parted handles NTFS. Second, if you just copy everything, it won't boot. It won't boot either if it does not consider to be the first and only primary partition (but as Windows knows nothing of ext2/3 you may have other Linux primary partitions). One thing I did to preserve such a "free" XP on a notebook was: - shrink the partition with some tool so that it can fit on a DVD - create a second partition with linux - booting from a live CD (Mepis or Knoppix for example) create an image of the partition (dd if=<source> of=/<path>/image) and burn it to a DVD getting it back and booting involved: - creating a partition and installing a bootable Windows (I used w2k for that) - copy the stuff back from the DVD with dd Not being a user of XP (I just tested if my flight simulator would owrk on the laptop) I don't know if there are other means to make a partition bootable for Windows. Thierry -- The problem with the world is stupidity. Not saying there should be a capital punishment for stupidity, but why don't we just take the safety labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself? Frank Zappa
On 10/8/2005 10:07 AM Thierry de Coulon wrote:
On Saturday 08 October 2005 09.48, Aschwin Marsman wrote:
It's XP that came for "free" (M$ tax) with the laptop. Is it sufficient to create a VFAT partition of the same size on the new disc?
I doubt so. First, AFAIK, XP turns FAT to NTFS when first started - but maybe not always? If so, I don't know how parted handles NTFS.
I nave had problems installing XP on a FAT32 Partition, as I hate NTFS, cos you cant write on it from linux (in a very safe way).
Second, if you just copy everything, it won't boot. It won't boot either if it does not consider to be the first and only primary partition (but as Windows knows nothing of ext2/3 you may have other Linux primary partitions).
Also XP remembers the partitions by " a sort of code" which is not copied when you just "cp *", but should be per dd. OJ -- [Unbreakable Vows] `Fred and George tried to get me to make one when I was about five.? [...] `Only time I've ever seen Dad as angry as Mum. Fred reckons his left buttock has never been the same since.? (Harry Potter 6)
On Sat, 8 Oct 2005, Johannes Kastl wrote:
On 10/8/2005 10:07 AM Thierry de Coulon wrote:
On Saturday 08 October 2005 09.48, Aschwin Marsman wrote:
It's XP that came for "free" (M$ tax) with the laptop. Is it sufficient to create a VFAT partition of the same size on the new disc?
I doubt so. First, AFAIK, XP turns FAT to NTFS when first started - but maybe not always? If so, I don't know how parted handles NTFS.
I nave had problems installing XP on a FAT32 Partition, as I hate NTFS, cos you cant write on it from linux (in a very safe way).
Thanks for the advice. I bought the new laptop disc today and decided to install XP on FAT from scratch first and SUSE 10.0 afterwards. I didn't give any problems. Have a nice weekend, Aschwin Marsman -- aschwin@marsman.org http://www.marsman.org
Am 08.10.2005 23:24 schrieb Aschwin Marsman:
Thanks for the advice.
I bought the new laptop disc today and decided to install XP on FAT from scratch first and SUSE 10.0 afterwards. I didn't give any problems.
Nice to hear that. OJ -- I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying. (Woody Allen)
participants (3)
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Aschwin Marsman
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Johannes Kastl
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Thierry de Coulon