Current status of NTFS support
Thanks to all who offered suggestions, both on the list and privately. Rather than answer them all individually, I'm going to respond in this one message.
Unfortunately the upgrade is not going to be done by me, but by our PC support team. Our laptops originally were set up with two FAT32 partitions: a small one for Win98 and applications, and a large one for data files. I used FIPS to carve off most of the large one for a swap partition and an ext2 partition. Now, because of the larger space requirements of Win2000, they're going to wipe out everything on the drives and start from scratch. They'll be doing all our laptops in a short period of time, and want to do all of them the same way.
Quoted 1 line
From everything I've been told here, it sounds like my best bet is to try and
talk them into replacing the two FAT32 partitions (which are contiguous) with one big one and leave my Linux partitions alone. That way I won't have to deal with NTFS at all. Fortunately, one of the PC support guys ought to be sympathetic; he runs Linux at home and has asked me for advice in getting it set up on his laptop, too. I'll see if I can talk him into doing my machine differently from the others. I have to be careful, though; my Linux use at work is tolerated, but not (yet) encouraged, and I don't want to rock the boat too much.
Thanks again to everyone.
Wayne
Quoted 1 line
Thanks to all who offered suggestions, both on the list and privately.
Rather
Quoted 1 line
than answer them all individually, I'm going to respond in this one
message.
Quoted 2 lines
Unfortunately the upgrade is not going to be done by me, but by our PC
support
Quoted 1 line
team. Our laptops originally were set up with two FAT32 partitions:
a small
Quoted 1 line
one for Win98 and applications, and a large one for data files. I
used FIPS to
Quoted 1 line
carve off most of the large one for a swap partition and an ext2
partition.
Quoted 1 line
Now, because of the larger space requirements of Win2000, they're
going to wipe
Quoted 1 line
out everything on the drives and start from scratch. They'll be doing
all our
Quoted 1 line
laptops in a short period of time, and want to do all of them the same
way.
Quoted 2 lines
Quoted 2 lines
From everything I've been told here, it sounds like my best bet is to
try and
Quoted 1 line
talk them into replacing the two FAT32 partitions (which are
contiguous) with
Quoted 1 line
one big one and leave my Linux partitions alone. That way I won't
have to deal
Quoted 2 lines
with NTFS at all. Fortunately, one of the PC support guys ought to be sympathetic; he runs Linux at home and has asked me for advice in
getting it set
Quoted 1 line
up on his laptop, too. I'll see if I can talk him into doing my
machine
Quoted 1 line
differently from the others. I have to be careful, though; my Linux
use at work
Quoted 1 line
is tolerated, but not (yet) encouraged, and I don't want to rock the
boat too
Quoted 5 lines
much.
Thanks again to everyone.
Wayne
I would, if it goes all wrong, just copy all the stuff from NTFS over network
to your home PC (linux boot floppy, NTFS r/o mount), use a windoze boot floppy
to create FAT32 partitions, get a FAT32 NT boot sector from somewhere (or use
the Recovery Console which I find great) and copy it back over network. This should run without any serious problems.
-mirabilos