NTFS -> Ext3

progrock · 2008-09-05 17:02:48

Hi all,
I have an 80Gb drive that I formatted NTFS so that I could use it with Windows and Arch, each on their own 250Gb drive. But I haven't used windows in months, and my 80Gb storage drive is almost full - so I'd like to reformat the windows disk to ext3 and use it as my storage drive. My only concern is that I don't know which drive (windows or arch) GRUB is on. I don't want to reformat the windows drive only to discover that it was the drive that GRUB is on.

Also, what's a good utility to reformat the drive with?

Here's my fdisk -l:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x77139ea5

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1       30400   244187968+   7  HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 250.0 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000a7261

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1           5       40162   83  Linux
/dev/sdb2               6         267     2104515   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb3             268        3455    25607610   83  Linux
/dev/sdb4            3456       30401   216443745   83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x43def690

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *           1        9729    78148161    7  HPFS/NTFS

zyghom · 2008-09-05 17:48:07

show your /boot/grub/menu.lst
I doubt you might have grub on ntfs

progrock · 2008-09-05 17:50:36

Thanks for the quick reply, here's menu.lst:

# Config file for GRUB - The GNU GRand Unified Bootloader
# /boot/grub/menu.lst

# DEVICE NAME CONVERSIONS 
#
#  Linux           Grub
# -------------------------
#  /dev/fd0        (fd0)
#  /dev/hda        (hd0)
#  /dev/hdb2       (hd1,1)
#  /dev/hda3       (hd0,2)
#

#  FRAMEBUFFER RESOLUTION SETTINGS
#     +-------------------------------------------------+
#          | 640x480    800x600    1024x768   1280x1024
#      ----+--------------------------------------------
#      256 | 0x301=769  0x303=771  0x305=773   0x307=775
#      32K | 0x310=784  0x313=787  0x316=790   0x319=793
#      64K | 0x311=785  0x314=788  0x317=791   0x31A=794
#      16M | 0x312=786  0x315=789  0x318=792   0x31B=795
#     +-------------------------------------------------+

# general configuration:
timeout   5
default   0
color light-blue/black light-cyan/blue

# boot sections follow
# each is implicitly numbered from 0 in the order of appearance below
#
# TIP: If you want a 1024x768 framebuffer, add "vga=773" to your kernel line.
#
#-*

# (0) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux
root   (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/6b332cb6-cc56-4336-88af-dd9b978eade8 ro
initrd /kernel26.img

# (1) Arch Linux
title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd1,0)
kernel /vmlinuz26 root=/dev/disk/by-uuid/6b332cb6-cc56-4336-88af-dd9b978eade8 ro
initrd /kernel26-fallback.img

# (1) Windows
title Windows XP Professional
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
makeactive
chainloader +1

And, since I see those UUID's, here's my fstab:

# 
# /etc/fstab: static file system information
#
# <file system>        <dir>         <type>    <options>          <dump> <pass>
none                   /dev/pts      devpts    defaults            0      0
none                   /dev/shm      tmpfs     defaults            0      0


/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom   auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
/dev/cdrom1 /media/cdrom1   auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
/dev/dvd /media/dvd   auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
/dev/dvd1 /media/dvd1   auto    ro,user,noauto,unhide   0      0
UUID=4fbf6e3f-61b5-4bd8-873f-9faaeb661ed4 /boot ext2 defaults 0 1
UUID=6b332cb6-cc56-4336-88af-dd9b978eade8 / ext2 defaults 0 1
UUID=c6fa25b2-d9a8-4127-bcdc-d87f3bcda7e4 swap swap defaults 0 0
UUID=e80f38d3-7091-4e1a-8d0a-e550cae3e2e6 /home ext2 defaults 0 1
/dev/sdc1 /mnt/storage ntfs-3g rw,user 0 0
/dev/sda1 /mnt/windows ntfs-3g rw,user 0 0
/dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy vfat  rw,user 0 0

zyghom · 2008-09-05 17:54:15

title  Arch Linux Fallback
root   (hd1,0)

Linux on /dev/sdb - second disk (hd1)

title Windows XP Professional
rootnoverify (hd0,0)

Windows on /dev/sda - first disk (hd0)

second ntfs on sdc

Last edited by zyghom (2008-09-05 17:56:00)

progrock · 2008-09-05 17:55:56

So, wiping the first disk won't affect grub at all? I just need to remove the entry for Windows from menu.lst? I was just making sure that the computer was booting off the correct disk.

zyghom · 2008-09-05 17:57:03

why don't you just DISCONNECT both ntfs disks and check if linux starts ?

progrock · 2008-09-05 17:58:56

I guess I'll try that, I had figured that there might be a more elegant way to tell, but I'll give this a shot and get back.

zyghom · 2008-09-05 18:01:13

wait
disconnecting /dev/sda will renumber disks I think :-(

progrock · 2008-09-05 18:22:23

It jacked up for a second, but I just needed to reconnect in the right order. Anybody with any idea how to find out which disk GRUB is on? Or, how to install and configure GRUB on the linux disk (/dev/sdb/), so that I can wipe the windows disk (/dev/sda/) without having too much other trouble.

zyghom · 2008-09-05 18:30:15

to install grub is quite easy, but any time you reconnect disks you will have problem
unless you make sure you linux is ALWAYS on first disk (dev/sda)
then you can manipulate with you sdb and sdc
the best idea is to use live cd (can be even install cd of arch)
connect only linux disk (make sure on first cable from controller), reboot from cd, enter command 'grub' and then command: grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
this will tell you where it is
then:
root (hd0,0)
setup (hd0)

then correct /etc/fstab to make sure your partitions are where you say (disk by uid should help as well if partitions are untouched

you will not fail - in the worst case you will reconfigure as it was before

Last edited by zyghom (2008-09-05 18:30:54)

zyghom · 2008-09-05 18:32:28

Linux forgives mistakes sir - unlike other well_known_system :-)

zyghom · 2008-09-05 18:44:59

and btw: grub-find you can run even on your current configuration - this will tell you the current situation - just don't worry and experiment more, you will not fail

progrock · 2008-09-05 18:52:27

Ok, I type 'grub', I get into the grub console, or whatever this is, but when I: "find /boot/grub/stage1", I get "Error 15: File not found"

Edit: What is /boot/grub/stage1 and why I am looking for it?

Last edited by progrock (2008-09-05 18:54:35)

zyghom · 2008-09-05 18:58:51

try with stage1

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1
 (hd0,1)
 (hd0,5)
 (hd0,6)

grub>

because I have 3 systems
this is part of grub

Last edited by zyghom (2008-09-05 19:00:08)

progrock · 2008-09-05 19:02:14

Here's my output

grub> find /boot/grub/stage1

Error 15: File not found

zyghom · 2008-09-05 19:02:36

try reading a bit here: http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Grub

Zepp · 2008-09-06 15:47:20

Why do you want to move grub? If you have installed it to the MBR on the windows drive it should not matter. If say the windows drive were /dev/sda and it had some partition /dev/sda1 and you were just going to go mke2fs -j /dev/sda1 grub would still be sitting on the MBR of that drive and should still boot. The only problem is if your boot partition was the ntfs partition, but that's impossible anyway since as far as I know grub can't read ntfs .

Or if the drives changed ordering or you wanted to remove the windows drive, but I don't think that is the case? If I understand correctly you just want to wipe out the ntfs filesystem on that partition.

Last edited by Zepp (2008-09-06 15:48:27)

ScriptDevil · 2008-09-07 14:18:20

You will "not" lose grub unless you installed it to your local root.. Normally, one installs it to the mbr that doesnt get wiped out.

Zepp · 2008-09-07 15:31:40

ScriptDevil wrote:

You will "not" lose grub unless you installed it to your local root.. Normally, one installs it to the mbr that doesnt get wiped out.

Right, and he can't loose the config/menu.lst file since it obviously isn't on the NTFS partition. That's what I meant to say.

Arch Linux

#1 2008-09-05 17:02:48

NTFS -> Ext3

#2 2008-09-05 17:48:07

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#3 2008-09-05 17:50:36

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#4 2008-09-05 17:54:15

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#5 2008-09-05 17:55:56

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#6 2008-09-05 17:57:03

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#7 2008-09-05 17:58:56

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#8 2008-09-05 18:01:13

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#9 2008-09-05 18:22:23

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#10 2008-09-05 18:30:15

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#11 2008-09-05 18:32:28

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#12 2008-09-05 18:44:59

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#13 2008-09-05 18:52:27

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#14 2008-09-05 18:58:51

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#15 2008-09-05 19:02:14

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#16 2008-09-05 19:02:36

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#17 2008-09-06 15:47:20

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#18 2008-09-07 14:18:20

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

#19 2008-09-07 15:31:40

Re: NTFS -> Ext3

Board footer