On Thu, May 06, 2004 at 04:35:24AM +0000, Tom Kuiper wrote: > > From bounce-debian-user=tbhk=DSNra.JPL.NASA.gov@lists.debian.org Wed May 5 16:33:40 PDT 2004 > ... > > On Wed, May 05, 2004 at 09:54:42PM -0000, Monique Y. Mudama wrote: > > > On 2004-05-05, Tom Kuiper penned: > > > > Greetings everyone. > > > > > > > > I would like to be able to back up my daughter's Window XP PE laptop > > > > to a secondary drive on my Linux (only) system. > > > > > > > > Question 1: Should I make an NTFS partition or something else? > > > > > > > Depends on what you want to backup. If only the personal files > > (probably what you should do) then get a mirroring program or a cd > > burner and then use whatever file system you like. > > What I had in mind, excuse my ignorance, was to have a Win XP partition on > my Linux system and to use samba to make it visible to the laptop. Then > I imagined doing a Windows file copy (or backup) from the laptop root > directory into the Windows partition on the Linux system. > > > > > I assume you mean on your linux system. Linux won't reliably write to > > > NTFS -- don't try to do so. > > > > > > > It mostly just won't. Under very serious limitation it will probably > > just corrupt the NTFS partition. > > So I hope that it is clear that I do not want to write to the NTFS > partition with Linux, only with Windows. By the way, when I make this > partition, is NTFS the right type? That's my the laptop says it has. Actually, it seems that you *are* writing to the partition with Linux. You have/want a "Win XP" partition on your Linux system, You use Samba to make this visible to the laptop, You then "write to it" from Windoze on the laptop... So what's actually happening is that Windoze sends the data to the Linux pachine via samba, and the Linux kernel writes the data to the disk. Windoze won't know what the native type of the Linux partition is; you can make it any type you like (excluding silly types :-) ) Similarly, the Linux-writing-NTFS limitation doesn't apply. > > > > > > Question 2: How can I format a filesystem that is 30 GB in size? > > > > > > > Make the partition 30GB size and format it. If you want it the same > > size as something else get a linux on cd run fdisk and check the exact > > specs of the partition. > > The question is how? "mkfs -t hpfs" or "mkfs -t smb"? > If I use hpfs, will it format correctly? Will samba be able to export it? > Will it be writable by a Windows client connected to the samba server? Why would you be wanting to use hpfs? Use a "normal" Linux filesystem, ext2, or if you want journalling, ext3 or reiser. Then export it via samba. Windoze will be able to write to it and won't know it's a Linux partition natively. -- Pigeon Be kind to pigeons Get my GPG key here: http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x21C61F7F
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