Re: Formatting a partition for Windows XP
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.
Samba uses a linux partition locally not a windows partition. It
depends on linux to do the actual writing it just does the network
stuff. Notice that samba shares a directory, not a partition.
You need to make either the (linux) directory shared through samba (saw
a few walkthroughs on google a few days back). The remote computer
thinks its a windows directory for all it cares (just like you can
export any type of partition you like through nfs)
> >
> > > 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.
> >
> > > > 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?
>
> >
> > If its the exact size you can even backup the data using dd.
> >
> How would I do this over a LAN connection? Also, it's rather inefficient
> for periodic backups. A proper Windows backup program would be better.
>
> Just to drive home the point, there is no reason for the Linux system to
> have anything to do with the Windows XP partition, except to make it
> available to the laptop on the LAN.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Tom
>
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