Switching to Linux from Windows, continued
At risk of descending in to the realms of the LazyWeb I have another question to ask. I don't feel too bad about this because, hopefully, these entries will help others in the same position in the future. Maybe even prompt people in to doing the same as I am, ridding myself of Windows servers in favour of Linux.
The next (and last, I only have two) server in my firing line is currently used for two things: file-sharing and Domino. Now before you tell me, I know this is not encouraged, but I'm a one-man network so there's no real danger. Switching to Linux isn't a problem as far as Domino is concerned. The things that's troubling me is not knowing what will happen to the drive I use for network storage. It's backed up on tape but I have no idea how I'd cope with losing it all. It's Disk 1 in the shot below:
It's formatted with NTFS. My question is: can I install Linux on Disk 0 and leave the other drive as is, all files remaining, or do I have to somehow re-format the drive and move the files? Surely not! I've done some looking round though, on the forums and such, and found that there's a Linux NTFS project afoot. Trouble is, it means a read-only drive. Am I destined to always have at least one Windows 2000 server...?
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Hmmm... so you want to keep the files on Shar_Drive available, and accessible from your Linux server. Good question.
It's not an option to make a backup, convert disk 1 to extfs3 and then restore the files to this partition?
Erwin. Yep. I must, must, must keep all the files on that drive and have them available as a share. My life's work is on it ;o)
I suppose one option is to buy another drive of the same capacity and put it in my new Linux box. Then I can copy all the files over to the new Linux drive from the Windows macine via the network. Then, x days later, I can scrap the NTFS drive and the Windows machine. At least I end up with an extra drive in the other server.
Sound feasilbe?
Most probably this will not work, because there is no regular primary or extended partition on disk 1, but a MS propriatary "Simple Volume".
It's part of the concept of dynamic volumes introduced with Windows 2000 and to the best of my knowledge not compatible with any other OS than Windows 2000/XP/2003.
I believe you can move the files off..Configure Samba which is included in your Red Hat distrubution....,{Link} then move them back and they will be available from both Windows and Linux.
Jake,
I'd get the duplicate HD and temporarily backup your files there. Having done a little HD recovery after FATs get smoked, having the extra drive of equal or greater capacity, I can tell you, is a life-saver for recovering data in a scenario like this.
It's a worthwhile investment if to have one on standby should you need it later... or you could buy two SCSI drives and set up RAID so you don't have to worry so much about losing your life's work. :-)
Jerry. A few hours ago I ordered an extra HD. Same size but not same model. I assume that means no RAID?
My plan is to add the new HD to the Linux machine and then (slowly) copy all the files over the network between the two. Slow and painful but I can't see any other way of doing it...
Not neccesarily not... these chaps seem to have it figured out:
{Link}
There IS a faster way to copy the files... but you need a disk utility that will do sector copying for you... CPR is one such utility but it is expensive... Here's a link to some Shareware that does this (at least it appears to)
{Link}
You basically attach the two disks to the same IDE controller (assuming IDE) and (after booting to a cmd line) sector copy the drive, effectively mirroring it.
You'll want to use something like Partition Magic to change your NTFS back into a FAT32 before Linux can access it. Do this to the copied drive so you don't spoil your data. Same technique is used for disk recovery, in case one screws things up in the recovery attempt.
Jerry
Jerry,
your first link appears to point to a guide how to setup an IDE RAID. How does that relate to the porblem of a dynamic drive? Or has the content changed in the meantime?
Furthermore I was under the impression that current Linux distributions do provide read access (at least) for NTFS. I don't know for sure, though.
Two more links on the issue of accessing NTFS formated drives from Linux:
{Link}
{Link}
However, I still think that access to the drive as it is, is ruled out by the fact that no regular partition is present.
harkpabst,
Sorry, I should have been more clear. I was responding to Jakes supposition that ordering another drive meant setting up a RAID was out (and I should point out that I was supposing Jake is already using an IDE drive and had ordered a second). I dug up that link as it shows how one could set up RAID with IDE drives if one so desired. I may have misunderstood Jake as having IDE drives... if he has SCSI, obviously the link is useless. :-)
I am also under the impression Linux allows read access to NTFS... I was also here assuming Jake would want read/write access to his files, hence the suggestion to downgrade the partition.... brevity both eludes me and plagues me. Too much of the conversation gets stuck in my head, I'm afraid, while some of the disorganized bits should and wind up making it to print instead.
Paragon NTFS for Linux -enables native read/write access to NTFS partitions - is already since 2003 on the market.