What's the best tool chain or single tool to transform a NTFS to ext[n] filesystem?

Question

I've decided to go Linux only, finally!

This also means that I have a bunch of disks still under NTFS.

I don't have spare space anywhere to transfer the files to and then just re-format the drive so I need a tool, or tool chain, to make it on the disk itself.

I imagine I could do it with some patience like this:

1. Defrag NTFS.
2. Shrink NTFS partition some percent.
3. Create ext[n] partition on left space.
4. Copy some files until ext[n] is full.
5. Shrink NTFS partition.
6. Grow etx[n] partition.
7. Copy files.

and repeat 5, 6 and 7 until it's all transferred.

It's a last resource path if I can't find any tool or tool-chain to do it automatically.

Answer 1

You can do the described steps using gparted, however, I'd advice you to think twice about it. When fiddling with partitions one should be 100% sure to have a working and up-to-date backup ready because there is a low but significant chance that something goes wrong. When you have such a backup, it is probably easier to just reformat and copy the backup back to disk. If you don't have (which is risky in itself), I wouldn't take the risk.

Answer 2

From what you say I think you have more than one hard drive, and each might have more than one partition. This doesn't directly answer your question, but do you really have to convert them all?

Linux handles NTFS quite well, so access to your old files will be no problem. You can also configure those partitions to be automounted easily.

Using Linux with a permission-unaware filesystem has its advantages (especially if you use it alone and/or intend to setup a multiple-boot system).

A typical Linux installation will need from 2GB to 5GB, and believe me a 5GB installation is rather full-featured. In your case it's easier to shrink a partition to make 10GB for Linux, and it doesn't even need to be at the beginning of your disk (shrinking the "right" of a partition is easier and faster and less risky than it's "left").

The Ubuntu installation CD provides an option to do this automatically, although I prefer to prepare the disk myself with gparted. Backups are always recommended, but if you can't afford it (and are willing to take the risk) then the risk is quite small.

Answer 3

I don't have spare space anywhere to transfer the files to and then just re-format the drive so I need a tool, or tool chain, to make it on the disk itself.

As others have said, fiddling with partitions has a small but significant risk of data loss/corruption. If you've copied half your data to ext3 and then either the shrink ntfs or enlarge ext3 has a problem, you lose half you data! The risk is small but the damage could be large.

If your data is valuable to you you should already have backups. But shrinking and growing partitions without a backup is just asking for trouble.

Hard drives are getting ever larger and cheaper. Go buy yourself a new one. (You're switching to Linux. You deserve it.) Unless you have a lot of data already you may be able to copy all your data onto the new drive. It might be wise to keep the old drives as a backup of your data.

If you have some really small partitions it may also be useful to burn the data to a DVD.

Answer 4

The problem is that you grow a file system from the end, not the beginning, so you can't really do what you're after.

Your best approach is to copy the contents of the partition to another device, verify it, and then destroy the NTFS partition before re-creating it as ext3. Then you can restore the data.

Answer 5

In theory convertfs might work (in one shot). I'm not 100% sure though, this depends on the Linux NTFS driver being able to create a sparse file.

Answer 6

The best tool I found for resizing ntfs, ever, was partition magic, and unlike gparted it could move the partition on either side. Unfortunately it was discontinued when Symantec acquired PowerQuest, so it might be difficult to find a copy, and its ext supports sucks (only because it hasn't been updated in years). I then recommend making your ext partitions before the ntfs partition, and use gparted to grow the ext partition, and partition magic to shrink the ntfs partition, from windows.