Converting FAT32 to EXT3

Schnippzle · 28 Sep 2008 at 08:55

Howdy,
I have one hard drive in my fileserver which is FAT32. This hard drive is 500gig and only has about 60gig of free space and I wish to convert it to EXT3 without moving the data off the hard drive. I know in windows you can convert a hard drive from FAT32 to NTFS without shifting the data off it but can you do FAT32 to EXT3?

uk_viper · 28 Sep 2008 at 09:05

not that im aware of, but linux based systems can read and write to fat32

Schnippzle · 28 Sep 2008 at 09:17

uk_viper said:
not that im aware of, but linux based systems can read and write to fat32

Yep, Iv had the FAT32 drive in my linux system for a while now but have never had to use it to store large files until now.

masterluke · 28 Sep 2008 at 10:04

Schnippzle said:
Yep, Iv had the FAT32 drive in my linux system for a while now but have never had to use it to store large files until now.

I don't know of a non-destructive way to do FAT32>EXT3, but I know you can do a non-destructive FAT32>NTFS using windows. Maybe you would stick the disk into a windows machine and do that? NTFS supports v large files and ive been using read\write on NTFS using ubuntu for a while without any issues.

Schnippzle · 28 Sep 2008 at 10:25

masterluke said:
I don't know of a non-destructive way to do FAT32>EXT3, but I know you can do a non-destructive FAT32>NTFS using windows. Maybe you would stick the disk into a windows machine and do that? NTFS supports v large files and ive been using read\write on NTFS using ubuntu for a while without any issues.

Very good point. I may very well have to do that.......but that would mean I would have to use an IDE device in my main rig

Oh the horror!

psd99 · 28 Sep 2008 at 21:08

Hi I don't believe that you can go from FAT32 to EXT3.

The question is why do you wish to convert this?

Schnippzle · 29 Sep 2008 at 09:46

FAT32 isnt allowing me to store 4GB+ files on that partition.

psd99 · 29 Sep 2008 at 13:04

ohh of course a limitation to fat 32.

That is a swine I really think you will need another device to copy that over to.

Dj_Jestar · 29 Sep 2008 at 13:15

Yeah, you will need another device unfortunately.

As for FAT32 > NTFS, as far as I am aware (and am more than happy to be corrected) this is easily done so because the actual file pointers on both are the same, so the data doesn't actually get touched when converting, only the "management" of the filepointers differs. Unlike ext3 which uses different pointers all together.

JC · 29 Sep 2008 at 13:58

Well I know how you could do this, but it would take absolutely ages:

Download and create a Gparted LiveCD. Boot to it and create an EXT3 partition that is 60gb big using your free space on the Drive.

Reboot to linux and move 60gb worth of data from Fat32 to EXT3 on the same drive from one partition to the other.

Back to Gparted and resize the disk taking the 60gb now free on the Fat32 partition and shrinking it, extending the EXT3 partition by another 60gb.

Rinse and repeat until you've moved all the data off the Fat32 partition and can delete it in Gparted and resize the EXT3 partition to fill the disk.

In the same time that it takes to do this you could probably earn enough to buy another hard drive though!

Schnippzle · 29 Sep 2008 at 19:05

JC said:
SNIP!

I could do, but that would take aaaaages and I might as well go with ntfs tbh until I get another hdd in there. Cheers guys!