converting ntfs partitions to EXT3

[summer69]

Hay,

Yesterday I wanted to convert an ntfs partition into EXT3. 2 of my systems are running triple boot (jaunty, open suse and xp) When I started with Linux I had the largest data partitions formatted as fat 32 so both systems could approach them. Later on, I formatted them as ntfs . Now I use Linux almost exclusively. I therefore intend to format data partitions to EXT3 (no defragmentation like ntfs less movements of the read head) of course after backing up all files.
Situation on PC in question:
sda1: / jaunty
sda2: extended: boot (grub opensuse)
sda5: swap
sda6: / home jaunty
sda7: opensuse 11.1
sda8: ntfs partition
sda8 was so formatted (with jaunty in gparted) to EXT3 file after safeguarded.
Also modified: /etc/fstab
*
Code:

/ dev/sda8 / home / guy / data ext3 defaults 0 0

After the reboot the system could not find any boot device, apparently the opensuse grub had disappeared. With the jaunty livecd of ubuntu I put back grub to hd0 and the system returned to normal boot, although with menu.lst jaunty.
Is this normal if one formats a partition the boot loader also disappears or was it because grub was installed on sda2 (partition extend.) Open Suse was installed last, but grub cannot be installed on a logical drive.


The point of this story is that I want to do the same with my other systems (convert large data partitions from ntfs to EXT3) eg If grub is installed on sda1 and I format a partition in sdb2 (bv.sdb7) is something similar to be expercted ?

Sorry if Imake some language mistakes, I am used speaking Dutch

[hcvv]

IIam sorry to say so, but your info can not be true (you can e.g. not boot from an extended partition). Can you please copy and paste the output of

fdisk -l

here instead of trying to describe what you think it says. Same for

cat /etc/fstab

because you have to much white space in what you present here.
And please surround the pasted output with CODE tags (by selecting the part and clicking the # above). Like I did with the statements above.

And the output (of course copy and paste) of the appropriate

cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

[summer69]

For the moment I am running ubuntu on the system I talked about :
Output of fdisk -l :

Schijf /dev/sda: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes

255 koppen, 63 sectoren/spoor, 14946 cilinders

Eenheid = cilinders van 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Schijf-ID: 0xad2a8d35



 Apparaat Opstart   Begin       Einde     Blokken   ID  Systeem

/dev/sda1   *           1        2432    19535008+  83  Linux

/dev/sda2            2433       14946   100518705    5  Uitgebreid

/dev/sda5            2433        7295    39062016   83  Linux

/dev/sda6           14700       14946     1983996   82  Linux wisselgeheugen

/dev/sda7            7296       10879    28788448+  83  Linux

/dev/sda8           10880       14699    30684118+  83  Linux



Partitietabel-items liggen niet in schijfvolgorde.



Schijf /dev/sdb: 60.0 GB, 60040544256 bytes

255 koppen, 63 sectoren/spoor, 7299 cilinders

Eenheid = cilinders van 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Schijf-ID: 0x9c3dbf1d



 Apparaat Opstart   Begin       Einde     Blokken   ID  Systeem

/dev/sdb1   *           1        1435    11526606    7  HPFS/NTFS

/dev/sdb2            1436        7298    47094547+   f  W95 Uitgeb. (LBA)

/dev/sdb5            1436        3985    20482843+   7  HPFS/NTFS

/dev/sdb6            3986        7298    26611641    7  HPFS/NTFS

output of /etc/fstab :

guy@PC3:~$ cat /etc/fstab

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.

#

# Use 'vol_id --uuid' to print the universally unique identifier for a

# device; this may be used with UUID= as a more robust way to name devices

# that works even if disks are added and removed. See fstab(5).

#

# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>

proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0

# / was on /dev/sda1 during installation

UUID=91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a /               ext3    relatime,errors=remount-ro 0       1

# /home was on /dev/sda5 during installation

UUID=5c0babda-8031-4b24-8e35-0eccb5420f8e /home           ext3    relatime        0       2

# swap was on /dev/sda7 during installation

UUID=3c31bddd-9b68-4e68-befe-69c369a8e366 none            swap    sw              0       0

/dev/scd0       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0

/dev/scd1       /media/cdrom1   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0

/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0

/dev/sda8	/home/guy/data	ext3	defaults	0	0

Output of /boot/grub/menu.lst :

guy@PC3:~$ cat /boot/grub/menu.lst

# menu.lst - See: grub(8), info grub, update-grub(8)

#            grub-install(8), grub-floppy(8),

#            grub-md5-crypt, /usr/share/doc/grub

#            and /usr/share/doc/grub-doc/.



## default num

# Set the default entry to the entry number NUM. Numbering starts from 0, and

# the entry number 0 is the default if the command is not used.

#

# You can specify 'saved' instead of a number. In this case, the default entry

# is the entry saved with the command 'savedefault'.

# WARNING: If you are using dmraid do not use 'savedefault' or your

# array will desync and will not let you boot your system.

default		0



## timeout sec

# Set a timeout, in SEC seconds, before automatically booting the default entry

# (normally the first entry defined).

#timeout		10



## hiddenmenu

# Hides the menu by default (press ESC to see the menu)

#hiddenmenu



# Pretty colours

color white/red black/green



## password ['--md5'] passwd

# If used in the first section of a menu file, disable all interactive editing

# control (menu entry editor and command-line)  and entries protected by the

# command 'lock'

# e.g. password topsecret

#      password --md5 $1$gLhU0/$aW78kHK1QfV3P2b2znUoe/

# password topsecret



#

# examples

#

# title		Windows 95/98/NT/2000

# root		(hd0,0)

# makeactive

# chainloader	+1

#

# title		Linux

# root		(hd0,1)

# kernel	/vmlinuz root=/dev/hda2 ro

#



#

# Put static boot stanzas before and/or after AUTOMAGIC KERNEL LIST



### BEGIN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST

## lines between the AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST markers will be modified

## by the debian update-grub script except for the default options below



## DO NOT UNCOMMENT THEM, Just edit them to your needs



## ## Start Default Options ##

## default kernel options

## default kernel options for automagic boot options

## If you want special options for specific kernels use kopt_x_y_z

## where x.y.z is kernel version. Minor versions can be omitted.

## e.g. kopt=root=/dev/hda1 ro

##      kopt_2_6_8=root=/dev/hdc1 ro

##      kopt_2_6_8_2_686=root=/dev/hdc2 ro

# kopt=root=UUID=91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a ro



## default grub root device

## e.g. groot=(hd0,0)

# groot=91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a



## should update-grub create alternative automagic boot options

## e.g. alternative=true

##      alternative=false

# alternative=true



## should update-grub lock alternative automagic boot options

## e.g. lockalternative=true

##      lockalternative=false

# lockalternative=false



## additional options to use with the default boot option, but not with the

## alternatives

## e.g. defoptions=vga=791 resume=/dev/hda5

# defoptions=quiet splash



## should update-grub lock old automagic boot options

## e.g. lockold=false

##      lockold=true

# lockold=false



## Xen hypervisor options to use with the default Xen boot option

# xenhopt=



## Xen Linux kernel options to use with the default Xen boot option

# xenkopt=console=tty0



## altoption boot targets option

## multiple altoptions lines are allowed

## e.g. altoptions=(extra menu suffix) extra boot options

##      altoptions=(recovery) single

# altoptions=(recovery mode) single



## controls how many kernels should be put into the menu.lst

## only counts the first occurence of a kernel, not the

## alternative kernel options

## e.g. howmany=all

##      howmany=7

# howmany=2



## specify if running in Xen domU or have grub detect automatically

## update-grub will ignore non-xen kernels when running in domU and vice versa

## e.g. indomU=detect

##      indomU=true

##      indomU=false

# indomU=detect



## should update-grub create memtest86 boot option

## e.g. memtest86=true

##      memtest86=false

# memtest86=true



## should update-grub adjust the value of the default booted system

## can be true or false

# updatedefaultentry=false



## should update-grub add savedefault to the default options

## can be true or false

# savedefault=false



## ## End Default Options ##



title		Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic

#uuid		91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a

root		(hd0,0)

kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic root=UUID=91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a ro quiet splash 

initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic

quiet



title		Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-15-generic (recovery mode)

uuid		91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a

kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-15-generic root=UUID=91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a ro  single

initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-15-generic



title		Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-14-generic

uuid		91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a

kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-14-generic root=UUID=91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a ro quiet splash 

initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-14-generic

quiet



title		Ubuntu 9.04, kernel 2.6.28-14-generic (recovery mode)

uuid		91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a

kernel		/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.28-14-generic root=UUID=91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a ro  single

initrd		/boot/initrd.img-2.6.28-14-generic



title		Ubuntu 9.04, memtest86+

uuid		91e4787e-e18f-49a9-a167-c6f1b806e75a

kernel		/boot/memtest86+.bin

quiet



### END DEBIAN AUTOMAGIC KERNELS LIST



# This is a divider, added to separate the menu items below from the Debian

# ones.

title		Other operating systems:

root





# This entry automatically added by the Debian installer for a non-linux OS

# on /dev/sdb1

title		Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

rootnoverify	(hd1,0)

savedefault

makeactive

map		(hd0) (hd1)

map		(hd1) (hd0)

chainloader	+1



###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###

title openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.29-0.1

    root (hd0,6)

    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.29-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_6Y120P0_Y45AGDZE-part7 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_6Y120P0_Y45AGDZE-part6 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a

    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.29-0.1-default

I will post the same outputs when I rebooted to opensuse
I am quite sure I installed opensuse last on sda7 and got the error message I could not install grub on a logical partition. I cannot quite prove this since I re�nstalled grub with the ubuntu livecd on sda1

[summer69]

Hay,

Same outputs in opensuse :

linux-m9ks:~ # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14946 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xad2a8d35

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2432    19535008+  83  Linux
/dev/sda2            2433       14946   100518705    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            2433        7295    39062016   83  Linux
/dev/sda6           14700       14946     1983996   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7            7296       10879    28788448+  83  Linux
/dev/sda8           10880       14699    30684118+  83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 60.0 GB, 60040544256 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7299 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9c3dbf1d

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *           1        1435    11526606    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2            1436        7298    47094547+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdb5            1436        3985    20482843+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb6            3986        7298    26611641    7  HPFS/NTFS

Output of /etc/fstab :

linux-m9ks:~ # cat /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_6Y120P0_Y45AGDZE-part6 swap                 swap       defaults             0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_6Y120P0_Y45AGDZE-part7 /                    ext3       acl,user_xattr        1 1
/dev/sr0 /media/dvd1 udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
/dev/sr1 /media/dvd2 udf,iso9660 ro,user,noauto,unhide 0 0
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0

output of /boot/grub/menu.lst :

linux-m9ks:~ # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Thu Aug 20 17:32:56 CEST 2009
default 0
#timeout 8
##YaST - generic_mbr
gfxmenu (hd0,6)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.29-0.1
    root (hd0,6)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.29-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_6Y120P0_Y45AGDZE-part7 resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_6Y120P0_Y45AGDZE-part6 splash=silent showopts vga=0x31a
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.29-0.1-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.29-0.1
    root (hd0,6)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.27.29-0.1-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-Maxtor_6Y120P0_Y45AGDZE-part7 showopts ide=nodma apm=off noresume nosmp maxcpus=0 edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 x11failsafe vga=0x31a
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.27.29-0.1-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name:  openSUSE 11.1 - 2.6.27.23-0.1 (/dev/sda1)###
title ubuntu 9.04 (/dev/sda1)
    root (hd0,0)
    configfile /boot/grub/menu.lst

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: windows###
title Windows
    map (hd1) (hd0)
    map (hd0) (hd1)
    rootnoverify (hd1,0)
    makeactive
    chainloader +1

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: floppy###
title Floppy
    rootnoverify (fd0)
    chainloader +1

Opensuse is on sda7, grub ubuntu on sda1 now

[hcvv]

OK, this makes the picture, as it is, much clearer. I still try to finf out what your real question(s) is(are). But I can try to make some comments in the hope that it helps you.

Where the * are in the fdisk -l listing that is the boot partition.

You see that the line in your Ubuntu /etc/fstab about /dev/sda8 is very different from what you gave earlier. Be carefull with typing spaces and copy/past is of course invented to ban typos.

An extended partition only is a container for logical partitions and you can not use it as a boot partition or put GRUB on it. So part of you story ii still bogus to me.

One of your questions is: can the conversion of a partition to another file system make a mess of GRUB? Answer: yes, but only if GRUB is on that partition. As yoou did things to sda8 I can not understand how it could do something to GRUB. You do not tell very much on how yyou converted sda8, but as you do not complain about data loss on sda8, I think that went OK. But I will in short tell you how I would do it, in case you did very different, may including something that destroyed GRUB. I would
. make a copy of all data by a tool like tar or rsync;
. umount /dev/sda8;
. mkfs an ext3 on /dev/sda8;
. edit the /etc/fstab entry of /dev/sda8 by changing the fs type to ext3;
. mount /dev/sda8;
. restore all data.
Part of this could be done by a helpfull tool like YaST, but it all comes down to the same things.

You should decide if you are going to use GRUB from Ubuntu or rom openSUSE. When Ubuntu was there and you boot from sda1 (the one with the *) then only the adding of the openSUSE entry (as it is there) is sufficient. On the installation of openSUSE no GRUB install to the MBR is needed IMHO. Though there might be a menu.lst, it is simply never used.

In short, when you convert a partition on sdb, I do not see how that can influence things on sda. But check if your order of things is about the same as the one I suggested above.

[summer69]

Thanks for the explanation.
I translated the words with google. Won't do that again, google makes more mistakes than I

I believe you when you say grub can't be installed in a extended partition but I am quite sure that the "*" was on sda2
How could I otherwise destroy suses'grub.
I am afraid it will remain a mystery.
To make things short, I formatted sda8 in ubuntu with gparted to EXT3
and my system could not find a boot device anymore. But anyway I have now grub on sda1, so when I do the same with a part on e.g.sdb it will not destroy my bootloader

[hcvv]

Go for it!

Ik wens je succes. En kom terug als er weer problemen zijn.

[summer69]

Go for it!

Ik wens je succes. En kom terug als er weer problemen zijn.

Bedankt beste Henk. Bij verder contact kan ik U dus gerust in het nederlands aanspreken. Dat is toch iets eenvoudiger om technische zaken te bespreken. Ik had al wel opgemerkt dat je in nederland woont maar ik dacht dat men hier op het forum liever engels als voertaal gebruikt. Tot binnenkort
Btw, ik werk al met ubuntu vanaf 06/2006 en probeer nu een halfjaar opensuse uit. Moet zeggen dat suse me zeer bevalt. Komt misschien ook omdat ik in ubuntu gnome gebruik en kde in opensuse.Eigenlijk een werelld van verschil.

[hcvv]

Beste summer69,

De voertaal is inderdaad engels hier hoewel soms in andere talen wordt gewerkt en men probeert dan toch (bv met babelfish) te helpen. Het is echter beter om het in het engels (hoe slecht ook en dat van jou is niet zo slecht) te doen. Dan kunnen meer mensen de discussie begrijpen, meedenken, meehelpen of er van meeprofiteren.

[summer69]

ok, english it will be. Many thanks and untill next time