filesystems - fat and ext partitions on same drive, readable by Windows

04
2013-08
  • phoffer

    I have a flash drive with a Debian installation on it, with lots of partitions (however many it makes if you choose all separate during installation). Anyways, what I want to do is create a FAT partition on the drive, that will be readable by a Windows computer if it is inserted.

    I have tried doing this using GParted from an Ubuntu live cd (I don't have a graphical environment installed, and I'm not that great yet with the tools available through bash). I have gotten a FAT partition created, but it is never accessible from Windows. I have tried making it the first partition, and I have also tried formatting that partition from within Windows.

    How can I accomplish this, keeping in mind that I already have a working system, so I'm not starting from scratch. (I only want the FAT partition readable by Windows, obviously.)

    Here is the output from fdisk:

    Disk /dev/sda: 8010 MB, 8010072064 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 973 cylinders
    Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x00020f09
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sda1   *           6          42      297202+  83  Linux
    /dev/sda2              43         493     3612673    5  Extended
    Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary.
    /dev/sda3               1           5       40131    b  W95 FAT32
    /dev/sda5              43         211     1349632   83  Linux
    /dev/sda6             211         298      696320   83  Linux
    /dev/sda7             298         326      227328   82  Linux swap / Solaris
    /dev/sda8             327         339       98304   83  Linux
    /dev/sda9             339         493     1236992   83  Linux
    
    Partition table entries are not in disk order
    

    sda3 is the partition I created, at the physical beginning of the disk. Prior to that change, sda1 started at the beginning.

  • Answers
  • njsg

    There is probably nothing wrong with the partition you created.

    The driver Windows uses for USB Mass Storage Devices has a limitation, making it so that windows only shows the first partition.

    I don't recall whether it only shows the very first partition in the drive or the first to show up in the partition table (also, I don't recall whether the entries in a partition table need to be in order...).

    So you just need to make sure the partition Windows choses is the FAT one, either by moving partitions around or by tweaking the partition table.

    (Sorry for not being able to provide a step-by-step guide, but I hope this still helps.)


  • Related Question

    partitioning - Are my Linux partitions going to be left intact if I choose to re-install windows by using the restore partition on my eee-pc 1000HE
  • John Christopher

    Here's what I did:

    1. Run the computer for the first time and followed the automatic os installation
    2. Formatted the second empty ntfs partition (70Gb)
    3. Installed ubuntu nbr (jaunty)
    4. Messed around with partition size to give more to ubuntu.
    5. Used the computer with dual-boot
    6. Installed win7RC on the xp partition

    Now I want to re-install xp.

    Is the ghost utility going to install it on the current xp partition or is it going to wipe out everything ?

    Here's my setup:

    Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
    Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x9358c633
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sda1   *           1        6374    51199123+   7  HPFS/NTFS
    /dev/sda2            6375       18813    99916267+   5  Extended
    /dev/sda3           18814       19451     5124735   1c  Hidden W95 FAT32 (LBA)
    /dev/sda4           19452       19457       48195   ef  EFI (FAT-12/16/32)
    /dev/sda5            6375        7394     8193118+  83  Linux
    /dev/sda6            7395       18448    88791223+  83  Linux
    /dev/sda7           18449       18813     2931831   82  Linux swap / Solaris
    

    enter image description here

    I think it should be alright because in a moment of drowsiness I once booted the PE partition and woke up when I saw a "restoring partitions" message instead of the usual boot messages :] and that only corrupted the ntfs partition without touching grub. But I might be very wrong.


  • Related Answers
  • Col

    So long as you stick to the existing ntfs partition you should be fine but you'll have to reinstall GRUB afterwards

    http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/ubuntu/reinstall-ubuntu-grub-bootloader-after-windows-wipes-it-out/

  • Area 51

    You can use the factory Ghost image on the 1000HE to reinstall the Windows XP partition without affecting your Linux partitions. Thankfully the recovery image on the ASUS 1000HE only seems to alter the active NTFS partition - it doesn't even wipe out the MBR (which I like cause I was bumming about having to reinstall GRUB)...

    Source: Personal experience with my 1000HE on multiple occasions - one of which was approximately 5 minutes ago. Stumbled across this thread randomly and thought I would share for any wanting something more "definitive*"

    *use at own risk :) Perhaps there is a chance ASUS included a different re-imaging process on your recovery partition, though I highly doubt it...