filesystems - fat and ext partitions on same drive, readable by Windows
2013-08
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.
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.)
Here's what I did:
- Run the computer for the first time and followed the automatic os installation
- Formatted the second empty ntfs partition (70Gb)
- Installed ubuntu nbr (jaunty)
- Messed around with partition size to give more to ubuntu.
- Used the computer with dual-boot
- 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
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.
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/
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...