Migrating Windows to Linux

[axman505]

Hello,

We are considering migrating our Windows 2000 Server to some form of linux, most likely Redhat 9. I have done a little research on the net and it looks like people say that ext3 and ntfs are too different to be converted.

Is there anyway to migrate a ntfs drive to ext3 without the lose of data? Or will we need to back up all the data, reformat the drives, and then copy it back?

Thanks for your input.

 

[thedaver]

Ext3 is a journalling file system, very safe, fairly picky. I believe NTFS has some tricks of own that might even equate to journalling.

If you have the option of backing up the data and building the box new, I would do that for a number of reasons. I cannot even fathom the steps to converting a partition from ntfs to ext3, and would not, therefore, even attempt it. The time spent might be an unreasonable investment.

Someone else may say differently, but you've got a clear (relatively) easy path to migrating by repartitioning the drives. If you had the option of adding another drive/array, you could potentially copy off the data.

Finally, you are able to "technically" mount NTFS partitions under linux, but I cannot speak to whether they are writeable or ultimately trustworthy.

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[timsr]

You cannot write to an NTFS files system even if you remount it in rw mode. I am told it is either a bug in Linux or (I believe this to be more likely), a problem with security in NTFS file systems. NTFS can be mounted and files can be copied off however which may provide an avenue for the switch.

 

[bwilliam13]

It's not a bug. It's a kernel issue. The Linux kernel does not support writing to an NTFS partition. At present, it's an "Experimental" piece of functionality. It supports reading NTFS partitions just fine with the latest 2.4.22 kernel tho.

If you're trying to migrate user permissions and all that also, you're out of luck. You might as well bring both machines up in parallel and just try to configured the Linux server accordingly, then copy everything over from the Windows machine. You will still have to manually set file and directory permissions on everything.

 

[axman505]

the thing is, that we have several hundred gbs of digital video files, so it would be more convenient than copying everything back and forth. But we will do what we must.