/[clonezilla-sysresccd]/trunk/www/working/partitions.html
ViewVC logotype

Contents of /trunk/www/working/partitions.html

Parent Directory Parent Directory | Revision Log Revision Log


Revision 81 - (show annotations)
Wed Jul 14 07:58:30 2010 UTC (13 years, 8 months ago) by jyrki
File MIME type: text/html
File size: 52141 byte(s)
*partitions.html: fixed tag mismatch (caused problems with Chrome, Safari and Konqueror; didn't notice because doesn't affect Opera)
1 <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">
2 <html>
3 <head>
4 <link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://clonezilla-sysresccd.hellug.gr/clonezilla-sysresccd.rss">
5 <link rel="shortcut icon" href="favicon.ico">
6 <title>Clonezilla-SysRescCD - Documentation: Managing partitions</title>
7 <style type="text/css">
8 body { font-family: Arial, 'sans serif'; color: black; font-size: 12pt; background : url(null) fixed no-repeat; background-color: #333333; padding: 0; margin: 0; margin-top: 5px; margin-bottom: 5px; }
9
10
11
12 #header {position:relative; display: block; width: 980px; height: 121px;margin: auto; padding: auto; background-color: #D37624; background-image: url('images/header.png');clear:both;}
13 #header h2{ color: #FFE6BC; font-weight: bold; font-size: 2.2em; margin:0; padding:0; padding-left: 10px; padding-top: 7px; text-shadow: #333333 2px 2px 4px;}
14 #header h3{ color: #FFE6BC; font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.8em; margin:0; padding: 0; padding-left: 10px; text-shadow: #333333 2px 2px 4px;}
15 #header h4{ color: #FFE6BC; font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.2em; margin:0; padding: 0; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; text-shadow: #333333 2px 2px 4px;}
16 #header a {text-decoration:none;}
17
18 #contarea {display: block; width: 980px; margin: auto; padding: auto; background-color: #FFF2DD; clear:both;}
19
20 #linkline { width: 980px; height: 29px;margin: auto; padding: auto; background-color: #D37624; background-image: url('images/linkline.png');clear:both; }
21 #linkline a{float: left; color: #FFE6BC; font-weight: bold; font-size: 0.8em; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: #333333 2px 2px 4px; padding-left: 10px; padding-right: 10px; padding-top: 5px;}
22 #linkline a:visited{color: #FFE6BC;}
23 #linkline a:hover{color: #333333;}
24 #linkline a.here {color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}
25
26 #lastupdate {float: right; display: block; text-align: right; margin: 0; margin-top: -1.2em; padding: 0; padding-right: 15px;}
27
28 #rss { float: right; text-align: right; padding-top: 3px;}
29
30
31 #menu { float: right; display: block; width: 170px; margin: auto; padding: 15px; font-size: 0.8em; font-weight: bold; background-color: #FFE6BC;}
32 #menu h1 {color: #990000; font-size: 1.8em;text-shadow: gray 2px 2px 4px;}
33 #menu a,a:visited{ color: black; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal;}
34 #menu a:hover{ text-decoration: underline;}
35 #menu p{ margin-bottom: 10px;}
36
37 #content { float: left; display: block; width: 980px margin: auto; padding: 15px;}
38
39
40 #footer {display: block; width: 980px; height: 100px;margin: auto; padding: auto; background-color: #D37624; background-image: url('images/footer.png');clear:both;text-shadow: #333333 2px 2px 4px;}
41 #footer p{color: #FFE6BC; font-weight: bold; padding:15px; padding-left: 10px;}
42 #footer a,a:visited{color: #FFE6BC; font-weight: bold; text-decoration:none;}
43 #footer a:hover{ color: #333333; text-decoration: none;}
44
45
46 #content H1,H2,H3,H4{color: #990000; text-align: left;}
47 #content H2{margin-top: 2em;}
48 #content H3{margin-top: 1.5em}
49 #content H4{margin-top: 1em}
50 #content li { margin-top: 1em;}
51 #content a,a:active,a:visited{text-decoration: none; color: #4075CA; font-weight: normal;}
52 #content a:hover{text-decoration: underline; font-weight: normal;}
53 #content .hidden{ display:none; }
54 #content p,td,table,tr,li { font-family: Arial, 'sans serif'; }
55 #content .nav{margin-left: 0pt;}
56 #content .newcode{font-family : "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-weight: bold; background-color: #F2F2F2; border: solid 1px #DEDEDE;padding: 20pt;}
57 #content .note{margin-top: 30pt; margin-bottom: 30pt; text-align: left; background-color: #FFEFEF; border: double 3px; border-color: #FFD5D5;}
58 #content hr{color: Black; background-color: Black; height: 1px; border: none;}
59 #content .header-news{margin-top: 2em; margin-left: 25pt; font-weight: bold; color: #990000;}
60 #content .item-news{margin-left: 45pt; margin-right: 45pt;}
61 #content .otherpage{border: solid 1px darkgoldenrod; padding: 20pt; background-color: lemonchiffon;}
62 #content IMG {display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; }
63 #content .red{color: white; background-color: Red; font-weight: bold;}
64 </style>
65 <META NAME="Keywords" CONTENT="multiboot Multi Boot bootable cd rescue clonezilla sysresccd backup restore samba">
66 <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
67
68 </head>
69
70 <body>
71 <div id="header">
72 <H2>Clonezilla-SysRescCD</H2>
73 <H3>Documentation: Managing partitions</H3>
74 <div style="margin:0; padding: 3px; width: 980; position relative;">
75 <div style="position: absolute; left: 0px;"><H4>"myDate" - v "myVersion"</H4></div>
76 <div style="position: absolute; right: 0px;"><H4>Last update: 26/2/2010</H4></div>
77 </div>
78 </div>
79 <div id="linkline">
80 <a href="index.html">Home</a>
81 <a href="news.php">News</a>
82 <!-- <a href="features.html">Features</a>-->
83 <a class="here" href="doc.html">Documentation</a>
84 <a href="index.html#download">Download</a>
85 <a href="screenshots.html">Screenshots</a>
86 <a href="index.html#credits">Credits</a>
87 <a href="help.html">Help</a>
88
89 <div id="rss">
90 <a href="clonezilla-sysresccd.rss"><img src="images/rss-orange-11.png" width="30" height="14" border="0"/></a>
91 </div>
92 </div>
93 <div id="contarea">
94 <div id="content">
95 <a name="partitions-top"></a>
96
97
98 <!-- Intro -->
99
100 <H2 style="margin-top: 0px;"><a name="partitions-intro"></a>Intro <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H2>
101
102 <p>One of the most important maintenance tasks that can only be done by using a live CD is partitioning. No operating system allows partitioning the same disk where the OS itself resides. Trying to do so is like attempting to repair a car while its engine is turned on.<br><br>
103 <!--empty line-->
104 Of course, <b>SystemRescueCD</b> contains multiple programs that are related to partitioning. Most important are <b>GParted</b> (graphical partitioning program), <b>GNU Parted</b> (text-based partitioning program), <b>fdisk</b> and <b>sfdisk</b> (partition table editors) and various filesystem tools (like <b>ntfsprogs</b> and <b>e2fsprogs</b>).<br><br>
105 <!--empty line-->
106 This page contains some theory about partitions and filesystems, advice for choosing the right filesystem and a partitioning example by using <b>GParted</b>.</p>
107
108 <div align="center"><table class="note" border="0" cellpadding="20"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="images/important.png"></td><td>
109 While partitioning, an user error or a bug can damage your partitions.<br><br>Creating a disk image of the disk to be<br>partitioned beforehand is highly recommended.
110 </td></tr></table></div>
111 <div align="center"><table class="note" border="0" cellpadding="20"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="images/info.png"></td><td>
112 The following pressentation has been made using<br><b>SystemRescueCD v 1.4.0</b>
113 </td></tr></table></div>
114
115 <H2><a name="theory"></a>Some theory <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H2>
116
117 <H3><a name="partitions-partition"></a>What is a partition? <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
118
119 <p>A partition is a logical division of a hard disk created so that you can have different operating systems on the same hard disk or to create the appearance of having separate hard drives for file management, multiple users, or other purposes.</p>
120
121 <p>In Windows, a one-partition hard disk is labelled the "C:" drive ("A:" and "B:" are typically reserved for diskette drives). A two-partition hard drive would typically contain "C:" and "D:" drives. (CD-ROM drives typically are assigned the last letter in whatever sequence of letters have been used as a result of hard disk formatting, or typically with a two-partition, the "E:" drive.).</p>
122
123 <p>In UNIX-based systems, a partition is used to host the / (root) file system, and optionally the /opt, /usr and /home file systems. There may also be a swap partition, which doesn't host any file system.</p>
124
125 <p>Each operatin system provides some kind of tool to create and manage partitions. Examples of such tools are <b>fdisk</b> in DOS/Windows, <b>fdisk</b>, <b>sfdisk</b> and <b>parted</b> in Linux, etc.</p>
126
127 <H3><a name="partitions-extended"></a>What is the difference between primary, extended and logical partitions? <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
128
129 <p>Information about partitions is saved in so-called partition table in Master Boot Record. MBR itself is only 512 bytes in size, and only 64 bytes are reserved for partition table. That's not enough, and there are many workarounds to bypass limitations caused by the size, for example <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logical_block_addressing#LBA.2C_ATA_devices_and_Enhanced_BIOS" target="_blank">logical block addressing</a>. Extended partitions are another workaround.</p>
130
131 <p>Partition table can only store information about four partitions. If one has, for example, two GNU/Linux distributions on the same disk, both of them having separate root partitions, shared /home and shared swap, the partition number limit has been hit already.</p>
132
133 <p>A partition that is mentioned in the partition table is called primary partition. Because of the limit, one disk can only contain 1-4 primary partitions.</p>
134
135 <p>An extended partition fixes the problem simply by containing more boot records, called Extended Boot Records (EBR). Each EBR contains information about one logical partition and, if the extended partition contains multiple logical partitions, link to the next EBR. Thus, an extended partition can contain unlimited amount of logical partitions.</p>
136
137 <p>Extended partition contains only EBRs and logical partitions (and maybe unallocated space). Extended partition doesn't contain any filesystem and files can't be stored in it. Of course, logical partition can contain any filesystem (or be unformatted).</p>
138
139 <p>Logical partitions can always be used for storing data: any operating system can see logical partitions. GNU/Linux supports both multiple primary extended partitions and extended partitions within each other, while Windows supports only the latter. GNU/Linux distributions can be installed to logical partitions as well, but Windows requires a lot of tweaking. See <a href="http://www.goodells.net/multiboot/index.htm" target="_blank">this outdated guide</a>.</p>
140
141 <H3><a name="partitions-lvm"></a>What is LVM? <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
142
143 <p>LVM means "Logical Volume Manager". It allows creating volume groups on top of hard drives and logical volumes within volume groups. Logical volumes are NOT the same thing as logical partitions!</p>
144
145 <p>Volume groups can be created very flexibly: a volume group can allocate, for example, the first half of the first hard drive and the second half of the third drive. One can even create a massive volume group containing all storage he/she has.</p>
146
147 <p>The computer sees a logical volume as a partition: logical volume can be left unformatted or contain any filesystem.</p>
148
149 <p>LVM has many benefits: for example, if one has three hard drives 60 gigabytes each, he/she can create a 160-gigabyte partition for storing massive files and/or saving some disk space. In addition, logical volumes can be resized even when they're in use, so when creating logical volumes one doesn't need to worry if they're too small or big - if they are, he/she can resize them at any time.</p>
150
151 <p>However, resizing a logical volume doesn't resize the filesystem in it, so using a filesystem that can be resized in use (online resizing) is recommended. Very few filesystems can be shrinked online, but most GNU/Linux filesystems (including ext3/4, ReiserFS, XFS and btrfs) can be grown online. It's generally a good idea to leave unallocated space within volume group, so logical volumes can later be grown without shrinking any other logical volume.</p>
152
153 <p>Here come bad news for people who dualboot: Windows doesn't support LVM, it sees volume groups as unformatted partitions. If you try to access volume group within Windows, you're just prompted to format the partition. That prompt is annoying at best and dangerous at worst.</p>
154
155 <p>More information about LVM can be found <a href="http://sunoano.name/ws/public_xhtml/lvm.html" target="_blank">here</a> (almost everything about LVM in a single page) and <a href="http://www.sysresccd.org/Sysresccd-Guide-EN-LVM2" target="_blank">here</a> (official SystemRescueCD documentation about LVM).</p>
156
157 <H3><a name="partitions-filesystem"></a>What is a file system? <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
158
159 <p>A file system is the way in which files are named and where they are placed logically for storage and retrieval. The DOS, Windows, OS/2, Macintosh, and UNIX-based operating systems all have file systems in which files are placed somewhere in a hierarchical (tree) structure. A file is placed in a directory (folder in Windows) or subdirectory at the desired place in the tree structure.</p>
160
161 <p>The most important difference between filesystems is operating system support. Some filesystems are supported by all modern operating systems, but especially the newest filesystems are very rarely supported. Other important limits are maximum file size, journaling support and file permission metadata support.</p>
162
163 <p>The reason that file size limits exist is that all filesystems reserve a fixed number of bits for storing the file size. If the size of the file, in bytes, is bigger than the biggest number that can be stored in file size bits, the operating system must refuse to store the file at all in order to prevent data corruption.</p>
164
165 <p>File permission metadata means that the filesystem stores in the metadata of the file, among other things, information about who owns the file and what different users are allowed to do with the file. That metadata is especially useful in multi-user environment because it mostly prevents users from reading each other's files. Permissions can be bypassed, however.</p>
166
167 <H3><a name="partitions-journaling"></a>What is journaling? <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
168
169 <p>Ideally, data in a partition never corrupts. But, in the real world, there are power failures and operating system freezes. And if a computer is forcefully shut down while something is written to the drive, the write operation can't be finished. That can damage the filesystem and destroy any files in the partition.</p>
170
171 <p>Journaling partially fixes that problem by writing most changes to the disk twice: first to a special area called journal and, after that, to the filesystem itself. If power is lost while writing to the journal was in progress, the partial change is just ignored and never committed to the filesystem itself. If power failure or OS freeze happened while writing to filesystem itself, the write operation is finished by using the information in journal.</p>
172
173 <p>Journaling is always a trade-off between reliability and performance. In fact, the ext3 and ext4 filesystems support multiple journaling modes in order to allow the user to choose the optimal compromise. The most popular choices are <b>ordered</b> and <b>writeback</b>.</p>
174
175 <p>Both modes only write metadata changes to the journal before committing them: data itself is written directly to the main filesystem. The difference between the modes is that <b>ordered</b> mode guarantees that the data is written before the change is marked as committed. The difference may sound small, but in some cases <b>ordered</b> mode causes horrible performance. In Linux 2.6.30, the default journaling mode was changed to <b>writeback</b> - and it was quickly found out that <b>writeback</b> mode may cause massive data loss. See <a href="http://forums.raiden.net/viewtopic.php?p=155912#155912" target="_blank">this forum post</a> for details. Most GNU/Linux distributions are now using <b>ordered</b> mode as the default again.</p>
176
177 <p>In addition, on SSDs (Solid State Drives) and thumb drives write speed is much slower than read speed. They also have a limited number of writing cycles, so journaling reduces their lifetime. Thus, I (Jyrki) recommend against using journaling fileystems on such drives.</p>
178
179 <H3><a name="partitions-filesystems"></a>What are the differences between most popular filesystems? <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
180
181 <p>The following table quickly describes the most important differences between them.</p>
182 <!--not-on-txt-->
183 <table border="1">
184 <tr>
185 <th></th>
186 <th colspan="2">Operating system support</th>
187 <th></th>
188 <th></th>
189 <th></th>
190 </tr>
191 <tr>
192 <th></th>
193 <th>Under Windows</th>
194 <th>Under GNU/Linux</th>
195 <th>Maximum file size</th>
196 <th>Journaling</th>
197 <th>Permissions</th>
198 </tr>
199 <tr>
200 <th>FAT32</th>
201 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Native</td>
202 <td style="background-color: rgb(127,255,0)">Built-in</td>
203 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,0,0)">4 GB</td>
204 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,0,0)">No</td>
205 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,0,0)">No</td>
206 </tr>
207 <tr>
208 <th>NTFS</th>
209 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Native</td>
210 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,255,0)">Driver included</td>
211 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,255,0)">16 EB</td>
212 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Yes</td>
213 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Yes</td>
214 </tr>
215 <tr>
216 <th>ext2</th>
217 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,127,0)">3rd party driver</td>
218 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Native</td>
219 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,127,0)">16 GB-2 TB*</td>
220 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,0,0)">No</td>
221 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Yes</td>
222 </tr>
223 <tr>
224 <th>ext3</th>
225 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,127,0)">3rd party driver</td>
226 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Native</td>
227 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,127,0)">16 GB-2 TB*</td>
228 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Yes</td>
229 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Yes</td>
230 </tr>
231 <tr>
232 <th>ext4</th>
233 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,0,0)">No***</td>
234 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Native</td>
235 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,127,0)">16 GB-16 TB*</td>
236 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Yes</td>
237 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Yes</td>
238 </tr>
239 <tr>
240 <th>exFAT</th>
241 <td style="background-color: rgb(127,255,0)">Built-in (Vista/7)**</td>
242 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,127,0)">3rd party driver</td>
243 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">64 ZB</td>
244 <td style="background-color: rgb(255,0,0)">No</td>
245 <td style="background-color: rgb(0,255,0)">Yes</td>
246 </tr>
247 </table>
248 <!--end-not-on-txt-->
249
250 <!--txt-only-->
251 <pre>
252 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Operating&nbsp;system&nbsp;support
253 #############################################################################
254 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Under&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Under&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Maximum&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Journaling&nbsp;&nbsp;Permissions
255 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Windows&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;GNU/Linux&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;file&nbsp;size
256 #############################################################################
257 FAT32&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Native&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Built-in&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;4&nbsp;GB&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No
258 NTFS&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Native&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Included&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;16&nbsp;EB&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes
259 ext2&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3rd&nbsp;party&nbsp;driver&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Native&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;16&nbsp;GB-2&nbsp;TB*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes
260 ext3&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;3rd&nbsp;party&nbsp;driver&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Native&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;16&nbsp;GB-2&nbsp;TB*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes
261 ext4&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No***&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Native&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;16&nbsp;GB-16&nbsp;TB*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes
262 exFAT&nbsp;&nbsp;Built-in&nbsp;(Vista/7)**&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Driver&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;64&nbsp;ZB&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;No&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Yes
263 </pre>
264 <!--end-txt-only-->
265
266 <p>* Depends on cluster size<br>
267 ** <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955704" target="_blank">This update</a> adds exFAT support to Windows XP<br>
268 *** <a href="http://ext2read.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ext2read</a> makes accessing ext4 partitions possible, but it's not a driver and the access is read-only</p>
269
270 <p>Operating system support:</p>
271
272 <ul>
273 <li>"Native" means that the kernel supports the filesystem and the OS can boot from a partition using that FS.</li>
274 <li>"Built-in" means that the kernel supports the filesystem, but booting from a partition containing such FS is very difficult.</li>
275 <li>"Driver included" means that ntfs-3g (the driver that adds NTFS support to Linux) comes with most GNU/Linux distributions.</li>
276 <li>"3rd party driver" means that drivers to add filesystem support are available, but must be downloaded and installed separately. The ext2/3 drivers are <a href="http://www.fs-driver.org" target="_blank">Ext2 IFS</a> and <a href="http://www.ext2fsd.com" target="_blank">Ext2fsd</a> and the exFAT driver is <a href="http://code.google.com/p/exfat/" target="_blank">exfat</a>.</li>
277 <li>"No" means that there is no way to get read-write filesystem support.</li>
278 </ul>
279
280 <H2><a name="filesystems"></a>Filesystems <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H2>
281
282 <p>This section contains more information about most popular filesystems.</p>
283
284 <H3><a name="partitions-fat32"></a>FAT32 <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
285
286 <p>The initial version of FAT (File Allocation Table), now referred as FAT12, was designed for floppy disks. A FAT12 partition can only be up to 32 megabytes in size. After that, PCs equipped with hard drives were introcuded by IBM and the sizes of hard drives began growing. Microsoft answered the need by developing first initial FAT16 and then final FAT16.</p>
287
288 <p>FAT16 partition can be up to two gigabytes in size. In the middle of 1990s, that limit was becoming a problem. Microsoft pushed the limit up by updating FAT again.</p>
289
290 <p>FAT32 was first introduced with Windows 95 OSR2. Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 2000 and newer support FAT32 too. Linux kernel has supported FAT32 almost as long as Windows, but booting GNU/Linux from FAT32 partition is difficult and actually requires DOS to be installed in the partition as well. (<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FAT_filesystem_and_Linux#Installing_Linux_on_and_booting_it_from_FAT_volumes_using_umsdos" target="_blank">more information</a>)</p>
291
292 <p>FAT32 partition can be up to two terabytes in size. As of now (July 2010), there are hard drives that hit the limit, but don't exceed it. A single file within FAT32 partition can be up to four gigabytes in size.</p>
293
294 <p>Because FAT32 is, in the end, based on FAT12, it has very few features. It doesn't support file permissions, hard/symbolic links, encryption, compression, alternative data streams, journaling... It lacks support for nearly anything that defines a modern filesystem. However, due to very few features, FAT32 is very fast filesystem if it's not fragmented or on a Flash-based drive. Mind you, FAT32 fragments very fast.</p>
295
296 <p>Due to excellent operating system support, I recommend FAT32 for storing files which should be accessible in both Windows and GNU/Linux. FAT32 is also a good filesystem on Solid State Drives and thumb drives due to its performance.</p>
297
298 <H3><a name="partitions-ext2"></a>ext2 <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
299
300 <p>Ext2 or ext2fs is the successor of extfs (extended file system). Extfs didn't support separated timestamps for access, data modification and inode modification. In order to add support for them, and make the filesystem extendable, a new filesystem had to be created.</p>
301
302 <p>Ext2 was developed in January 1993, earlier than any other filesystem mentioned in this page.</p>
303
304 <p>Because ext2 is designed for GNU/Linux, support in Linux kernel was implemented immediately. The first Windows driver supporting ext2, <a href="http://www.ext2fsd.com" target="_blank">Ext2fsd</a> 0.01, was released on 25 January 2002. Both Windows drivers for ext2 work only on Windows NT operating systems (NT 4.0 up to Vista, 7 isn't supported yet).</p>
305
306 <p>The best property of ext2 is extensibility. The superblock contains information about which version the filesystem is (ext2, ext3 or ext4) and which extensions and features are in use. By using these pieces of information, the operating system or driver can decide whether or not mounting the partition is safe. That's the most important reason why most GNU/Linux distributions still use successors of ext2 as default filesystems.</p>
307
308 <p>Depending on cluster size, ext2 partition can be up to 2-32 terabytes in size. File size limit is 16 GB-2 TB.</p>
309
310 <p>Ext2 supports file permissions, both hard and symbolic links and extended file attributes. Encryption, compression and journaling are unsupported.</p>
311
312 <p>Due to lack of journaling support and existence of Windows drivers, I recommend using ext2 if you're going to install GNU/Linux on a SSD drive and want to be able to access files within Windows too.</p>
313
314 <p>However, lack of journaling support is the worst limitation of ext2. And what was done in order to get rid of the limitation?</p>
315
316 <H3><a name="partitions-ext3"></a>ext3 <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
317
318 <p>Ext3, the successor of ext2, was introduced in Linux kernel on November 2001. It supports journaling, can be grown online and optionally indexes large directories.</p>
319
320 <p>Ext2 IFS and Ext2fsd can mount ext3 partition as ext2 if the journal is empty. (If it's not, something is wrong - journal is always emptied when the partition is unmounted or the computer is shut down.) Thus, ext3 support under Windows is just as good/bad as ext2 support.</p>
321
322 <p>Partition and file size limits are the same as in ext2: partition size limit is 2-32 TB and file size limit 16 GB-2 TB, depending on cluster size.</p>
323
324 <p>Due to journaling support and existence of Windows drivers, ext3 is a good choice if you're going to install GNU/Linux on a mechanical hard drive and want to be able to access files within Windows.</p>
325
326 <H3><a name="partitions-ext4"></a>ext4 <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
327
328 <p>Linux kernel support for ext4, the successor of ext3, was marked stable code on October 2008. Ext4 contains multiple performance and stability improvements over ext3.</p>
329
330 <p>The most important new feature is extents. An extent is a contiguous area of storage that has been reserved for a file. When a process starts to write to a file, the whole extent is allocated even before the write operation begins. The idea is that even if the file is larger than expected, it doesn't fragment if it doesn't exceed the size of the extent.</p>
331
332 <p>Another important improvement is larger partition size limit: an ext4 partition can be even one exabyte in size. (An exabyte is a million terabytes.) In addition, a directory within an ext4 partition can contain up to 64 000 subdirectories (instead of 32 000, as in ext2/3) and timestamps are much more accurate. The file size limit is 16 GB-16 TB, depending on cluster size.</p>
333
334 <p>Unfortunately, Ext2 IFS and Ext2Fsd don't support ext4 and are unable to mount ext4 partition if extents are enabled. They can be disabled, but other improvements of ext4 aren't that important for most people - using ext2 or ext3 is just easier. It is also possible to keep extents enabled and browse the partition using <a href="http://ext2read.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Ext2read</a>, but Ext2read doesn't allow the user to write to the partition.</p>
335
336 <p>Due to its features, ext4 is a good filesystem on computers that only have GNU/Linux installed. Because journaling can be disabled, it is suitable for Solid State Drives and thumb drives too.</p>
337
338 <H3><a name="partitions-ntfs"></a>NTFS <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
339
340 <p>At the end of 1980s, IBM and Microsoft were developing OS/2 operating system. Both companies expected OS/2 1.1, released on 1988, to be the first popular operating system having a GUI, Presentation Manager. Even though it didn't become too popular during its first years, Microsoft didn't complain: Windows 2 didn't sell any better.</p>
341
342 <p>But on May 1990, Microsoft released Windows 3.0. Millions of copies of it were sold during its first year, and Microsoft began to believe that OS/2 had failed due to decisions of IBM. At autumn 1990, Microsoft stopped cooperating with IBM, recasted OS/2 3.0 as Windows NT and continued developing it alone, leaving IBM alone with OS/2.</p>
343
344 <p>Windows NT was targeted for network file servers, and there were already competition, most importantly Novell NetWare and OS/2. Among other things, the filesystem of Windows NT had to be fast, space efficient and reliable.</p>
345
346 <p>NTFS (New Technology File System) was introcuded with Windows NT 3.1. Newer versions of NTFS have been introduced with newer versions of Windows NT, and the filesystem is most likely still under development. All versions of Windows NT support NTFS, but support in Linux kernel was implemented as late as on December 2003.</p>
347
348 <p>NTFS is still, in my opinion, the most feature-filled filesystem around. It supports file permissions, both hard and symbolic links, encryption, compression, alternative data streams, journaling... There are very few features NTFS doesn't support.</p>
349
350 <p>Depending on cluster size, a NTFS partition can be up to 8 ZB-1 YB in size. (A zettabyte (ZB) is a milliard terabytes and a yottabyte (YB) a billion terabytes.) File size limit is 16 EB.</p>
351
352 <p>Windows 7 can only be installed on a NTFS partition, and Vista requires a <a href="http://www.computersplace.com/install-windows-vista-on-a-fat32-partition/windows-vista" target="_blank">work-around</a> if one wants to install it on a FAT32 partition. Of course NTFS partitions can be used for data storage as well: due to features of NTFS, I recommend doing so on mechanical hard drives on Windows-only computers.</p>
353
354 <H3><a name="partitions-exfat"></a>exFAT <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
355
356 <p>NTFS is a great filesystem, but due to its complexity and journaling, it's not suitable for Flash-based drives. Even Microsoft itself has recommended using FAT32 on removable Flash media.</p>
357
358 <p>However, FAT32 only allows files up to four gigabytes in size. The limit is already becoming too small, for example a DVD disc image can exceed that limit. In addition, FAT32 lacks file permission support. In order to get rid of these limitations, Microsoft took FAT from its grave and updated it one more time.</p>
359
360 <p>ExFAT (extended FAT), also known as FAT64, was introduced with Windows CE 6.0, on November 2006. Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7 and newer support exFAT too, and by installing <a href="http://support.microsoft.com/kb/955704" target="_blank">this update</a> Windows XP can be extended to support exFAT as well. GNU/Linux drivers are available too, but currently none of them are both stable and free. The best option seems to be <a href="http://code.google.com/p/exfat/" target="_blank">exfat</a>, an open-source driver in beta stage.</p>
361
362 <p>The partition and file size limits of exFAT are the same: 64 zettabytes. Another important improvement is file permission support that, oddly, is lacking in Windows Vista. In addition, a directory within an exFAT partition can contain up to 2 796 202 files (instead of 65 536, as in FAT32) and timestamps have become more accurate.</p>
363
364 <p>No operating system can be installed to an exFAT partition, so such partitions can only be used for data storage. Due to lack of journaling and support for huge files, exFAT is a good filesystem on Solid State Drives and thumb drives that are only used within Windows Vista and/or 7.</p>
365
366
367
368 <H3><a name="annex-b-list"></a>Partition list <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#annex-b-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
369
370 <p>The following table presents known partition types along with their IDs:</p>
371
372 <p class="newcode" style="margin-right: 0;">&nbsp;0&nbsp;&nbsp;Empty&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;80&nbsp;&nbsp;Old&nbsp;Minix<br>
373 &nbsp;1&nbsp;&nbsp;FAT12&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;81&nbsp;&nbsp;Minix&nbsp;/&nbsp;old&nbsp;Linux<br>
374 &nbsp;2&nbsp;&nbsp;XENIX&nbsp;root&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color="Green">82&nbsp;&nbsp;Linux&nbsp;swap&nbsp;/&nbsp;Solaris</font><br>
375 &nbsp;3&nbsp;&nbsp;XENIX&nbsp;usr&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<font color="Red">83&nbsp;&nbsp;Linux</font><br>
376 &nbsp;4&nbsp;&nbsp;FAT16&nbsp;&lt;32M&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;84&nbsp;&nbsp;OS/2&nbsp;hidden&nbsp;C:&nbsp;drive<br>
377 &nbsp;<font color="Red">5&nbsp;&nbsp;Extended</font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;85&nbsp;&nbsp;Linux&nbsp;extended<br>
378 &nbsp;6&nbsp;&nbsp;FAT16&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;86&nbsp;&nbsp;NTFS&nbsp;volume&nbsp;set<br>
379 &nbsp;<font color="Green">7&nbsp;&nbsp;HPFS/NTFS</font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;87&nbsp;&nbsp;NTFS&nbsp;volume&nbsp;set<br>
380 &nbsp;8&nbsp;&nbsp;AIX&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;88&nbsp;&nbsp;Linux&nbsp;plaintext<br>
381 &nbsp;9&nbsp;&nbsp;AIX&nbsp;bootable&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;8e&nbsp;&nbsp;Linux&nbsp;LVM<br>
382 &nbsp;a&nbsp;&nbsp;OS/2&nbsp;Boot&nbsp;Manager&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;93&nbsp;&nbsp;Amoeba<br>
383 &nbsp;b&nbsp;&nbsp;W95&nbsp;FAT32&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;94&nbsp;&nbsp;Amoeba&nbsp;BBT<br>
384 &nbsp;<font color="Red">c&nbsp;&nbsp;W95&nbsp;FAT32&nbsp;(LBA)</font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;9f&nbsp;&nbsp;BSD/OS<br>
385 &nbsp;e&nbsp;&nbsp;W95&nbsp;FAT16&nbsp;(LBA)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;a0&nbsp;&nbsp;IBM&nbsp;Thinkpad&nbsp;hibernation<br>
386 &nbsp;<font color="Green">f&nbsp;&nbsp;W95&nbsp;Ext'd&nbsp;(LBA)</font>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;a5&nbsp;&nbsp;FreeBSD<br>
387 10&nbsp;&nbsp;OPUS&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;a6&nbsp;&nbsp;OpenBSD<br>
388 11&nbsp;&nbsp;Hidden&nbsp;FAT12&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;a7&nbsp;&nbsp;NeXTSTEP<br>
389 12&nbsp;&nbsp;Compaq&nbsp;diagnostics&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;a8&nbsp;&nbsp;Darwin&nbsp;UFS<br>
390 14&nbsp;&nbsp;Hidden&nbsp;FAT16&nbsp;&lt;32M&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;a9&nbsp;&nbsp;NetBSD<br>
391 16&nbsp;&nbsp;Hidden&nbsp;FAT16&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ab&nbsp;&nbsp;Darwin&nbsp;boot<br>
392 17&nbsp;&nbsp;Hidden&nbsp;HPFS/NTFS&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b7&nbsp;&nbsp;BSDI&nbsp;fs<br>
393 18&nbsp;&nbsp;AST&nbsp;SmartSleep&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;b8&nbsp;&nbsp;BSDI&nbsp;swap<br>
394 1b&nbsp;&nbsp;Hidden&nbsp;W95&nbsp;FAT32&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;bb&nbsp;&nbsp;Boot&nbsp;Wizard&nbsp;hidden<br>
395 1c&nbsp;&nbsp;Hidden&nbsp;W95&nbsp;FAT32&nbsp;(LBA)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;be&nbsp;&nbsp;Solaris&nbsp;boot<br>
396 1e&nbsp;&nbsp;Hidden&nbsp;W95&nbsp;FAT16&nbsp;(LBA)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;bf&nbsp;&nbsp;Solaris<br>
397 24&nbsp;&nbsp;NEC&nbsp;DOS&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;c1&nbsp;&nbsp;DRDOS/sec&nbsp;(FAT-12)<br>
398 39&nbsp;&nbsp;Plan&nbsp;9&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;c4&nbsp;&nbsp;DRDOS/sec&nbsp;(FAT-16&nbsp;<&nbsp;32M)<br>
399 3c&nbsp;&nbsp;PartitionMagic&nbsp;recovery&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;c6&nbsp;&nbsp;DRDOS/sec&nbsp;(FAT-16)<br>
400 40&nbsp;&nbsp;Venix&nbsp;80286&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;c7&nbsp;&nbsp;Syrinx<br>
401 41&nbsp;&nbsp;PPC&nbsp;PReP&nbsp;Boot&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;da&nbsp;&nbsp;Non-FS&nbsp;data<br>
402 42&nbsp;&nbsp;SFS&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;db&nbsp;&nbsp;CP/M&nbsp;/&nbsp;CTOS&nbsp;/&nbsp;...<br>
403 4d&nbsp;&nbsp;QNX4.x&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;de&nbsp;&nbsp;Dell&nbsp;Utility<br>
404 4e&nbsp;&nbsp;QNX4.x&nbsp;2nd&nbsp;part&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;df&nbsp;&nbsp;BootIt<br>
405 4f&nbsp;&nbsp;QNX4.x&nbsp;3rd&nbsp;part&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;e1&nbsp;&nbsp;DOS&nbsp;access<br>
406 50&nbsp;&nbsp;OnTrack&nbsp;DM&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;e3&nbsp;&nbsp;DOS&nbsp;R/O<br>
407 51&nbsp;&nbsp;OnTrack&nbsp;DM6&nbsp;Aux1&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;e4&nbsp;&nbsp;SpeedStor<br>
408 52&nbsp;&nbsp;CP/M&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;eb&nbsp;&nbsp;BeOS&nbsp;fs<br>
409 53&nbsp;&nbsp;OnTrack&nbsp;DM6&nbsp;Aux3&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ee&nbsp;&nbsp;EFI&nbsp;GPT<br>
410 54&nbsp;&nbsp;OnTrackDM6&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ef&nbsp;&nbsp;EFI&nbsp;(FAT-12/16/32)<br>
411 55&nbsp;&nbsp;EZ-Drive&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;f0&nbsp;&nbsp;Linux/PA-RISC&nbsp;boot<br>
412 56&nbsp;&nbsp;Golden&nbsp;Bow&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;f1&nbsp;&nbsp;SpeedStor<br>
413 5c&nbsp;&nbsp;Priam&nbsp;Edisk&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;f4&nbsp;&nbsp;SpeedStor<br>
414 61&nbsp;&nbsp;SpeedStor&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;f2&nbsp;&nbsp;DOS&nbsp;secondary<br>
415 63&nbsp;&nbsp;GNU&nbsp;HURD&nbsp;or&nbsp;SysV&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;fd&nbsp;&nbsp;Linux&nbsp;raid&nbsp;autodetect<br>
416 64&nbsp;&nbsp;Novell&nbsp;Netware&nbsp;286&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;fe&nbsp;&nbsp;LANstep<br>
417 65&nbsp;&nbsp;Novell&nbsp;Netware&nbsp;386&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;ff&nbsp;&nbsp;BBT<br>
418 70&nbsp;&nbsp;DiskSecure&nbsp;Multi-Boot<br>
419 75&nbsp;&nbsp;PC/IX</p>
420
421 <p>The partitions you are most likely to see in use, are:</p>
422
423 <ul>
424 <li><b><font color="Green">HPFS/NTFS (ID = 7)</font></b><br>
425 This is the <b>Windows XP</b> partition, also known as <b>NTFS</b></li>
426
427 <li><b><font color="Red">W95 FAT32 (LBA) (ID = c)</font></b><br>
428 This is the <b>Windows 95 - 98</b> partition<br>
429 It is used in any kind of disk and large USB devices (1 GB and more)</li>
430
431 <li><b><font color="Green">W95 Ext'd (LBA) (ID = f)</font></b><br>
432 Extended partition. It acts as a container for other partitions</li>
433
434 <li><b><font color="Red">Extended (ID = 5)</font></b><br>
435 Another extended partition type. It acts as a container for other partitions<br>
436 There is one more extended partition type (ID = 85), but Windows doesn't recognise it</li>
437
438 <li><b><font color="Green">Linux swap / Solaris (ID = 82)</font></b><br>
439 Swap partition, acting as <b>Virtual Memory</b><br>
440 Modern computers with 1 - 2 GB of memory may not use it at all</li>
441
442 <li><b><font color="Red">Linux (ID = 83)</font></b><br>
443 Linux partitions, such as <b>ext2</b>, <b>ext3</b> and <b>reiserfs</b></li>
444 </ul>
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452 <H2><a name="example"></a>Partitioning example <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H2>
453
454 <p>This section contains a partitioning example. I simulate the following situation in a virtual machine:</p>
455
456 <p>I have two partitions in my disk: <b>/dev/sda1</b> that contains a GNU/Linux distribution, and <b>/dev/sda2</b> that is a swap partition. Here we can see the output of <b>fdisk</b>:</p>
457
458 <p class="newcode">root@sysresccd /root % fdisk -l<br>
459 <br>
460 Disk /dev/sda: 2097 MB, 2097152000 bytes<br>
461 64 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1015 cylinders<br>
462 Units = cylinders of 4032 * 512 = 2064384 bytes<br>
463 Disk identifier: 0x00058a4a<br>
464 <br>
465 &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Device&nbsp;Boot&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Start&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;End&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Blocks&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Id&nbsp;&nbsp;System<br>
466 /dev/sda1&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;*&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;812&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1636960+&nbsp;&nbsp;83&nbsp;&nbsp;Linux<br>
467 /dev/sda2&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;813&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;1015&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;409248&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;82&nbsp;&nbsp;Linux swap / Solaris</p>
468
469 <p>Now I'm going to install another distribution on the same disk. First of all, I need one more partition, because only one distro can be installed on one partition. In addition, I want to separate /home to its own partition in order to be able to share it between distributions.</p>
470
471 <p>Because the whole disk is already allocated, I must shrink at least one existing partition in order to create new partitions. I'll shrink both of them to half (<b>/dev/sda1</b> from 1,6 gigabytes to 800 megabytes, and <b>/dev/sda2</b> from 400 MB to 200 MB). In addition, I'll move <b>/dev/sda2</b> right next to <b>/dev/sda1</b> to keep the partitions in order.</p>
472
473 <p>But how many partitions there will be in total? One, two, three... four! Phew, I was near to paint myself into a corner. If I created only primary partitions, I'd be unable to create any more partitions on the disk. Thus, I'll create an extended partition instead and two logical partitions within it. Then I'll be able to create more logical partitions later if required.</p>
474
475 <p>There is one more challenge: moving /home to a separate partition. It's very easy to move the folder itself, but the distro in <b>/dev/sda1</b> will surely be confused if it doesn't find /home when it boots next time. Thus, I must edit its <b>/etc/fstab</b> and configure it to mount the /home partition automatically - before booting the distro itself.
476
477 <p>Now there are only two decisions left: the numbers and sizes of the new partitions. I decide to install the new distro to <b>/dev/sda5</b> and move /home to <b>/dev/sda6</b>. Let <b>/dev/sda5</b> be 800 megabytes and <b>/dev/sda6</b> 200 MB in size.</p>
478
479 <p>Now it's time to boot into <b>SystemRescueCD</b>. Graphical mode is required this time.</p>
480 <img src="images/systemrescuecd.png">
481 <p>I close the terminal and open <b>GParted</b> by clicking the third icon in the bottom pane.</p>
482 <img src="images/gparted-00.png">
483 <p>I right-click the partition <b>/dev/sda1</b> and select <b>Resize/Move</b>.</p>
484 <img src="images/gparted-01.png">
485 <p>I enter 799 MB as the new size, click the <b>Free Space Following (MiB)</b> combo box and press <b>Resize/Move</b>.</p>
486 <img src="images/gparted-02.png">
487 <p>I right-click now <b>/dev/sda2</b> and select <b>Resize/Move</b>.</p>
488 <img src="images/gparted-03.png">
489 <p>I enter 0 MB as preceding free space and 200 MB as partition size, click the <b>Free Space Following (MiB)</b> combo box and press <b>Resize/Move</b>.</p>
490 <img src="images/gparted-04.png">
491 <p>I right-click the unallocated area and select <b>New</b>.</p>
492 <img src="images/gparted-05.png">
493 <p>I select <b>Extended Partition</b> as the partition type. The size was already 998 megabytes (the maximum) and as said, an extended partition doesn't contain any filesystem. I click <b>Add</b>.</p>
494 <img src="images/gparted-06.png">
495 <p>I right-click the unallocated area within the extended partition and select <b>New</b>.</p>
496 <img src="images/gparted-07.png">
497 <p>I choose the ext4 filesystem and enter 798 MB as the partition size. After that, I click first the <b>Free Space Following (MiB)</b> combo box and then <b>Add</b>.</p>
498 <img src="images/gparted-08.png">
499 <p>I right-click the remaining unallocated space and select <b>New</b> one more time.</p>
500 <img src="images/gparted-09.png">
501 <p>I choose the ext4 filesystem again. The partition size setting was already 201 megabytes (the whole available space), so I just press <b>Add</b>.</p>
502 <img src="images/gparted-10.png">
503 <div align="center"><table class="note" border="0" cellpadding="20"><tr><td valign="top"><img src="images/important.png"></td><td>
504 The next step is to commit the changes.<br><br>After that some operations, for example<br>partition deletion, can no longer be undone.
505 </td></tr></table></div>
506 <p>Finally I commit the changes by pressing the rightmost icon in the main bar.</p>
507 <img src="images/gparted-11.png">
508 <p>After <i>slowly</i> reading the warning, I confirm my decisions by pressing <b>Apply</b>.</p>
509 <img src="images/gparted-12.png">
510 <p><b>GParted</b> begins to commit the changes...</p>
511 <img src="images/gparted-13.png">
512 <p>...and when everything is done, it shows me this window that I close.</p>
513 <img src="images/gparted-14.png">
514 <p>Then I can see the brand new partitions.</p>
515
516 <H3><a name="partitions-home"></a>Moving /home <span class="hideprint">[<a href="#partitions-top" title="go to top of the page">^</a>]</span></H3>
517
518 <p>I close <b>GParted</b> and launch <b>Terminal</b> by pressing the second icon in the bottom pane.</p>
519
520 <p>I create directories as mount points:</p>
521
522 <p class="newcode">mkdir /mnt/sda1<br>
523 mkdir /mnt/sda6</p>
524
525 <p>Then I mount the partitions:</p>
526
527 <p class="newcode">mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/sda1<br>
528 mount /dev/sda6 /mnt/sda6</p>
529
530 <p>I move the directory:</p>
531
532 <p class="newcode">mv /mnt/sda1/home/* /mnt/sda6/</p>
533
534 <p>After that, I unmount /dev/sda6, because it no longer needs to be mounted:</p>
535
536 <p class="newcode">sync<br>
537 umount /dev/sda6</p>
538 <img src="images/terminal.png">
539 <p>As you can see, under Linux it's perfectly normal that the terminal doesn't answer to the commands. Don't worry - they are really executed.</p>
540
541 <p>Now I close <b>Terminal</b> and launch <b>Geany</b> by pressing the fourth icon in the bottom pane.</p>
542 <img src="images/geany-00.png">
543 <p>I select <b>File</b> -> <b>Open</b>.</p>
544 <img src="images/geany-01.png">
545 <p>I press <b>File System</b> and navigate to folder <b>/mnt/sda1/etc</b>.</p>
546 <img src="images/geany-02.png">
547 <p>I double-click the file <b>fstab</b>.</p>
548 <img src="images/geany-03.png">
549 <p>I add the following line:</p>
550
551 <p class="newcode">/dev/sda6&nbsp;/home&nbsp;ext4&nbsp;defaults&nbsp;0&nbsp;2</p>
552
553 <p>Finally, I select <b>File</b> -> <b>Save</b>.</p>
554 <img src="images/geany-04.png">
555 <p>It's a good idea to reboot the computer now and check if the distribution in <b>/dev/sda1</b> still works. Anyway, the disk should now be ready for the new distro.</p>
556
557
558 </div>
559 <div id="footer">
560 <p>Copyright: &#169; <a href="mailto:&#115;&#110;&#103;&#064;&#104;&#101;&#108;&#108;&#117;&#103;&#046;&#103;&#114;?subject=About Clonezilla-SysRescCD v "myVersion"">Spiros Georgaras</a>, 2007-2010<br /><br/>
561 Hosted by <a href="http://www.hellug.gr" target="_blank" title="Hellenic Linux User Group">HEL.L.U.G.</a></p>
562 </div>
563 </div>
564 </body>
565 </html>

Properties

Name Value
svn:executable *

webmaster@linux.gr
ViewVC Help
Powered by ViewVC 1.1.26