[CentOS] What's the best way to convert a whole set of filesystems?

Wed Mar 14 21:55:24 UTC 2007
John Summerfield <debian at herakles.homelinux.org>

Mark Hull-Richter wrote:
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: centos-bounces at centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces at centos.org] On
>> Behalf Of John R Pierce
>> Sent: Wednesday, March 14, 2007 12:16 PM
>> To: CentOS mailing list
>> Subject: Re: [CentOS] What's the best way to convert a whole set of
>> filesystems?
>>
>> the only major distribution that really supports reiser natively is
> SuSE
> I can live with that.  I've heard unkind words about ext3, but so far no
> problems....

You have?

I'm on a list which has users of SLES and of RHEL (and slack and debian) 
on zSeries. I don't recall anyone sad to use ext3, but there have been 
the occasional stuffed reiserfs. Then there's the real concern the 
development team for reiserfs is small and has some legal difficulties 
that may seem him operating for several lifetimes from inside a US prison.



>>
> What sort of backup would be best from NTFS to ext3?  I've a feeling
> that a straight binary copy might not be the best choice, but I'm
> guessing.

You need something that understands both filesystems. Reading NTFS in 
Linux is fairly straightforward, but on CentOS you will need to download 
less official kernel modules (each time you upgrade the kernel) or 
rebuild each kernel. Neither is difficult, and the need evaporates when 
Windows is out of your life.

> 
>> frankly, I'd build a new computer, install Linux on it, then copy the
>> files across the network.   when done, recycle the old computer for
>> parts, or sell it intact as is (its probably worth more as a working
>> system than as parts).
>>
> (sigh) now you're talking money - it would cost me an extra $300-500 to
> do that, and I've already strained my budget and my credit to do the
> $400 for the upgrade.  On the positive side, I've done this many times -
> been building and upgrading home machines since 1984, and I'm pretty
> good at that.  This is the first time I'll be switching from an M$ OS to
> a real one.  :-)


An extra drive won't strain the budget so hard, and gives you a neat 
backup device.




-- 

Cheers
John

-- spambait
1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu  Z1aaaaaaa at coco.merseine.nu

Please do not reply off-list