Partition Converting Question

[Carsten Fuchs]

Ahmed Abdel-Aliem wrote:

>hi
>i have FC3 installed in my computer along with windows XP
>my partitions is as follow
>
>20 GB NTFS
>40 GB NTFS
>15 GB EXT3
>5  GB SWAP
>
>since i can only mount NTFS partitions as read only under linux, i
>would like to convert them to Fat32
>i guess linux reads and writes to Fat32 with no problems at all.
>
>my question is if i converted them using any program like partition
>magic or any other, will this affect or make me lose the boot loader
>and prevent me from logging into linux ??
>
>any advices ??
>  
>

Hello Ahmed,
just create a bootable floppy disk, thus making sure you can always boot 
into your linux kernel on your linux partition from that floppy disk.
If you use grub as the bootloader enter the following on a console:

% grub
 > root (hd0,2)          # expecting that your ext3 is on the 3rd 
partition on 1st ide drive
 > setup (fd0)            # installing the bootloader on a floppy disk
 > quit

But I don't believe that you can easily convert ntfs to fat32 (when XP 
has been installed to this partition) and expect XP still working.