How stable is NTFS write?

From: Michael D. Crawford (crawford@goingware.com)
Date: Tue May 30 2000 - 03:25:31 EST


Hi,

I need to know how safe NTFS writing is because I have a really stupid
problem. Or maybe I don't and there is an easier solution.

My problem is that I partitioned my disk all wrong, and I have NT
installed on my first partition, and my Linux partition crosses the 1024
cylinder limit, so I can't reliably install new kernels there.

I work around this OK as is instructed in one of the Howtos. I have my
second partition a Windows FAT partition, and I moved my /boot directory
there and put a symlink from the linux /boot. The linux kernel and boot
code now supports booting of a FAT partition as long as you give it a
Unix filesystem to mount root on.

Further, rather than using lilo to boot my machine, I use the NT boot
manager. This is easily done by using lilo to install the boot block
into the superblock of the root partition, then I do this to get my
bootsector:

dd if=/dev/hda3 of=bootsect.lin bs=512 count=1

then I copy bootsect.lin to my fat filesystem, _then_boot_into_nt_ then
copy it to my NTFS partition, where the NT boot menu is already set up
to expect that for a boot sector for linux, then reboot again.

This is OK for everyday use but when trying out various kernel options
and getting all the latest patches it's a real drag. And honestly I
hate windows. It just pays the bills. When I'm playing with Linux I
really don't want to have to look at The Work of Bill in between tries.

An alternative I've seen references to is to use lilo to boot NT. If I
could do that I'd be happy. My whole fat partition lies within the 1024
limit.

But what I'm asking in this question is how safe it would be to mount
the NT partition writeable and copy the 512 byte file over the existing
512 byte file. That should be safe as these things go but the note in
the kernel config help is pretty extreme in its warning.

Mike Crawford
GoingWare, Inc. - Expert Software Development and Consulting
http://www.goingware.com
crawford@goingware.com

   Tilting at Windmills for a Better Tomorrow.

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