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I'm looking to share documents, pictures, etc. between Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04.1. I have an extended primary partition (sda4) that is comprised of a swap partition (sda5) and a "/home" mount point storage partition (sda6). This sda6 storage partition is a ext4 file system. As I understand it, in order for Windows 7 to recognize the data, this storage partition needs to be an NTFS format. Can this ext4 format (sda6) be changed to NTFS using the GParted Partition Editor? If not, is there another way to make this happen? Thanks so much in advance.

Here's Johnny
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4 Answers4

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For various reasons you should not use ntfs for home partition. What you should do is shrink it to make free space for a new partition that will be NTFS. It will be visible for both systems - Windows and Linux.

Process overview:
- boot to Parted Magic LIVECD / USB
- backup sda6
- resize the sda6 to free some space
- create new NTFS partition

Step by step instructions by yours truly how to convert free space to a ntfs partition

Please proceed only after reading the instructions through and through if you're not familiar with partitioning.

Community
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Bucic
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I am pretty sure you can not do this. but there are some options.

  1. You back up the data, and reformat the partition to NTFS, restore the data.

  2. The easy option would be to download and install Ext2Read in Windows. This will allow you to access your ext partitions.

You can find more info about ext here and here. Even thought the software seems to be a bit dated and not supported anymore, it still does get the job done.

Hope this helps.

Afer some more google-fu I found DiskInternals Linux Reader which is to a free option, and looks like it is still be supported.

TheXed
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Can this ext4 format (sda6) be changed to NTFS using the GParted Partition Editor?

No, you can NOT use NTFS for /home since it does not understand permissions. If you do not have it yet, you need to install ntfsprogs before creating a NTFS disc.

Inside GParted

You can resize /home, put the extra space into a new partition (sda7) and use the new one to make it NTFS. Then symlink your directories in /home/$USER to this new disc.

For the NTFS part:

Click system, click administration, click GParted partition editor. Click the box at the upper-right corner of the GParted window and select the disk you want to partition by clicking its name in the list. Format an existing partition or create a new partition. Format an existing partition by right-clicking the partition in the GParted window, clicking format to and clicking NTFS. Create a new NTFS partition by right-clicking unallocated space, clicking new, clicking the file system box, clicking NTFS and then clicking add. Click the edit menu at the top of the GParted window and click Apply All Operations. Click Apply

Pointers

  • You can't format partitions that are mounted and in-use. If the partition is mounted, right-click it and click "Unmount" before formatting it.
  • Formatting a partition removes all existing data on it. Any data on the partition you format will be lost. So make a backup (and check the backup) before starting.
Rinzwind
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You can install ext2fsd for windows and access the data on your ext4 partitions from within windows. Have a look at the ext2fsd website for downloads and information.

fabricator4
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