Re: Dynamic NTFS

[Szakacsits Szabolcs]

Hello,

On Thu, 22 Jul 2004, R.A. wrote:

> Using the ntfsresize via run_qtparted on SystemRescue CD 0.2.14, Windows XP 
> became unbootable after shrinking a dynamic NTFS partition.

This is a known problem in parted and qtparted, not ntfsresize. I've
already reported and gave help to the maintainers how to fix the problem
over 5 weeks ago. Unfortunately I don't know the current status.
 
> Is it possible that dynamic-type NTFS partitions aren't supported?  If this 
> is the case, I would suggest adding that to the FAQ.

Ntfsresize works fine with NTFS dynamic disks too and it depends only on
the partitioner if you can shrink and enlarge NTFS dynamic disk or not.
Both the filesystem and the "partition" must be resized and ntfsresize
does only the fileystem resizing part.

Currently I'm not aware if any free or even commercial partitioner would
support resizing dynamic disks fully. Microsoft supports only enlargement
in some special cases (not boot, not system, etc volumes).

Partitioners must detect if one has a dynamic disk (it was designed to be
very easy to detect) and refuse to progress or implement dynamic disk
resizing.

Ntfsresize doesn't read thus analyze and modify partition tables and
storage layout definitions. It only cares about NTFS, nothing else. Hence
it can't detect the dynamic disks. It also doesn't make any sense because
that's a different, upper layer. Ntfsresize itself doesn't have problem
with dynamic disks and it works fine. 

Perhaps I'll add some explanation to the ntfsresize FAQ but this issue
must be really handled in the partitioner softwares, not in the filesystem
resizing tool.

Sorry I couldn't help,

        Szaka