Growing a FAT filesystems means extending the two File Allocation Tables. These tables, IIRC, are stored in contiguous sectors somewhere near the beginning. So growing these tables means relocating files occupying the sectors to which these tables would grow into -- which would entail copying data to a free sector and manipulating the FAT (both copies). More operations are needed compared to growing other fs.
If you have the space, copying to a larger loopback file would be more practical. I'm curious, why keep in it a FAT fs? Why not move it other (better) fs? --- mike t. ----- Original Message ---- > From: Mark David Dumlao <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Technical Discussion List > <[email protected]> > Sent: Monday, September 29, 2008 19:48:57 > Subject: Re: [plug] Non-partition FAT resize tool > > Well, parted resizes the partitions by playing with the partition > table of the disk itself. It doesn't really do anything to the size of > the disk, so wouldn't it be sufficient to append zeroes to the end of > the file, then use resize2fs to grow the partition? > > Where normally we do: > grow physical device -> grow block device -> grow filesystem > > and it means > 1) add disks > 2) partition / array disks > 3) use filesystem resize tool > > In a file-based partition, (1) would be replaced by growing the file > (appending zeroes), and (2) isn't necessary because the file is > already the block device (it has no partition table). So I was > thinking > dd if=/dev/zero bs=1M count=100 >> filename > fatresize filename (dunno how to fatresize) > > would grow your disk by 100M. > > On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 6:14 PM, Slim Joe wrote: > > I'm looking for a Linux-based tool that can resize a FAT file system > > inside a simple file (not /dev/*). The obvious solution, parted, can > > apparently resize FAT file systems only inside device partitions. I'm > > looking for capability similar to resize2fs, which can resize a file > > containing an ext2/3 file system. Is there such a tool > > _________________________________________________ > > Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List > > http://lists.linux.org.ph/mailman/listinfo/plug > > Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph > > > _________________________________________________ > Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List > http://lists.linux.org.ph/mailman/listinfo/plug > Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List http://lists.linux.org.ph/mailman/listinfo/plug Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
