Adding NTFS drive and using the existing data

[fazzle]

Hi there, I feel like this should be a common question but haven't been able to find anything on it in the forum... Is there a way to add an NTFS drive (ie the 2nd drive from my HTPC) and use the existing partition/ files in the hda shares without copying the data across or am I facing a multi hour data migration?

[bigfoot65]

Do you mean adding a second drive to use for additional storage? If you want to have your shares located on the second drive, you will need to mount it as /var/hda/files and copy the folders there.

If you just want to access existing files on that drive, then you can mount it using the hda-mount script. Then create a share pointing to that drive.

[fazzle]

The former is what I'm after. So if I mount that drive and use the free space as part of the storage, can I extend that partition once the data has been copied across?

[bigfoot65]

When you mount the drive as /var/hda/files, the entire partition is available to store anything. Keep in mind that anything you have in the /var/hda/files before mounting the drive will be lost if you don't copy/move them.

You could mount the drive following the wiki, then copy all files to it, remove the mount, then remount as /var/hda/files to ensure you do not lose anything.

[fazzle]

Thanks for the tips. I was hoping to take a look tonight, but alas it is flat pack furniture instead.... An entirely different wiki required there.