Convert a partition from case-sensitive to case-insensitive

Question

I have installed snow leopard on a macbook ans selected case-sensitive file system when partitioning the disk, presuming that it's a standard thing and I'd rather have this system behaving as close as possible to *nix shell.

Although when trying to install Photoshop CS5 recently I got an error message saying that case-sensitive file system cannot be used for installation. Apparently reason is some issues in Apple installer system, which Adobe developers cannot find their way around.

So it looks like I will have to convert the case-sensitive FS to a case-insensitive one.

Are there any tools capable of doing that? Doesn't have to run under macos, anything will do, really (bootable CDs etc)

Answer 1

iPartition claims to be able to do this, although I haven't tried it (and it costs money).

Answer 2

There is a FUSE solution called ciopfs (case insensitive on purpose file system).

I quote:

ciopfs is a stackable or overlay linux userspace file system (implemented with fuse) which mounts a normal directory on a regular file system in case insensitive fashion.

This may be what you're looking for.

Answer 3

I don't believe its possible to convert your file system once this is selected. The reason you can't convert is because of the possibility of file name duplicates. All you can do is clone the drive to an external HFS+ that isn't case sensitive and then format your internal drive. And clone it back to the internal.

I would recommend using Carbon Copy Cloner for its ease of use and the fact its free.