External HD & partition's - please help
Neil Hindry
Last week I brought a Maxtor 320GB external HD. It was already formatted
for Windows, I know this because when I plugged it in to a USB port Windows
XP recognised it straight away and I was able to read & write to and from
it.
What I want to do is partition the Maxtor external HD so I can use 1
partition for Windows files and another partition for Linux files. I want to
do this as I can then use it to backup important data files from both OS's.
For information I am using Windows XP Pro & Ubuntu Linux.
What I need to know is how I go about doing this?
Do I need to reduce the size of the partition that already exists on the
disk (I assume that when the whole HD is used it is still classed as a
partition)?
Do I reduce the partition size in Windows (that is if it needs to be done)?
Do I create the new partitions in Linux?
I am not very knowledgeable where partitions are concerned so please do not
be too technical.
I hope you can help me.
I appreciate any help or information given.
Thanks!
J.O. Aho
> What I want to do is partition the Maxtor external HD so I can use 1
> partition for Windows files and another partition for Linux files. I
want to
> do this as I can then use it to backup important data files from both
OS's.
> For information I am using Windows XP Pro & Ubuntu Linux.
I have to say I don't see the point, if it uses vfat, then there aren't
any troubles for any os to use it. When you backup from linux, use tar,
this way you can save ownership and privileges on the files without the
needed support in the vfat file system.
The advantage is that you won't be limited of slice sizes, you can
instead use the whole hard drives size regardless which os you are
backing up from.
> What I need to know is how I go about doing this?
> Do I need to reduce the size of the partition that already exists on the
> disk (I assume that when the whole HD is used it is still classed as a
> partition)?
Yes you need to reduce the vfat/ntfs slice to be able to create a new
slice to use.
> Do I reduce the partition size in Windows (that is if it needs to be
done)?
> Do I create the new partitions in Linux?
There aren't any tools in microsoft to make any other file systems than
those two microsoft has been developing (you mauy find 3rd party tools
that may be able to make some of the linux file systems).
--
//Aho
Hadron
> I wonder if you can help me.
> Last week I brought a Maxtor 320GB external HD. It was already formatted
> for Windows, I know this because when I plugged it in to a USB port Windows
> XP recognised it straight away and I was able to read & write to and from
> it.
>
> What I want to do is partition the Maxtor external HD so I can use 1
> partition for Windows files and another partition for Linux files. I want to
> do this as I can then use it to backup important data files from both OS's.
> For information I am using Windows XP Pro & Ubuntu Linux.
Dual booting? Boot to Ubuntu.
Resize the windows partition when in Ubuntu using gparted. create a new
partition in the resulting space as ext3 for Linux. YOu might consider
also creating a FAT32 small partition for "shared" files which can be
read/written by both OSs.
Consider backing things up first.
scott
Or you can simply partition and format the drive using ext3, then load
ext2fsd on Windows to access it. I use it all the time and makes it easy
to move files back and forth.
User
>>
>> Resize the windows partition when in Ubuntu using gparted. create a new
>> partition in the resulting space as ext3 for Linux. YOu might consider
>> also creating a FAT32 small partition for "shared" files which can be
>> read/written by both OSs.
>>
>> Consider backing things up first.
>
> Or you can simply partition and format the drive using ext3, then load
> ext2fsd on Windows to access it. I use it all the time and makes it easy
> to move files back and forth.
I used ext2fsd in windows and it worked great from windows but when I
reboot into kubuntu it does an auto disk check way more often than it
says. Sometimes the 33 mounts is actually 3 or 4 kubuntu mounts. The
rest must be XP mounts. It must mount the partition from windows several
times per session. I then un-installed ext2fsd from XP and my kubuntu
wouldn't boot. Thank god for Super Grub. I think I'll just keep ext2fsd
around for emergencies.
David Graham
Take a tip from a longtime noobie. Don't access files on an external
drive from both OS's. I trashed several mp3 downloads by giving them
illegal windows file names in linux. And some of my permissions got
changed by windows that locked me out in linux. I was using ext3 and NTFS
file systems on the drive. Some of this I now realize was caused by my
moving whole directories from one partition to the other. I also was
able to put 2 primary partitions on an external USB drive in linux that I
couldn't take out in windows. Somehow I was also able to partition a 4 gb
CF with 2 partitions that may be permanently 2gb from here on. Just my 2
cents about file sharing and more than one OS.