UBUNTU and Western Digital ext. HD (MyBook)

Do you want to dual boot between xp and ubuntu or do you want to wipe the disk completely and install only Ubuntu?

If the former then follow this guide:-

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot

If the latter then just go through the installer and when asked about partitioning, tell it to wipe the disk - it's one of the main options when you get to disk partitioning. The default is to resize the windows partition down (as used in the above guide).

Hi Alan, thanks for the reply. Hate to be such a noo b but..
what "installer" do you mean?

thx

JF

On 3/25/07, Alan Pope <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Your question #4390 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.beta.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ticket/4390
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Alan Pope proposed the following answer:
> Do you want to dual boot between xp and ubuntu or do you want to wipe
> the disk completely and install only Ubuntu?
>
> If the former then follow this guide:-
>
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WindowsDualBoot
>
> If the latter then just go through the installer and when asked about
> partitioning, tell it to wipe the disk - it's one of the main options
> when you get to disk partitioning. The default is to resize the windows
> partition down (as used in the above guide).
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
>
> https://answers.beta.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ticket/4390/+confirm?answer_id=0
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.beta.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ticket/4390
>

If you install ubuntu using the live cd then there is a graphical installer program that will ask you how you want to partition/wipe the disk.

I already installed Ubuntu on my laptop--do I have to re-insert
the cd in order to direct the "wipe" command(s) to my ext hd?

thx again, and again..

J

On 3/25/07, Alan Pope <email address hidden> wrote:
>
> Your question #4390 on Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.beta.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ticket/4390
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Alan Pope proposed the following answer:
> If you install ubuntu using the live cd then there is a graphical
> installer program that will ask you how you want to partition/wipe the
> disk.
>
> _______________________________________________________________________
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
>
> https://answers.beta.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ticket/4390/+confirm?answer_id=2
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.beta.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+ticket/4390
>

Sorry, completely missed the "ext" meaning "external" hard disk.

Is it currently formatted as FAT32 or NTFS? If NTFS then you probably would be better refortting, yes. If FAT32 then you can use it under Ubuntu (and windows too). If you format it as (for example) ext3 then you can really only use it on Ubuntu. There are ext2/3 drivers for windows available.

Personally I format all disks that are going to be used on windows and Ubuntu as FAT32, and any disks which will only be used with Ubuntu to be something like ext3, reisterfs or xfs.

You can do this with gparted (once you install it). It's a graphical partition manager.

My Western Digital external was shipped as FAT32 and Ubuntu recognized it as soon as i plugged it in, and I have been using it without problems in 7.04, 7.10 and XP

I notice that this question is a bit old, but since at least a year back I've had a HD formatted with NTFS (from Ubuntu, nonetheless) with absolutely zero problems. The reason for it being so from the start is that it's not only an external HD, but also a media player that, at the time, didn't support anything other than FAT or NTFS (later firmware updates added Ext3, but since it ain't broke...).

So, if you need to use it on Windows too, I'd actually recommend NTFS now. Otherwise Ext3 or similar, of course. Don't know about Macs though, maybe they need FAT32 still...?