Ubuntu
gparted package

External Hard Drive Question

Asked by MetungKP

This is only my 4th day ever with Ubuntu and I'm not planning on going back to windows... I ask for your patience with my nursery like questions.

Hard drive question:
Do I have to format my external hard drive for it to work with Ubuntu? Yes, how?

My wife who has Windows 7 on her computer, will she be able to still use this hard drive if she wanted to use it. If not, then I would have to buy her one.

Thanks!
KP

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Ubuntu can read and write NTFS partitions on USB drives. If you format it to a Linux file system the Windows OS will have difficulty accessing the data despite the definitions for the file systems being completely available to anyone. The definitions are hidden and only known 100% by microsoft, yet Ubuntu can read and write to it.

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Emre AYTAÇ (eaytac) said : 		#2

There is no problem to use your external hard drive with Ubuntu. Ubuntu read / writes from Linux or Windows partitions with no problem. So you don't need to reformat your drive. Just use it with Ubuntu or Windows 7.

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