Various Topics on HDD

.... ..nd..

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.

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 ***ume that when the whole HD is used it is still cl***ed 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!

..dr..

"Neil Hindry" <n_nospam_hindry@_nospam_hotmail.com> writes:

> 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.

..o..

Hadron wrote:
> "Neil Hindry" <n_nospam_hindry@_nospam_hotmail.com> writes:
>
>> 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.

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.

....

scott wrote:

>>
>> 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.