Partitioning an external hard drive [SOLVED]

[gigabz666]

I guess the link to Kubuntu maybe a bit loose but it is involved slightly.

Basically the problem I have at the moment is that I want to make a couple of backups on to one single external hard drive. I want to back up my PS3, and my files in Windows Vista. I also use this drive to transfer files to Kubuntu. Now the problem is, the PS3 can only detect FAT32 drives, and Windows Vista seems to give me errors when using the backup utility. Now when the external drive was NTFS it was fine, but now it's FAT32 it's complaining.

My plan was to make two partitions on the external hard drive. A FAT32 partition for the PS3 and an NTFS partition for Windows Vista. I've tried to do a little research but I've not come up with much apart from people stating that having partitions on an external hard drive is not a good idea, but no one seems to mention that the partitions would be different file systems.

I'm basically asking anyone if they've done something like this before and would I possibly come under any problems. Would I have trouble mounting it under Linux? Will the PS3 not detect it anymore? Just lots of little worries and I don't want to go through the effort if I end up finding out it's not going to work.

Thanks

[Qqmike]

Re: Partitioning an external hard drive

This sort of issue comes up often at another place I hang out:
http://forums.hardwareguys.com/ikonboard.cgi

Backups are a favorite (and debated) topic there. But there are hardware and Linux and Windows experts there that do these things. I'm sure we have some hotdogs here, too, but the link I gave is one option you can start to explore now. I've seen your kind-of issue there. (Many of the Linux guys there are K/Ubuntu people.)

[gigabz666]

Re: Partitioning an external hard drive

Thanks for the quick reply, I'll take a look at the board, and any results I get back, I'll be sure to post here for people's future reference.

[gigabz666]

Re: Partitioning an external hard drive

I really apologise for the double post, but I thought I should just update everyone with how it went, if anyone is looking to do the same.

I just download GParted LiveCD, burned it, and then left it in the drive to reboot and boot from the CD. The external hard drive was already connected an on. I had to force the video into VESA, and I got into a GUI of GParted. I found the external hard drive, and since it was already in FAT32, I resized it, then made a new partition out of the rest of the now unallocated space and made that NTFS, then I confirmed the settings and let it run.

Once finished, I rebooted and took the CD out before it got to the Boot CD section again, and got back into Windows Vista. The drive was left on, and in Computer it showed up as two separate drives, one was FAT32, the other NTFS. When you safely remove the USB Hard Drive, it unmounts both drives at the same time.

I then connected the drive to my PS3 and as expected, and wanted, the FAT32 partition was detected. So everything seems to be fine. I've yet to try it on Linux, but I'll have to work out how to install it on my desktop, or wait till the weekend when I bring my laptop home. But as far as I can see, everything works fine.

So there you go. Hope that helps anyone else.