Windows/Kubuntu partition

[Cybertrill]

Hi , I have a question,

I want to install Kubuntu on my laptop HD , on a specific partition and then I want another partition for storing my movies and my music , etc. , but the 2nd partition must be readable for both operating systems (WinXP and Kubuntu ) ! So , in which format should I format the storing/2nd partition ( NTFS , ...)

Thanks a lot !

Vincent

[dibl]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

NTFS format is OK for the shared partition. But the Linux partitions need to be ext3 or reiserfs.

Which Windows version are you sharing with?

[wildredzebra]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

Make your other partition vfat. That is what I do on my dual boot systems.

[Snowhog]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

A good place to start for partition planning.

[Cybertrill]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

Hi , thanks guy's for the help.
But I have another problem! When I boot up from my USB Hard disk , it says :
GRUB loading stage1.5


Grub loading , please wait
error 18
_


What should I do ?

Vincent

[monte48lowes]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

First to help you with your problem booting. Grub has bad directions to the "/boot" directory. This is most likely due to the USB drive. By booting with the USB drive installed the BIOS will change the drive numbers that GRUB is looking for. Here is a link to a post regarding booting from USB thumb drive. I think you will find some useful information there.

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/index.php?topic=12995.0

Second, I do not recommend FAT32 for a common drive. FAT32 is not a journaling file system. I had issues with the drive getting corrupted during power losses etc... I use ext3 and http://www.fs-driver.org][http://www.fs-driver.org[/url] in windows to access the drive. ***CAUTION*** The drive must be cleanly unmounted in linux before accessing in windows, since fs-driver will not read the journal. This is not necessary for a clean unmount.

Mike

[Snowhog]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

See for Grub Error 18 explanation.

[Cybertrill]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

Thanks for your replies , but I haven't found a solution yet.
I have seen some advices of ' you must make a boot partition from under 1024 Kb' but I do not understand that. Why doesn't the Kubuntu installer (from the live CD ) do that from itself if it causes so much problems on (older) pc's and laptops? But that doesn't really matter now , I just need a solution. I'll say again what I did to make it easier for you to find a solution.

My Internal Hard Disk (from my laptop) went corrupt/crashed.So now I use a 320 GB lacie USB hard disk , to boot from the USB device. I followed the installation process , everyting went fine, but , as you may suspect , by the first boot up without the CD , directly from the USB hard disk I got 'GRUB error 18'. And now I don't know what to do.

(At first , when my internal HD still worked , I ran Kubuntu also on it! So first , GRUB was installed on the MBR of that HD , but I have Uninstalled it with the SGD.Also don't think that Booting from USB with internal corrupt HD doesn't work , because is does , I have managed to do it before...)

What should I do ?

Vincent

[monte48lowes]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

Vincent,

Have you tried removing the internal hard drive? What about BIOS settings? What laptop are you using?

Mike

[Cybertrill]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

Hi , yes I have tried to remove the hard disk , but during the process , I got scared to damage other Hardware , and I figured : I have succeeded in booting ubuntu from USB before with the corrupt internal HD in my laptop , so why can't I do it again? Anyway , I have a Compaq evo N800C and External hd is Lacie 320GB USB 2.0

About my bios settings(not so extended) , I can't disable the internal HD.
My boot sequence is 1.boot from USB 2.Boot from multibay(=CD) 3. internal HD

Thanks in advance,

Vincent

[Cybertrill]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

YES! I DID IT!

Finally I succeeded. I just reinstalled the whole OS on a partition of 7.9 GB , so my BIOS would absolutely be able to handle it... and it did !! Thank you allready for all your help an patience

I have now an other question , if you don't mind
I now have , as you have read , one partition for the OS(8GB) , but , I would like a partition seperate for the /home map , to store music and video's and stuff. How should I do this?(remember that this partition has to be read and writable for WindowsXP and Kubuntu.)

[monte48lowes]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

I am glad to hear that you were able to make it work. There are gui based programs that will allow you to format the remainder of the hard drive for use. The first one that comes to mind is qtparted. From the command line you can use fdisk and mkfs.ext3. qtparted might be easier for you and can be installed from the repositories.

Read the second part of the post I made above regarding why I recommend using ext3 filesystem over fat32.

Mike

[Qqmike]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

Kind of an irrelevant add-on here,
but let's remember that QtParted has had many problems ("issues" is a nicer word). The consensus seems to be in favor of GParted.
GParted: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
Or, through Adept Package Manager, but it's nice, and sometimes necessary, to have the Live CD version, too.

[Cybertrill]

Re: Windows/Kubuntu partition

Allright , thanks , both of you.
It worked great with Gparted!

Vincent