Trying to use my other hard drive.

[Nitsuj]

Hey. I got linux 2 weeks ago and have said good-bye to Windows forever. So I installed Linux on my second hard drive and have been using it. I went ahead and installed linux on the main drive thinking I could just go back in and "format" it to use for media and other such things. However it looks like Linux is reading it as a seperate computer or something and I can't seem to wipe the drive so I can use as storage.

I did this code to show what is going on. So how do I use my other drive for storage without having to have 2 seperate installs of the OS on them? Thanks. Oh and I want to use the 80G hd for the storage.

sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 9541 76638051 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 9542 9729 1510110 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 9542 9729 1510078+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/hdb: 10.2 GB, 10245537792 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1245 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 1190 9558643+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 1191 1245 441787+ 5 Extended
/dev/hdb5 1191 1245 441756 82 Linux swap / Solaris

[sky]

Re: Trying to use my other hard drive.

Hi,

I'm not sure if I understand well what you mean, but I think you should edit your /etc/fstab to add your secondary drive.
Just be sure where you want to add these partitions.
Usually, I'm using partiions for :
/
/home
/root
/mails
But you can do it as you want.
Just add lines like the following for all of your partitions :
/dev/hdb1 /media/hdb1 ext3 defaults 0 0

Hope it helped

[whoiam55]

Re: Trying to use my other hard drive.

use fdisk or cfdisk to delete existing partitions from your 80 gb. Create one or two partition of ext3 or FAT32 if you want it to access under windows. After this your have to mount those partitions inorder to use them

[AudioBookDiety]

Re: Trying to use my other hard drive.

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 9541 76638051 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 9542 9729 1510110 5 Extended
/dev/hda5 9542 9729 1510078+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/hdb: 10.2 GB, 10245537792 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1245 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hdb1 * 1 1190 9558643+ 83 Linux
/dev/hdb2 1191 1245 441787+ 5 Extended
/dev/hdb5 1191 1245 441756 82 Linux swap / Solaris

You see the asterisk after /dev/hda1 * ? It is unber the word BOOT....that is why it the system is trying to boot both. Just toggle BOOT off on the drive you do not wish to boot a partition from.

[aysiu]

Re: Trying to use my other hard drive.

If you want to reformat a drive, just install QTParted on the other drive.

1. http://www.psychocats.net/linux/sources.php
2.

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install qtparted
qtparted