another format question

[fleamailman]

Ok, I downloaded gparted and my computer boots into it but then get stuck after I choose standard config, anyway I am now looking at just deleting the kubuntu partitions on the 6gb external harddrive and formating from the kubuntu install on this computer, is there a way with the programs on hand to format the external harddrive in ext3

so basically I am curious to know why I couldn't run gparted, and I wonder is I can format the external drive into ext3 with gparted

[dibl]

Re: another format question

mmmmmmmm -- little confused here, but I'll try some answers.

If your GParted Live CD works in ANY video mode, such that you can get to the view of the disk drives on your system, including the external drive, then YES, that would be the way to format it to ext3. Your computer/Linux system has to "see" it to format it, whether with GParted or other utilities.

To know whether it is present and mounted in your system, you can enter

fdisk -l

in your console, and it should show up in the list of disk drives and partitions.

[fleamailman]

Re: another format question

thanks dibl, I wrote a typo, wanted to say, "is there a way to format the external in ext3 without using the gparted CD", for example with the disk and filesystems in system settings, thanks

[dibl]

Re: another format question

I don't think the "Disks & Filesystems" utility has a formatting capability -- I never tried it, to be honest. You can look it up in the Kubuntu help material.

Can you not run GParted from Kubuntu either? Or is the problem that you can run it but that disk drive doesn't show up?

[fleamailman]

Re: another format question

I can see the external drive and its kubuntu partitions in the disk and filesystem, it offers me when one enters under administrator with password the ability to delete the partitions there, I am thinking that if all the partitions are deleted by me what remains should be one drive formatted in ext3, is this correct or wishful thinking on my part

if in the case that the above is wishful thinking, without using gparted as suggest before, can I do it form either the gui, or from the command line, or is there another program one could use in place of gparted

btw I don't know why gparted didn't fully boot, I will try the CD in another computer to see if it is just the computer