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    #1

    Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

    I have several questions.

    (1) Can I go out and buy any old brand of external USB drive, even if it doesn't claim to be Linux-compatible (as Packard Bell's does), and expect it to work? I'm currently running Kubuntu Edgy.

    (2) Once I get one that works, can I partition it like any old disk, with gparted, e.g., and mix ext3 partitions with one NTFS one?

    (3) To put the icing on the cake, can I use one of those Linux partitions for installing Kubuntu, say Feisty? I know that the instructions for doing this are given elsewhere.

    Need to know these things before I go to the store and invest 100€! Thanks in advance.
    'I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.' Mark Twain
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    #2
    Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

    Seems difficult!

    What I am interesting is a usb key will cost you 100€?
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      #3
      Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

      I’ve recently played around with this, too.
      Here’s my write up (scroll down to the August 14 post)

      How To Make GRUB Thumb Drive
      http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3081748.0
      How to install K/Ubuntu 7.04 to an external USB hard disk drive (HDD).
      (Scroll to the second post, August 14, 2007.)

      Stick with a good brand of hard drive: Seagate, Maxtor, Western Digital. Seagate is the preference of many hardcore hardware guys I know.
      In my case, I rolled my own: I got a good Seagate on sale at CompUSA store, I ordered a Rosewill USB/eSATA HDD enclosure from Newegg.com, and put the former into the latter. My motherboard (Intel D915GAVL) does NOT support eSATA, so I just use the USB capability of the external HDD enclosure (and plug the thing into one of my front USB ports).

      Go to (one of my favorites) http://forums.hardwareguys.com/ikonboard.cgi
      Or Tom’s hardware, and look around at the posts regarding external HDDs.

      BTW, Yes, you can use GParted Live CD to format it is just as you do for an internal HDD; that's what I did, and I also use GParted to partition/format my UFDs (flash drives or thumb drives). Just be careful -- as you know -- to specify the correct disk when working inside GParted's menus!

      ***
      *** One more important thing!!!
      ***
      Does your current BIOS support "Boot from USB" (or some-such wording)?
      Your BIOS must support booting from USB so you can, well, boot up your Kubuntu on the external USB HDD. (There are workarounds for that, but, gosh, they seem complicated to me. I think I referenced them in my How-To. Basically, you have to build a bootable CD that boots up your external USB HDD. Not for me. Too far out there.)
      An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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        #4
        Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

        Cutea, I meant a USB disk, not a key. That explains the 100€.

        Qqmike, thanks for all the info. Does this mean I can mix ext3 and ntfs file systems on it?

        I see that Maxtor sells a 320GB disk for 80€, but they say it requries Windows or Mac. I suppose that's just because of the software they bundle with it and that I can partition/format it and use it as I like. Is this correct?

        In fact, what is the preferred format if I want to be able to read files on Linux or Windoze? I don't know of a Windows utility for reading ext3 disks directly (without a Samba server or something like that).

        Thanks again. You folks are a great help.
        'I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.' Mark Twain
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          #5
          Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

          "Does this mean I can mix ext3 and ntfs file systems on it?

          I see that Maxtor sells a 320GB disk for 80€, but they say it requries Windows or Mac. I suppose that's just because of the software they bundle with it and that I can partition/format it and use it as I like. Is this correct?

          In fact, what is the preferred format if I want to be able to read files on Linux or Windoze? I don't know of a Windows utility for reading ext3 disks directly (without a Samba server or something like that)."

          - - -

          You can mix different partitions and formats on the same external USB HDD.

          The drive will work for Windows or Linux. I think they say that because they give instructions for setting it up using Windows utilities that prepare the disk and all that stuff. I just connected my external USB HDD to the PC (USB port and Power-On switch on the external unit box), then booted into GParted Live CD, and then did the partitioning and formatting in GParted. No problems.
          (Actually, it's a bit more interesting than that -- I used a GParted I had put on a bootable thumb drive to do this, just for fun to see how that would work, with two USB devices plugged into the front USB ports and so on.)

          As far as I know, the best common, shared data partition for Linux + Windows is FAT32. That's how I format my USB flash drives (thumb drives) -- FAT32 for data that both Windows and Kubuntu will read/write.

          Windows can't read odt. But Kubuntu can read/write both .odt and .doc.
          Both can read .txt files, but in Windows, Open the text file with Word Pad, not Note Pad (right-click, Open With . .. Word Pad) -- you get better formatting, just like how it looks in Kubuntu (like a configuration file, for example, fstab or menu.lst etc.).
          An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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            #6
            Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

            Originally posted by Qqmike

            Windows can't read odt. But Kubuntu can read/write both .odt and .doc.
            Yeah. Vive Kubuntu/Linux!

            And thanks for all the help. I'll go buy a Maxtor.
            'I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.' Mark Twain
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              #7
              Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

              Originally posted by Qqmike
              As far as I know, the best common, shared data partition for Linux + Windows is FAT32.
              With ntfs-3g & fuse going mainstream, I tend to recommend the use of NTFS instead ...
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                #8
                Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

                Originally posted by UnicornRider
                With ntfs-3g & fuse going mainstream, I tend to recommend the use of NTFS instead ...
                Sounds interesting, but I've looked at those two links and don't understand: (1) what fuse is and why I need it; (2) whether I really have to thru go all the stuff listed at the ntfs-3g ubuntu link (which uses gksu, whereas I'm in KDE and am not sure if I should change that) instead of just installing it with aptitude or apt-get.

                I am already able to read, but not write, my principal Windows ntfs volume with Kubuntu, even tho ntfs-3g is not installed. What I want to do is define a file system on an external USB disk which I can read and write with both Kubuntu and Windows.

                Could you explain a bit more please -- or give links? Thanks a lot.
                'I must have a prodigious quantity of mind; it takes me as much as a week sometimes to make it up.' Mark Twain
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                  #9
                  Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

                  Originally posted by joneall
                  whether I really have to thru go all the stuff
                  Not really - the "quick & dirty" approach is:

                  1. sudo apt-get install fuse ntfs-3g
                  2. Add your user(s) to group fuse

                  Originally posted by joneall
                  I am already able to read, but not write
                  By courtesy of the kernel's ntfs module, so to speak - which is to be "replaced" by ntfs-3g (which in turn requires fuse) in order to gain write access as well.
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                    #10
                    Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

                    joneall, I know you're conccerned about how to format the external USB HDD, but I wouldn't be too worried. Think it through and set it up so you could later make changes easily.
                    You are safe with FAT32 for both Windows and Kubuntu.
                    That should be the focus and deserves a lot of space at the start of the external HDD.
                    Then you could have an NTFS. And then leave some space.
                    Fact is, later on, you will probably change it anyway! And have to nuke all/part of the HDD and re-partition/format, as most folks end up doing. And fact is, even though the external USB HDD will serve a backup function, the data it contains should also be backed up, too, somewhere, at times, even to a good Verbatum DVD+R or CD+R.
                    Yes, the ntfs-3g is here now. It used to be a bit risky (experimental, in development), but it's now coming to the front and for mainstream use.
                    (PS--Looks like hardwareguys is slow; the big guns in backup have not been active the past few days. Keep checking there.)
                    An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                      #11
                      Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

                      Windows can't read odt. But Kubuntu can read/write both .odt and .doc.
                      Really? I run Open Office in Windows, OSX and Kubuntu - never had any problems reading my .odt files in Win2k and then loading/saving them to the other systems etc and back to Win again...
                      "As long as they're going to steal software, we want them to steal ours." - Bill Gates on the Chinese.
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                        #12
                        Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

                        You are using OO to do it, then.
                        An intellectual says a simple thing in a hard way. An artist says a hard thing in a simple way. Charles Bukowski
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                          #13
                          Re: Questions about using external USB drive with (K)Ubuntu

                          Yep come to think of it though, Windows doesn't natively even read .doc files, you have to "pay" for Office or download the Word viewer... Or run OO lol.
                          "As long as they're going to steal software, we want them to steal ours." - Bill Gates on the Chinese.
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