New External portable harddisk

[powerbits]

I consider backups to be very very important so i have a new external portable harddisk for the job..
It connects via my usb port
However, I do not see the drive in linux.. how do I detect it and do i have to so somekind of format?

Preferably i would like it to be accessable in linux and that less good OS called windows

Many thanks for your help

[dibl]

Re: New External portable harddisk

When connected, does it show up when you do

blkid

or

fdisk -l

or

hwinfo | grep 'usb'

?

[eriefisher]

Re: New External portable harddisk

How is the drive formatted? It should show up under /media/nameofdrive.

eriefisher

[powerbits]

Re: New External portable harddisk

It is a brand new disk , so its not yet formatted... so if i have to do this, how? and wich can be accessable for windows and linux?

[dibl]

Re: New External portable harddisk

Your choices are FAT32 and NTFS. If you want to use NTFS, here is guidance:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3084679.0

[Qqmike]

Re: New External portable harddisk

I Used GParted to partition and format my external USB HDD:

GParted: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/
GParted how-to: http://www.howtoforge.com/partitioning_with_gparted

(Free download, burn to a Live CD)

[opie]

Re: New External portable harddisk

If you are just wanting to back up personal files, such as mp3, photos etc. I would use one fat32 partition for the entire drive for maximum compatibility and simplicity.

If you are wanting exact copies of your windows and linux partitions then others can give advice about creating images of your partitions.

Just make sure when you use a partition editor, such as gparted, that you are pointing to the proper drive and NOT something like /dev/hda. A new drive will have no partitions on it. You don't want to wipe your system drive

[powerbits]

Re: New External portable harddisk

Fantastic guys, thank you

[powerbits]

Re: New External portable harddisk

Can Gparted format to NTFS ?

[Qqmike]

Re: New External portable harddisk

Yep:

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/features.php

(a table of supported features/formats)

[powerbits]

Re: New External portable harddisk

OK thanks,

I installed ntfsprogs via the adept manager and formatted the external HDD to NTFS
The problem is, I do not see it immediately

[Qqmike]

Re: New External portable harddisk

Is it a mounting issue?

Mounting your filesystems
Each partition on your hard drive is also a “filesystem.” To access a filesystem when you are in K/Ubuntu, the filesystem must first be ”mounted”; that is, attached to your operating system directories in some way.
There are two ways to mount a filesystem:

1 Manually mount it (even from a Live CD), a temporary method.
And,
2 Mount the filesystem automatically each time you boot into your operating system. This is a more permanent method. This is done by editing your filesystem table (the file /etc/fstab) in K/Ubuntu, to include an entry for the filesystem you wish to be automatically mounted.
After editing /etc/fstab, at a terminal, run the command: sudo mount –a.

You will find all this, step by step, in the following favorite Linux references:

http://users.bigpond.net.au/hermanzone/p10.htm

http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/mounting.html

[Qqmike]

Re: New External portable harddisk

In GParted, make sure you click the Apply icon after requesting an operation (such as New Partition, or Format Partition). In GParted, to see your drives (freshly probed), at the top menu, GParted > Refresh Devices.

If you do all this and do not see it in Kubuntu, then that's probably a mounting issue.

[powerbits]

Re: New External portable harddisk

i confirm it is a mounting issue

The problem i am facing now is that I can see the disk only when my system is just booted up

when i switched the hardisk off and turn it back on, i do not see it anymore

the only way too see it , is to reset the pc?

is it a problem in fstab?

[Qqmike]

Re: New External portable harddisk

Make sure it is listed in fstab, with the correct UUID. You can get UUIDs by typing in Konsole, blkid. Then maybe someone can pitch in some fstab options if that's the issue (I don't have my external HDD connected right now and I'm in XP).