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Old 11-17-2004, 08:22 PM   #1
clean_sweep
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External Hard Drive partition fails for Mandrake 10.1 installation


I bought an 80 GB Firewire/USB 2.0 External Desktop hard drive to install Linux on it. It came preformatted to FAT32. My computer (XP) recognized it as soon as I connected it to a USB port, and it showed up as an icon (drive F in My Computer.

However, when I tried to install Mandrake 10.1 from the DVD, I got stuck at the partition point. There I was given 4 choices - Use free space, Erase entire disk, Use existing partition, and Custom disk partition. One by one I chose all of them and a menu-like screen appeared with some other options on it, but each time I got this error when I selected any option on this screen:

"An error occurred. I don't know how to format sda5 in type ext2:vfat"

Finally the installation process crashed and I was back to Windows. But now the external hard drive icon no longer appears in My Computer though I can see the external hard drive connected to my PC when I right click on "Local Disk (C" -> properties -> hardware

I also find it in Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management (double click) -> Disk Management under Storage (double click)

Here the external hard drive is Disk 1 and I see these partitions:

5.85 GB Healthy (Active), 1.07 GB Healthy (Unknown Partition), 67.63 Healthy (Unknown Partition)

So I am just wondering if I messed up partition on my external hard drive? And how do I get its icon back in My Computer? Plus, my biggest concern is how do I get past the partition point and successfully install Mandrake 10.1 on my external hard drive? Do I need to reformat my external hard drive again, and how and to what format? I would greatly appreciate your help on this installation, as I was very excited to move to Linux and start using it but now I am feeling very disappointed with all these installation hassles. Thanks.
 
Old 11-17-2004, 09:02 PM   #2
kilgoretrout
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A couple things. First, I wouldn't let the mandrake partitioning tools try to partition an external hard drive. When I tried with my maxtor usb drive it totally screwed it up. Repartition and format the drive in windows to get back your space on the hard drive. I'd suggest deleting all partitons and repartition to one big FAT32 partition and format the partition.
Second, there are many posts here about the problems encountered in trying to install linux to an external hard drive. Although it's possible to do, it's hardly trivial and definitely not for anyone unfamiliar with linux. to give you an idea what's involved, see this tutorial from IBM:

http://www-106.ibm.com/developerwork...nxw02aFireBoot
 
Old 11-18-2004, 01:05 PM   #3
clean_sweep
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Thanks for help. Yes I had seen that IBM page before I posted my questions here. The IBM info is pretty plain and I could not figure out a way. So, again, how do I partition and format my external hard drive?

Would I launch DOS prompt from Windows, type fdisk, and they choose 5 to change drive? That would partition the drive, right? Would I then type format, or would the drive now appear in My Comptuer so I can right click on it and choose format?? And finally when I get my external hard drive back into good condition, I would choose 'Use existing partition' during Mandrake installation .. is that correct? Please guide me. Thanks.

Asif
 
Old 11-18-2004, 08:49 PM   #4
kilgoretrout
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I used Acronis Partition Expert on mine but it's not free. If you have access to a winxp machine I think you can do it in disk mangement. I'm not sure DOS would recognize a usb or firewire drive much less partition and format it. If you could borrow a copy of the Acronis program or Partition Magic, that would be the most fool proof way of doing it. If not, you could try the live linux cd, Kanotix; it has a PM clone on it called qtparted and it definitely picks up usb hard drives. The easiest thing to try is to just right click on the disk in windows if you don't have winxp and select format for all the "Healthy" partitions that exist on the drive. Since the partitions are detected in windows, I suspect windows would format the partition. Of course, you wouldn't be able to manipulate the partitions without winxp or some third party partitioning program.
For an install, I would definitely do it on preexisting partitions. Acronis is good because it has excellent support for all the common linux filesystems. PM's linux support is still pretty lame IMHO. If you can get qtparted to work on the drive, it is also good at creating the commopn linux partitions/filesystems but it is buggy when it comes to resizing reiserfs from what I've read.

Last edited by kilgoretrout; 11-18-2004 at 09:05 PM.
 
Old 11-18-2004, 09:09 PM   #5
jchance
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In all honesty look for efdisk I haven't had a problem with any type of drive who's partition was tagged with it. It will allow you to tag pretty much any type of filesystem, a definite plus. It runs under a DOS prompt and is extremely stable. I had to use it a few times under windows 9x (not sure of 2k or xp) due to an eide card that is in this system, but linux loves it so i don't know where my copy went to. I believe it is included with this company's boot manager:

http://www.masterbooter.com/main/news.php?lang=en.

Hope this helps.

Last edited by jchance; 11-18-2004 at 09:13 PM.
 
Old 11-19-2004, 02:45 PM   #6
clean_sweep
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Last night I successfully partitioned and formatted my external hard drive by doing this:

Control Panel -> Performance and Maintenance -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management (double click) -> Disk Management under Storage (double click)

Deleted all existing partitions, created a single partition, and then formatted it to NTFS system. XP gave me only one option for file system: NTFS (in the drop-down menu) - the icon for this drive now shows up in My Computer.

Someone at this forum tells why XP will only give you NTFS as a choice:

http://forums.devhardware.com/archive/t-22953

At the website below the author talks about NTFS and says that Linux does not provide write support to NTFS system. I am not sure what that means, but at the end he says that only RedHat does not support NTFS and all other distros do:

http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/info/ntfs.html#1.1

So I am worried. Can I still install Mandrake 10.1 on NTFS system (by choosing 'Use existing partition' during installation) and hope it will work fine later and I will be able to write, save, and delete files? Thanks.
 
Old 11-29-2004, 07:37 PM   #7
clean_sweep
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I am still unable to get past the 'partition' hurdle. After I found out that XP won't let me partition my external hard drive back to FAT32 filesystem, I bought PartitionMagic 8.0 to do the job. This software is indeed pretty nice and offers these filesystems to choose from:

FAT
FAT32
Linux Ext2
Linux Ext3
Linux Swap

I chose FAT32 to get it back and did get it back. But when I tried to install Mandrake 10.0 I again ran into the same set of problems. When I chose 'Use Existing Partition', I got this error:

"I don't know how to format sda5 in type ext2:vfat"

I have no clue what this error is about.

Then I chose 'Custom Partition', I got a screen that looks like this:

Filesystem Type: Ext2 | Journalized FS | Swap | Windows | Other | Empty

sda
/ /home
mount
delete
another button

When I click on button (/home), I see these details:

Mount point: /home
Device: sda6
Type: ext2:vfat
Size: 67 GB (90%)
Not formatted

Needless to say the above screen is extremely cryptic to me. I had formatted my external hard drive (75 GB size) to FAT32 filesystem, so how come it shows up as only 67 GB, 'ext2:vfat' and 'Not formatted'?

When I click on those buttons for 'Filesystem Types', I am told to type '/'. I do not know where to type it.

Anyway, I do not know what to do. Should I format my external hard drive again and choose Linux Ext2 or Ext3 or Linux Swap this time instead of FAT32?

I really hate to see that Mandrake 10.1 DVD did not come with even a line of installation help or hint. So I am here counting on your help. Thanks.
 
Old 11-29-2004, 10:31 PM   #8
michaelk
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Yes you need to reformat. The problem might be due to the fact your trying to install linux to a vfat filesystem.

I do not have any experience with formating an external hard drive but if PM seems to work then try it again but this time create some linux filesystems. To keep things simple create 3 partitions
swap 512MB
/boot 100MB (ext3 type)
/ remaining free space. (ext3 type)

Then during the install select using existing partitions. Its been awhile since I've used the Mandrake partition tool so I can not remember the exact details. You need to select the partition and the assign the mount point i.e. / and /boot. It is not required to assign swap a mount point.
 
Old 11-29-2004, 11:53 PM   #9
clean_sweep
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Thanks for responding. Actually I have just successfully installed Mandrake. I used PartitionMagic to choose 'Install New OS' and it partitioned and formatted my external hard drive for me. Great!

Then the installation from the DVD was easy (though I skipped few things, like Proxy Settings, etc - which I will see later); however, I probably got into a little mess.

During installation I chose 'No Password'. Now when I boot to Mandrake Linux, it asks for the password. What to do? In general, if I have messed or skipped anything during installation, how do I go back and fix it? Thanks in advance.
 
Old 12-26-2004, 02:02 PM   #10
fairyliquidizer
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When you chose Install New OS, does it ask which OS or do you tell it what filesystem to use (for example ext3, JFS, FAT)?

Thanks,
Fairy
 
  


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