Dual boot of windows (ext3 formatting)

fwc · 12-22-2008, 12:57 AM

Hello all,
I am trying to install the latest version of Mint and having some problems. I already have Windows XP installed and I want to keep it, so I took a 22GB partition (ntfs) I had and tried to format it into a 20BG ext3 partition and a 2GB swap (I have 1GB RAM). Unfortunately, the ext3 did not and will not format properly so I currently have a swap and no ext3 file system. So, I was wondering if there was an easy way in bash (or somewhere else) to format the partition into ext3 if I can get it back to ntfs or just from "free space". Thanks very much for any help and I hope this isn't too hard.

r1d3r · 12-22-2008, 02:51 AM

Did you try formatting with Gparted or QtParted or ...?

billymayday · 12-22-2008, 02:59 AM

I'd download the gparted live cd (go to www.distrowatch.com), delete the partition and recreate it

arubin · 12-22-2008, 04:19 AM

From bash fdisk works fine. Command line but fairly straightforward.

ErV · 12-22-2008, 04:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arubin

From bash fdisk works fine. Command line but fairly straightforward.

There is also "cfdisk" which is easier to use. It still works in terminal, but offers text mode user interface.

onebuck · 12-22-2008, 07:23 AM

Hi,

Quote:

Originally Posted by fwc

Hello all,
I am trying to install the latest version of Mint and having some problems. I already have Windows XP installed and I want to keep it, so I took a 22GB partition (ntfs) I had and tried to format it into a 20BG ext3 partition and a 2GB swap (I have 1GB RAM). Unfortunately, the ext3 did not and will not format properly so I currently have a swap and no ext3 file system. So, I was wondering if there was an easy way in bash (or somewhere else) to format the partition into ext3 if I can get it back to ntfs or just from "free space". Thanks very much for any help and I hope this isn't too hard.

You will need to create two partitions; one for the 'root', one for the 'swap' from the '22GB' that you previously had as a 'ntfs' partition. You can use either 'fdisk' or 'cfdisk' to create the partitions.

Code:

from the 'cli';

~#fdisk /dev/your_device         #could be /dev/hda,b,c,d or /dev/sda,b,c,d
                                 #select a,b,c,d

~#cfdisk /dev/your_device        #could be /dev/hda,b,c,d or /dev/sda,b,c,d
                                 #select a,b,c,d

You can 'man fdisk' and 'man cfdisk' to get the particulars.

You then could rely on the distribution to create the filesystem or create one;

Code:

~#mke2fs -c -L MyPart1 -j /dev/hda1 #create ext3 filesystem on /dev/hda1 with label MyPart1
~#mkswap -c /dev/hda2               #make a swap area

You can 'man mke2fs' and 'man mkswap' to get the particulars.

Remember 'man' is your friend. The online version is fine but you do have 'man' from the 'cli'.