Ubuntu 11.04 with Gnome classic destop.

Ubuntu has me confused about drives and other storage media. I can pretty much figure out the flash drives and sd cards. My external harddrive also has a name and is easily recognised. My internal hard drive is called Acer because I guess, I have an Acer computer. Confusion comes when I also have "SYSTEM RESERVED"(ALL IN CAPS) AND "52 gb Filesystem". When I installed Ubuntu 11.04 sise by side with a defunct Win 7. I was asked to create a partition and to choose how much space to allocate for it. I chose 60 GB. Where is that partition? What is it named. Is it invisible? Can I rename a drive like in Windows and it keep that name? If I chose to reformat the internal harddrive(Acer) would it clobber Ubuntu? I have a bunch of apps installed now and I don't want to lose them and have to start over.
Thanks,
Paul

As your using Ubuntu the root drive will be called Filesystem if you look at Computer via nautilus (this will be your 60GB partition).

SYSTEM RESERVED and 52 gb Filesystem will be partitions setup either via Windows or the laptop manufacturer.
As for Acer, I think this may the name of the C drive for Windows that Acer gave to the drive.

Hope that helps.

I'm a little confused about that which you are asking. Let's see the output of these commands

Drives are identified by device ID i.e /dev/sd[a-z] and partitions i.e. /dev/sda[1-15] etc. However, partitions can also be identified by a partition label if assigned or by UUID. When an external drive is automatically mounted typically the mount point will be the partition label or if none exists the partition ID.

Depending on the distribution your partitions may or may not be automatically labeled during installation. If you just reformat the windows partition it will not effect your linux partitions unless you choose to reformat the entire drive. However, reinstalling windows would overwrite the linux bootloader. Labels can be changed but are mainly for automatically determining mount points when booting.

linux does not have separate drives like windows. Everything i.e all mount points fall under a directory tree with / being at the top. The default mount point for external drives and removal media is under /media/

To see how the all connected drives are partitioned:
sudo fdisk -l (that is a small L )

And I thought *Linux* had me confused?
I think I'm worse off than ever. Here is the output of the four terminal commands posted by syg00. It's all Greek to me.

p3aul@p3aul-Aspire-X3910:~$ df -hT
Filesystem Type Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda6 ext4 53G 42G 8.6G 83% /
none devtmpfs 2.0G 784K 2.0G 1% /dev
none tmpfs 2.0G 620K 2.0G 1% /dev/shm
none tmpfs 2.0G 248K 2.0G 1% /var/run
none tmpfs 2.0G 0 2.0G 0% /var/lock
/dev/sdc1 vfat 881G 611G 271G 70% /media/My Book
/dev/sdc5 ext4 49G 2.2G 44G 5% /media/aedf1795-4c1e-41d9-a20d-33d3f14eb5af
/dev/sda3 fuseblk 522G 126G 396G 25% /media/Acer
/dev/sde1 vfat 1.9G 1.8G 109M 95% /media/FC30-3DA9
/dev/sda2 fuseblk 100M 25M 76M 25% /media/SYSTEM RESERVED
/dev/sdb1 vfat 7.5G 6.7G 887M 89% /media/CRUZER
/dev/sdf1 vfat 7.5G 16K 7.5G 1% /media/2075-A8EB
p3aul@p3aul-Aspire-X3910:~$

p3aul@p3aul-Aspire-X3910:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for p3aul:

Disk /dev/sda: 640.1 GB, 640135028736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 77825 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xebaa5a74

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1785 14336000 27 Unknown
/dev/sda2 * 1785 1798 102400 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 1798 69857 546681268 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda4 69857 77826 64010241 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 77308 77826 4157440 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 69857 76790 55693312 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 76790 77308 4153344 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdc: 1000.2 GB, 1000204886016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 121601 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xe8900690

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 1 114957 923392071 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sdc2 114958 121601 53367930 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 114958 121324 51142896 83 Linux
/dev/sdc6 121325 121601 2224971 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sde: 2028 MB, 2028994560 bytes
55 heads, 54 sectors/track, 1334 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 2970 * 512 = 1520640 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sde1 * 1 1335 1981314+ 6 FAT16

Disk /dev/sdb: 8065 MB, 8065646080 bytes
8 heads, 32 sectors/track, 61535 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 256 * 512 = 131072 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 61536 7876591+ b W95 FAT32

Disk /dev/sdf: 8004 MB, 8004304896 bytes
35 heads, 21 sectors/track, 21269 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 735 * 512 = 376320 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdf1 1 21270 7816688 b W95 FAT32
p3aul@p3aul-Aspire-X3910:~$

p3aul@p3aul-Aspire-X3910:~$ sudo parted -l
Model: ATA Hitachi HDT72106 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 640GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 1049kB 14.7GB 14.7GB primary ntfs diag
2 14.7GB 14.8GB 105MB primary ntfs boot
3 14.8GB 575GB 560GB primary ntfs
4 575GB 640GB 65.5GB extended
6 575GB 632GB 57.0GB logical ext4
7 632GB 636GB 4253MB logical linux-swap(v1)
5 636GB 640GB 4257MB logical linux-swap(v1)


Model: SanDisk SanDisk Cruzer (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 8066MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 16.4kB 8066MB 8066MB primary fat32 boot


Model: WD 10EADS External (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 1000GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 946GB 946GB primary fat32 lba
2 946GB 1000GB 54.6GB extended
5 946GB 998GB 52.4GB logical ext4
6 998GB 1000GB 2278MB logical linux-swap(v1)


Model: Multiple Flash Reader (scsi)
Disk /dev/sde: 2029MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 129kB 2029MB 2029MB primary fat16 boot


Model: SanDisk Cruzer (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdf: 8004MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 16.4kB 8004MB 8004MB primary fat32


p3aul@p3aul-Aspire-X3910:~$

Thanks,
Paul

Distros like Ubuntu try to make things easier for folks used to the Windoze way of doing things. If a filesystem has a label, it'll show that, and if it can recognise a "known" device (like the Cruzer), it'll use that for displays. You didn't show all the data asked for, but here goes:

- My internal hard drive is called Acer because I guess, I have an Acer computer.
This is actually your main NTFS (Win7) "drive" - it shows up as "Acer" as that will be the label given to it by Acer.

-Confusion comes when I also have "SYSTEM RESERVED"(ALL IN CAPS).
Probably a recover partition for Acer, but may just be a Win7 boot partition. "SYSTEM RESERVED" would be it's label.

- I chose 60 GB. Where is that partition? What is it named. Is it invisible?
That is your Linux root partition (the "52 gb Filesystem" you see)- similar to the main Win7 partition mentioned above. It's the one shown as "/" in the df list.

-Can I rename a drive like in Windows and it keep that name?
Yes - "man e2label" in your case.

- If I chose to reformat the internal harddrive(Acer) would it clobber Ubuntu?
No, provided you hit the correct partition.

I think I'm beginning to understand. I'm going to number my questions so they will be easier to answer.

[1] Is this "Acer" drive the Windows partition part of the internal hard drive and 52 GB file system the Ubuntu part of the internal drive?

[2] When I install a Ubuntu software is it installed in the Ubuntu partition or elsewhere? if ubuntu apps are installed only the Ubuntu partition and will i soon run out of space there?

[3] The 52 GB Filesystem is still short by 8 GB of the size I allotted. Did ubuntu grab those 8 GB for housekeeping and made in invisible?

[4] Right now grub(I think) list several options at boot-up one being to load the corrupt Win 7 OS. Would I confuse grub if just deleted everything in the Win 7 partition including the Windows folder? I don't really need to reformat it, just free up space.

I tried the terminal command by opening a terminal in the 8 GB Filesystem I pasted your command "man CRUZER2" this the result I got:

Anybody, Please?

I need solutions for 1 through 4 above. I have found the solution to renaming removable usb and sd cards. Put them in a windows machine and choose rename. That is the only thing I found to work that is 100% fool-proof.

Paul

1. Looking at the information provided I would say yes and yes:
2. Again, from the above it would seem you only have 8.6G left of the original 53G so yes you will run out shortly if left this way.

3. It appears that you have been allotted 2 swap spaces that make up the difference:
4. No you will not confuse grub unless you pick that option and grub tries to boot windows. If you format the drive and
run a grub-update I think it should remove those items for you.

[1]Can I install ubuntu software were i want it or will it always be placed in that partition?
[2] if not, how can I create more space? Can I run some sort of partition software and increase the size of that partition without deleing anything?
Thanks,
Paul