14 replies to this topic

[NNNOOOOOO]

I'm running it live CD right now. If i decide to install it, will it format my HDD? I want to keep Windows installed too (if I find what might be a cool program to tryout, games).

[rvalkass]

If you decide to install it, you will be given partition options. I believe now the installer has an automagical choice to say "Keep my Windows installation, free up some space for Linux to be installed on". If it doesn't then choose the option to manually edit the partitions, shrink your Windows partition, and use the free space to create a new partition for Linux.

[truefusion]

Since even after much defragging there is no telling whether or not you would lose (important) information after resizing a Windows partition, i would therefore recommend simply getting a new hard drive with small capacity (about 20 gigs) for using Linux.

[NNNOOOOOO]

OK, now to my original question. I figured out how to access my C drive and removable drives, but what about my CD drives and my secondary hard drive? My master HDD has my windows installation and programs on it @ 14GB total memory. My slave HDD has all my music and videos, a few programs and a couple of games on it @ 70GB total memory. Can I partition my largest drive into 2, so that the largest partition contains my music, videos, and everything else already on it and have enough room left for more. Then the smallest partition gets the Xubuntu installation?

[truefusion]

The average Linux distro only needs about 2 gigs for the system alone. So long as you place all your personal files else where, the most you'll probably ever need for a Linux system is 10 gigs (even then that may be a bit too much). You can create new partitions on which ever can provide room for the Linux system. In fact, you can even install and run Linux from a USB flash drive (though it would perform slower than from a regular hard drive). But i would still recommend getting an extra hard drive. Xfce, the desktop environment for Xubuntu, has support for picking up and displaying all kinds of drives: CD/DVD drives, USB drives and hard disk drives.

[rpgsearcherz]

If you decide to install the OS you will be given an option to install alongside Windows. It will install/configure the bootloader and everything for you, although I'm not sure if it will force you to repartition in the process.

I've personally never had a problem with repartitioning before and losing anything, but you should back up all your files anyways (you never know when your HDD will go out!).

[NNNOOOOOO]

I installed it and it made me partition the HDD. It still won't let me access my E(?) drive, nor my F(?) drive (I think E is my 2nd HDD and F is my 2nd CD drive).

[rpgsearcherz]

NNNOOOOOO, on 23 July 2010 - 06:34 PM, said:

I installed it and it made me partition the HDD. It still won't let me access my E(?) drive, nor my F(?) drive (I think E is my 2nd HDD and F is my 2nd CD drive).

That's weird because Ubuntu can read fat32 and NTFS without an issue (both of which are the only options with Windows OS's).

Since you still have Windows up (right?) are you able to view the drives in that?

[NNNOOOOOO]

rpgsearcherz, on 23 July 2010 - 08:33 PM, said:

That's weird because Ubuntu can read fat32 and NTFS without an issue (both of which are the only options with Windows OS's).

Since you still have Windows up (right?) are you able to view the drives in that?

Windows can red it just fine. The only time I can view the contents of the drives is when I do something like add files to the list in the media player. It can read the external drives in it (so far, it was just one flash drive.)

[rpgsearcherz]

NNNOOOOOO, on 23 July 2010 - 10:36 PM, said:

Windows can red it just fine. The only time I can view the contents of the drives is when I do something like add files to the list in the media player. It can read the external drives in it (so far, it was just one flash drive.)

So your second HDD is external, not internal?

If that's the case, try unplugging it/turning it off and turning it back on/plug it back in. Linux has to "mount" drives so that may be your issue (it might not be mounting properly).

[truefusion]

On an Ubuntu system, the desktop environment is usually what mounts portable drives for you, and they are mounted somewhere in the /media directory. Once they are mounted, they will be listed in the file manager's location panel. When deciding to remove the device from its port, it is advised to unmount the device through the file manager. In this way you can be notified if the device is busy or if it is safe to remove the device from its port. The operating system will not allow you to unmount the device if it is busy (i.e. in use by the system). This does not prevent you from removing the device from its port, but if you remove it before the system is done using it, then you can corrupt any data inside the device.

The CD drive only gets mounted when you insert a CD into the drive. Otherwise it is not mounted, as there is no need to mount the device if it doesn't have any content. The system will know that it is there so long as the motherboard can recognize the device, but the CD drive will not be mounted simply because it has been detected.

When the device is mounted, depending on the desktop environment, you may be informed that the device has been mounted and its (temporary) location. Many desktop environments do not inform you, so if you were waiting for such a notification, you won't get one from those. However, the drives will still be accessible by any program that wishes to access the drive since the drive has been mounted.

[NNNOOOOOO]

rpgsearcherz, on 24 July 2010 - 01:49 AM, said:

So your second HDD is external, not internal?

If that's the case, try unplugging it/turning it off and turning it back on/plug it back in. Linux has to "mount" drives so that may be your issue (it might not be mounting properly).

NO, the HDDs are internal. When I say "external drives", I mean things like flash drives: "removable media".

[rpgsearcherz]

NNNOOOOOO, on 24 July 2010 - 07:41 PM, said:

NO, the HDDs are internal. When I say "external drives", I mean things like flash drives: "removable media".

Very weird then. I would try posting in the Ubuntu forums (or searching them) to see if they have any answers. All internal HDD's should be automatically mounted (and therefore read) upon the system booting up; this is especially true when Windows is still reading it -- means it's not an HDD issue.

[truefusion]

There is a program called "mountmanager" in the Ubuntu repository that you should try out. It is basically a frontend to /etc/fstab, though i wouldn't necesarily say it is user-friendly, but it is the best that i have found and used. You should consider installing it, tell it where to mount your hard drives, and save the changes. You may have to tell it to mount your hard drives if they are not already mounted. If you don't know how to do that but have picked a location for Windows-compatible partitions, then you can restart your computer. Just be sure not to mess around with the location of the root (/) parition.

[NNNOOOOOO]

Here's what I did:
I had a program to search for a file, but I clicked the "browse" button. I went to where I could see the HDDs and sent a shortcut to them to the desktop. Now I can access them.