Formating/Partioning a Hard drive

[SimpleSi]

I never seem able to just wipe a hard drive and partition it the way I want using Knoppix.

I feel it should be easy to put a Knoppix CD in and wipe the hard drive and start again with what I want (Normally an NTFS Partition for Windows and a FAT32 to receive a Ghost image from another machine).

But I seem to always run into problems using QTParted - it won't let be delete partitions or move them or something

I try for an hour then give up and just use Acronis from a boot floppy (it was free on a cover disc a few years ago).

But I feel it is either very simple to do this and I'm stupid (no comments from my Lancs colleagues please) or I've found Linux's dark secret - it can't just wipe a hard drive and start again.

I've googled and read HOWTOs untill I'm blue in the face but of course most info tells you how to set up a Linux filesystem and assumes you have a blank disc to start with - my discs come with pre-installed Windows XP in funny hiiden partitions

Any help gratefully received.

regards
Simon

[Ric_]

Why aren't you using FDISK off a floppy like everyone else (or indeed just using the Windows installation disc to repartition the disc)?

[Geoff]

yep, fdisk on Linux or Windows is what you want.

If you want it idiot proof, invest in a copy of partition magic.

[SimpleSi]

"Use Fdisk or Partition Manager"

Yes - they work fine.

I just feel there must be another way.

"fdisk on Linux"

I haven't been able to find a simple instruction that says run fdisk, press m and then press ??? to wipe the disc and start again

regards

Simon

[ChrisH]

In my experience there has always usually been a folder on the distro I have been using called dos tools or something with Fdisk in and other tools to get you started.

Came across this while I was double checking. Certainly made me chortle

[Geoff]

I haven't been able to find a simple instruction that says run fdisk, press m and then press ??? to wipe the disc and start again

Run fdisk <device> (Where device is something like /dev/hda)

'p' prints the current partition table setup.
'd' delete's partitions,
'n' creates new partitions.
'a' makes a partition bootable.
't' sets the partition type (press 'l' to get a list).
'w' writes out the partition table.
'q' quits without writing the table.

[SimpleSi]

@Geoff
OK - I'll try again next time I need to do this

regards
Simon

[SimpleSi]

Well I've some new laptops so I decided to try again!

I used cfdisk (which seems to be a front-end thingy for fdisk) and it seemed to work OK - I could delete all the partitions and create new ones.

However, I've found I have to re-boot once I've made the changes otherwise Knoppix doesn't realise what's happened and gets terribly confused.

Once this is done - everthing is fine.

regards

Simon

[Geoff]

you should be able to do a 'sync' from the command line on the disk and knoppix will figure out whats going on without a reboot.

[SimpleSi]

Ta
Simon