Re: [Sheflug] How To

[Martin Gleadow <jez [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Alec Melling wrote:
<snip>
> I am using Kubuntu with KDE 3.4.2. I have a Maxtor USB HD formatted in NTFS. 
> The two do not go together. I have read only access to this drive, so 
> basically it is a useless tool.
>
> I know I can go back to Windos, buy a copy of Partion Magic and cure this 
> problem by re-formatting the drive with a Linux friendly FS.
>
> The crux of my long winded question is: How can I gain access to this drive 
> and re-format it in Kubuntu?
>
> A supplementary question is that given that this drive will be Linux only from 
> now on, what would be the best file system to format it in?
Although you cannot write to NTFS under Linux (for legal reasons I 
understand) Samba can be used to emulate the Windows SMB (Server Message 
Block) method of sharing drives across a network.  I've not tried it 
myself, but I would have thought you would be able to set up a local 
drive as a Samba share and thus get read/write access.  I'm sure I have 
seen this mentioned elsewhere, but cannot guarantee it would work. 
Google may be your friend here, or someone else on the list may know.

It will be easy to reformat in Linux.  If you want a nice graphical 
interface, just 'apt-get install qtparted' if you do not have it 
already.  Kubuntu will probably refer to the drive as /dev/sdX where X 
may be a, b, c etc (IDE drives are /dev/hda and /dev/hdb, USB drives are 
often identified by the SCSI notation of /dev/sdX).  Partitions are 
indicated by a number after this, so the first partition on your USB 
drive might be /dev/sda1

As for the file system, I tend to go with ext3.  If you want the drive 
to be read/writable in both Linux and Windows, FAT32 is probably the 
best I could suggest, or the NTFS + Samba workaround I mentioned earlier.

Martin
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