Hard Drive Format

[sly]

I have a vista desktop that I used the Mint live dvd and installed mint 12 with no trouble. But I am new at this and just for a learning experience I would like to use a windows system repair disc from my windows 7 computer to format the hard drive on the linux computer and then reinstall linux with the live dvd. I know the live dvd will do this I am doing it this way just to learn how to format a hard drive. What I would like to know before doing this is will Linux Mint install to a hard drive that is formatted with no operating system and does it need to be a certain type file system like Fat32? I assume it would not matter but do not want to format the hard drive and then find I can not install Mint from the live dvd because I formatted the wrong way. Remember just doing this for the learning experience. I guess I should add that I installed Linux to the whole hard drive and did away with windows, what ever that option was called, forgot the way it was worded, in other words no dual boot. Thanks sly

[Aging Technogeek]

Almost any Linux distro will install to a blank hard drive with no problems.

With a Windows system repair disk, pretty much the only options available for formatting will be the fat32 or ntfs since these are the only ones Windows recognizes. Linux will read from and write to almost any file system, but I am not sure about installing to fat32 or ntfs.

Normally I use ext4. Other popular choices are ext3, reiserfs, xfs, etc. A newer file system that is gaining popularity is btrfs, but I have seen recent reports that it can be buggy.

[sly]

Thank you for the reply. I will not be doing this for a few weeks so I have time to see if anyone replys that has done this. If not how do I make the hard drive blank, will the windows system repair disc do this? I guess the Mint Live dvd will do ext4 and I will have to learn that? If anyone has done this with the hard drive formatted to ntfs let me know. Thanks

[sly]

Ok did google for blank disc and found article to use DBAN. Says it is a destruction program. Would I have to make a partition or will the mint live dvd do that. In other word simply use DBAN then use the Mint live dvd and install Mint. I would still like to use the windows system repair disc for the experience. Which way do I have to go? Thanks

[Aging Technogeek]

DBAN (Derik's Boot and Nuke) is an excellent disk erasing application, even if it is a little slow. It normally uses a three pass overwrite. Two passes writing random characters and one pass writing all 0s. On a large drive, even on a fast computer it can take 3-5 hours to completely erase the drive.

A good alternative is Active Killdisk. This can do a single pass, all 0s overwrite in 1-2 hours. Versions of both DBAN and Active Killdisk are available in Parted Magic, a disk cleaning and repair OS. Download it here: http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=downloads and transfer the ISO image to either a CD or a flash drive just as you would for any Linux OS.

Actually, if you are going to reuse the drive, I would not suggest using a disk erasing program at all, unless the drive has been used a great deal and you want to clean it up. Using Gparted from the Mint live desktop to create a new partition table and format the drive to any file system you want will effectively give the same results for your purpose in much less time.

Once the drive is clean, you can go directly to the Mint disk and install Mint without using any partitioner to premake partitions or format them. The Mint installer includes a partitioning section so all of the required partitions can be set up either automatically or manually at your discretion.

I have never used a Windows Repair Disk to set partitions for either Windows or Linux so I cannot advise you on how to do this. As a general rule, I do not use Windows utilities to work on Linux installations and I do not use Linux utilities to work on Windows installations (if there are Windows tools available). I do know that Windows does not use any of the common Linux file systems so I would assume that they will not be offered as options on the Windows Repair Disk. This is not a big problem because, unless told not to, most Linux installers will format partitions to either ext3 or ext4 by default.

You can use the Windows repair disk if you want to, but it is really not necessary. All the tools you need are in the Mint ISO you downloaded, or, if you prefer in Parted Magic. If you decide to use the Linux tools and need assistance, just ask.

[HughT]

Hi sly, for a learning experience you'd be best advised to use gparted for formatting your drive. It has more options than Windows. As Aging Technogeek says "I do not use Windows utilities to work on Linux installations and I do not use Linux utilities to work on Windows installations (if there are Windows tools available)". Yes, you can install Mint on a drive which has no operating system, and the installation routine will format an unformatted disk for you. Or you can format with gparted. Generally ext4 is recommended. regards

[sly]

Ok you guys have made my mind up gparted it is. I am a little confused on what to do with the disc with it. You say that the live dvd will do all that is needed with the install as partition and format. So what options do I take to clean the disc with gparted or would I just format the disc? And thank you for this help. I am just mainly wanting to learn how to clear a disc no matter what is on it and install a fresh version of mint.

[Aging Technogeek]

Boot the Mint live DVD to the desktop. Open Gparted (Menu=>Other=>Gparted). There will be a graphical representation of your hard drive at the top of the page and a partition table below it.

In the partition table, click on the drive, then go to the "Device" menu at the top left and select "Create New Partition Table". Now click the green check mark and click "Apply" in the warning box.

Once the new partition table is created, the drive will be displayed as all unallocated space. To format the drive, right click on it and select the file system you want from the drop down menu in the "Create Partition" box. Leave everything else in the box at the default settings and the entire drive will be formatted to the file system you chose.

You can, however, proceed to installation of Mint without formatting the drive. Once the new partition table is created, close Gparted and double click the "Install Linux Mint" icon on the desktop to start the installer.

The third or fourth page (I never can remember which it is) will offer two methods of installing Mint (since you are not dual booting. In a dual boot scenario, there would be a third option: "Install beside Existing OS, Choosing Which to use at Start up"). The first is to use the entire drive, letting the installer create the required partitions and install the Grub bootloader in the proper place.

The second is "Something Else". This will transfer you to the manual partitioning page. This is actually a form of Gparted, modified to run as a part of the installer. Here you can set up any partitioning scheme you want by specifying each partition as to size, logical or primary partition, file system, and mount point.

This is also where you would need to be to use preset partitions if you partitioned the drive with Gparted before you began the installation. In this case, you would just click each partition to select it and specify the mount point (/ [root], /home, etc.).

Once all the partitions you want are set, go to the bottom of the manual partitioning page and select a location for the Grub bootloader installation. In your case, with only Mint on the drive, leave this at the default setting of /dev/sda.

Now click "Install Now" and let the installer do its job. It should take 15-20 minutes at most to install from a DVD, or 8-15 minutes to install from a flash drive.

[sly]

Thanks Aging Technogeek, I will follow your instructions, looks like a good first time learning experience. I to am aging, 59. I will not be able to do this till I get to go to the house I plan to retire to, staying at a rent house near work. I only get to go once a month or so, to far to travel ever day. That is where the computer is. If I have any problems will come back here. I plan to read up on gparted all I can to be ready. Thanks again for your time. sly