Scott Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Looking for some completely newbie help. Now, I have virtually zero linux experience so please bare this in mind if you try to help me and I don't get it. I have a 2.5" HDD that I want to format in ext3. I have a HDD USB caddy to connect it to the laptop. My understanding of it all is that my only way of formatting this drive in ext3 is to download a Linux Live CD and then format the drive via that. Could someone point out a live CD that I could use and how to use it? I downloaded 1 but it was german and when it loaded there was a menu with options 1-11. I had no idea which one to choose or which commands to use. Could someone give me step by step instructions on how to go about doing this? I would need a link for a useful live CD as well. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted November 21, 2009 Author Share Posted November 21, 2009 Managed it myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AndyT Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Kinda knew you would mate. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Scott any changes you could post a link to the instructions you found? I guess I could look for them myself but if you have the links which worked it would be handy. Just got an Apple Macbook and getting used to the Mac OS, at work I am running, WinXP and Windows 7 but want to get onto using Linux as I always hear how good it is but have no attempted to understand this OS (if they even call it that). Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheekymonkey Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Don't go installing linux all over that lovely powerbook now :*) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Don't go installing linux all over that lovely powerbook now :*) Hehe won't do James! Thanks mate though, it is lovely & just as good as you said it would be! The power plug is a work of art though! I've got a few spare machines at work so might chuck it on this, once I get a better understanding then might build one at home. Hope wedding plans are going well Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Posted November 21, 2009 Author Share Posted November 21, 2009 Don't have any links bud. Just kept playing around and eventually figured it out. The bootable OS I got was KNOPPIX. Just make sure you get the english version. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheekymonkey Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 If you download Ubuntu which is the distro of choice these days for Newbies, then you can boot into live mode or install from the same CD - yey flexibility! Once the CD is booted you can drop to a terminal, and format your external drive using the mke2fs command: sudo mke2fs -j /dev/sdb1 but MAKE SURE that /dev/sdb1 is your external drive and not the wrong drive! Use the dmesg command to look through the kernel messages and it will tell you which drive is which. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Abz Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Don't have any links bud. Just kept playing around and eventually figured it out. The bootable OS I got was KNOPPIX. Just make sure you get the english version. Thanks dude, I think I'll read & understand it before I go for installing the OS so then I have a better understanding of it. Don't worry I can understand German...well Google translate does Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cheekymonkey Posted November 21, 2009 Share Posted November 21, 2009 Hehe won't do James! Thanks mate though, it is lovely & just as good as you said it would be! The power plug is a work of art though! I've got a few spare machines at work so might chuck it on this, once I get a better understanding then might build one at home. Hope wedding plans are going well Yep all plans going well, hope yours are too! I'd definately start with Ubuntu, trouble is it does make things too easy so you don't really get much of an idea of what's happening under the hood. I cut my teeth on Slackware many years ago. If you REALLY want to go technical then try "linux from scratch" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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