Help with Format

[mikepren]

Hi,

I'd like to format the Windows XP partition of my disk and use that space for Ubuntu. I already have Ubuntu installed, so I don't want to format that part of my drive. Can I format just the XP partition, or do I have to format the whole thing?

Thanks!

[MikeTbob]

Hello and Welcome.
You can format anything you want. Boot Ubuntu and open a terminal window, issue these commands and post your results.

sudo fdisk -l

mount

[yancek]

You can format any partition you just need to know which partition has xp on it. They will show as ntfs filesystem type in the /etc/fstab file or as 7 under the fdisk output. You can get the information by opening a terminal and entering: sudo fdisk -l(lower case Letter L in the command).

[mikepren]

Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x7c537c53

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 14592 117210208+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
dylan@ubuntu:~$ mount
/dev/loop0 on / type ext4 (rw,errors=remount-ro,user_xattr,commit=0)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
none on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
fusectl on /sys/fs/fuse/connections type fusectl (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/debug type debugfs (rw)
none on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
none on /dev type devtmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
none on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=0620)
none on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
none on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
none on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/dev/sda1 on /host type fuseblk (rw,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=0,group_id=0,all ow_other,blksize=4096)
binfmt_misc on /proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc type binfmt_misc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
gvfs-fuse-daemon on /home/dylan/.gvfs type fuse.gvfs-fuse-daemon (rw,nosuid,nodev,user=dylan)

Is that what you need?

Oh, and thanks!

[yancek]

If you posted the entire output of the fdisk -l command, it shows only one partition on your 120GB drive and that is a windows partition. Is this a wubi install? If it is, Ubuntu is installed as a program inside windows and if you format the windows partition, Ubuntu will be gone also. You would need to shrink/resize your windows partition (sda1) and then create a partition and do an actual install of Ubuntu to a separate partition before formatting the windows partition.

[mikepren]

I see. It is a wubi install.

Could i format the entire disk and do a reinstall using a Live CD? If so, can I format the whole disk from inside Ubuntu? My XP boot is messed up and I can only boot into Ubuntu right now.

[yancek]

Could i format the entire disk and do a reinstall using a Live CD?

Yes. You should have the option to select any or all partitions to format during the installation. Do you want to keep windows xp? Do you want to use the whole disk for Ubuntu? You will need to use the Ubuntu install CD to do this. If you have data you want to save, do it before trying to install.

I'm not sure what your intentions are?

[mikepren]

Thanks for the reply. I booted with the Live CD and formatted using a complete reinstall. Good enough!

Thanks anyway!

Mike