[dio_free]

Hi guys,
Apologies for the newb question but I can't for the life of me remember how I did this last time.

I have a brand new media hard drive I want to use to store my media. This time around I am installing the OS on a flash drive, and using the internal HDD purely for media (it is also a larger drive as my current one is full). My question is, do I need to format this new drive at all? If so, can anyone direct me to a simple guide, or provide the steps for a beginner on how to do this, what type of format to select, etc.

I have access to a Ubuntu Live Disk, I could also try using something like Parted Magic Live CD. If there are any steps i should know about, please share them.

Your help will save me alot of time. Thank you in advance.

[nickr]

Install the OS on the flash drive. Boot the machine. Work out what device name is given to the big drive, if you have 2 drives (the flash and the data drive) one will /dev/sda and one will be /dev/sdb. You can work out which is what by running

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

Lets assume for the rest of this that the data disk is /dev/sdb. If it isn't, adjust accordingly.

Install gparted.

Then run it as root

Code:

gksudo gparted /dev/sdb

Partition the disk - MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE RIGHT ONE!! - it can all be one big partition or you can divide it up if you want multi partitions. I am pretty sure gparted allows you to format as well as partition. I'll assume one partition which will be /dev/sdb1.

ext4 is a reasonable filesystem.

Then make a place to mount it, and add the place to /etc/fstab

Code:

mkdir /mnt/data
mount /dev/sdb1 /mnt/data

Now when we get to fstab we want to use UUIDs not device names, becasue device names can change.

Code:

sudo blkid

will get you the UUID for /dev/sdb1

Then add this line to /etc/fstab

Code:

UUID=the_long_number_you_got_from_blkid  /mnt/data               ext4    errors=remount-ro 0       1

[dio_free]

Thanks Nickr!

From Step1 onward:

Code:
sudo fdisk -l

Is this doable in OpenElec? That is the only OS I have installed on my xbmc box. My other computer runs windows, and i assumed it is from there that i could use a live disk to prepare the disk. Is that incorrect?

[nickr]

I am not sure whether i is possible in openelec. You'd probably need to use the commandline tool fdisk or cfdisk rather than gparted.

[Prof Yaffle]

No fdisk in Openelec to my knowledge. Booting into Ubuntu from your live disc should give you a working environment that allows you to follow the instructions.