install gparted on Ubuntu 8.10

[Nils Kassube]

lazer100 wrote:
> On 17-Sep-12 23:19:49 Nils Kassube wrote:
> >If you use e.g. gparted it will automatically format the partitions
> >according to the selected file system
> 
> you can select "unformatted" as the formatting option with gparted on
> 8.10,
> 
> but it only shows this option for formatted partitions if you first
> delete the partition and then create a new one.
> 
> this option isnt shown if you reformat an already formatted one.

That's interesting - I never noticed that option.

> I used this in order to zero the drive, as there were some problems
> zeroing an already formatted one as I think the zeroing interferes
> with the file system,
> not sure.

Sure it interferes with an existing file system - if you zero a 
partition, you REMOVE the file system.

> > but if you use good old fdisk, it
> >will only write the partition table and not format anything. And if
> >you overwrite a partition with zeroes, like the OP wanted to do, it
> >is also not formatted afterwards.
> 
> this not being formatted afterwards leads to some problems!

Right, depending on the data already existing in the space now used by 
the newly created partition entry it may look like a valid file system 
probably with lots of errors.

> so I needed to unformat the drive initially
> with gparted as mentioned above,
> 
> another problem which happened was that when you delete and reformat
> as unformatted, the partition numbering changes, which makes it more
> effort to keep track of which ones had been zeroed.
> 
> 
> I managed to get them into ascending numbers, but with some numbers
> missing,

The numbers are always 1 to 4 for the primary partitions and from 5 
upwards for logical partitions inside the extended partition. So if you 
only have one primary partition you can't have the remaining numbers 
below 5. But from 5 upwards there shouldn't be any numbers missing.

> I dont know if there is any way to renumber the partitions,
> so they ascend sdc1 sdc2 sdc3 ....

I think you could use fdisk and first delete all partitions and then 
create new entries with the same geometry and partition type as the 
partitions you have now but in the wanted order. However it is very 
error-prone and I would avoid it if at all possible. OTOH, as long as 
you are playing with an empty disk there shouldn't be a real problem. :)

> one other problem I had is that one mustnt zero the extended
> partition as its not a proper partition!

Right. If you zero the extended partition you loose all logical 
partitions inside the extended partition ...


Nils