I have two hard drives. One is for Windows and the files I have accumulated over time. The other hard drive is an empty hard drive that I want to use to install and use Ubuntu on. I have the Ubuntu 12.04 ISO disc and I booted with that disc.
Should I convert the empty hard drive's file system to ext4? If so, how do I do that? Would choosing "Erase and use the entire disc" convert the filesystem to ext4 automatically?
21 Answer
- Linux does not run on an ntfs filesystem. You will need to select another filesystem like ext4.
- Think about partitioning the disk first. For instance, two 25G partitions for system installations (one for trying out new releases, one stable one you use until you like a new one better), a swap partition (two times the memory size is the standard for swap size), and a big partition you can use for your files, which you can mount in your home directories. The system and data partition should be ext4.
- partition and select the filesystems and mount points during installation, select "do something else" instead of using whole disk. Really, only a / and swap need be initially defined at this time.
- Erase and use whole disk would work, but see #2 for other options.
- I always check the size of the disk being used for installation. /dev/sda is usually the internal hard disk, but check anyway.
