Windows not seeing linux drive

joemardo1

Hi there,

Following on from an earlier post when I was enquiring about linux, I have found a copy of ubuntu linux (6.0 I think) on a dvd from a comp mag and installed it on my comp. It has installed fine it seems, but on going into windows I cant see the drive now on my computer that ubuntu is installed on, can see it in admin tools-computer management-disk management, but as I said my computer doesn't see the ubuntu drive and the backup program paragon exact image sees the linux drive as being unformated. Do changes like this happen within windows when you install linux I wonder?

joe

dr_del

hi,

Im a bit of a linux noob myself but as far as I understand it linux uses a disk format that windows cannot natively understand.I think its possible tochange this at install as linux is nothing if not configurable.

The normal way dual-booters deal with this is to have a linux installation partition and a seperate data partition using a format both systems can understand ( probably fat 32 as most linux distro's wont write to ntfs in case they corrupt it)

I use virtual pc to test out all these different distros to get used to their foibles but its worth saying that if you break your linux installation and cannot fix it ( I've done this -ignorance and root don't mix!) you can salvage any critical data by using a linux live cd.

Most distro's have one of these and they are handy things to have sitting around - as can be bart's PE if your windows drive is ntfs.



hope this helps until someone more knowlwdgeable comes along



dr del

wiraone

Joe,

That is expected as what dr del said, it is due to different formatting used by Linux. Linux distributions usually use Linux ext3 format which is unknown to Windows. You could however get a third party application such as the following:

http://www.chrysocome.net/explore2fs

Good luck and you won't regret it ..