Installed Opensuse on back up,how to delete windows HDD?

**KillzonePs3** · 12-Jun-2010, 06:51

hey all, new to the forums and new to opensuse, my desktop computer has 2 hardrives, one 70gb and one 40gb, previously, the 40gb was windows XP and the 70gb was a backup, I decided to install opensuse on the 70gb backup, and now I want to wipe out the 40gb HDD that has windows xp and turn that into a back up, how would I do this?

Thanks.

**caf4926** · 12-Jun-2010, 06:57

If the XP HD is just one partition you can just delete all the files on it from within openSUSE and use it as it is, unless you want to change the format of the disk.

If you open a terminal and become su -
post result of

Code:

fdisk -l

we will see more

**KillzonePs3** · 12-Jun-2010, 07:13

thanks for the fast reply, this is what I got.

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x27af27ae

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 4864 39070048+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x88db7687

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 262 2104483+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb2 263 2873 20972857+ 83 Linux
/dev/sdb3 2874 9729 55070820 83 Linux

So on the 40gb that has windows xp,I can just delete it all and use it as a back up no problem?, would changing the file system have any impact on performance etc.

EDIT - when I go into the 40gb, I can't delete any of the files, theres no delete option.

**caf4926** · 12-Jun-2010, 07:28

You need to do some work first

Post result of this from terminal

Code:

cat /etc/fstab

I'm leading you to this, so you may be able to work it out yourself.
FSTAB - Editing Manually - openSUSE Forums

@swerdna has a help here too
HowTo Mount NTFS Filesystem Partition Read Write Access in openSUSE

reboot required

then you will be good to go

**KillzonePs3** · 12-Jun-2010, 07:39

I get this

/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST380011A_5JV9NM1P-part1 swap swap defaults 0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST380011A_5JV9NM1P-part2 / ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 1
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST380011A_5JV9NM1P-part3 /home ext4 acl,user_xattr 1 2
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-ST340015A_5LA30FAS-part1 /windows/C ntfs-3g users,gid=users,fmask=133,dmask=022,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
sysfs /sys sysfs noauto 0 0
debugfs /sys/kernel/debug debugfs noauto 0 0
devpts /dev/pts devpts mode=0620,gid=5 0 0

and thanks for the links i'll check them now.

**hcvv** · 12-Jun-2010, 07:39

When you want to use that disk (one partition) as a backup for your openSUSE system and there is thus no Windows any more, I would certainly format it into an ext4 file system. Using a Windows file system type in a Linux only shop is asking for disappointments.

**KillzonePs3** · 12-Jun-2010, 07:43

oh I see,is there a program I can get to format it into ext4?

**dvhenry** · 12-Jun-2010, 07:44

would changing the file system have any impact on performance etc.

On this point I would use ext4.

**dvhenry** · 12-Jun-2010, 07:50

oh I see,is there a program I can get to format it into ext4?

Parted Magic does a nice job of this, but you could use the partitioning tool in openSUSE, or other tools.

**KillzonePs3** · 12-Jun-2010, 07:57

cool,I just opened expert partitioner..no clue what to do LOL, I see the windows partition, I clicked " edit " , and now I see the format option for "sda1 " I ticked format with the file system as ext4

Below it states mounting options, should I mount it or not? ( no idea what it means, excuse my lack of knowledge on this )