I'm trying to install Centos 5.1 on an external USB drive. I have 17
gigs free space, 2 gigs ext2, 420 gig of personal data. I've backed
up the personal data incase anything goes wrong. During installation
it allows me to pick the USB hard drive but then I get a warning
message "You have chosen to remove all Linux partitions (and ALL DATA
on them) on the following drives. /dev/sda. Is this just going to
search for Linux partitions and erase the data on them or will it
delete all data from the hard drive. I'm hoping for the Centos
installation just to use the free space and ext2 partitions. The free
space is for the installation and the ext2 would be for the Swap.

Thanks for the help,
Pete

Peter wrote:
> During installation
> it allows me to pick the USB hard drive but then I get a warning
> message "You have chosen to remove all Linux partitions (and ALL DATA
> on them) on the following drives. /dev/sda. Is this just going to
> search for Linux partitions and erase the data on them or will it
> delete all data from the hard drive.

It does exactly what the message says: it removes all Linux partitions
and all data on those partitions. If you have Windows (NTFS or FAT) or
some other OS partitions they will be left untouched, but the partition
numbers/Windows drive letters may change.

> I'm hoping for the Centos
> installation just to use the free space and ext2 partitions.

Then choose a different partitioning option, such as "Use free space"
or "Create custom layout". See:
http://www.centos.org/docs/5/html/5....setup-x86.html

> The free
> space is for the installation and the ext2 would be for the Swap.

Swap is its own partition type, you can't use ext2 for swap space
(unless you manually set up a swap file on that partition).

--
Markku Kolkka
markku.kolkka@iki.fi

Peter wrote:
> I'm trying to install Centos 5.1 on an external USB drive. I have 17
> gigs free space, 2 gigs ext2, 420 gig of personal data. I've backed
> up the personal data incase anything goes wrong. During installation
> it allows me to pick the USB hard drive but then I get a warning
> message "You have chosen to remove all Linux partitions (and ALL DATA
> on them) on the following drives. /dev/sda. Is this just going to
> search for Linux partitions and erase the data on them or will it
> delete all data from the hard drive. I'm hoping for the Centos
> installation just to use the free space and ext2 partitions. The free
> space is for the installation and the ext2 would be for the Swap.

It is going to erase everything and create new partitions. You need to create
open space with a partitioning tool like parted first.

Out of curiosity, where did you back up 420 gigs so casually? If it was to
another usb drive, why not install on that one?

Don't know from Centos but if you can, switch to ext3. It does not have the
eternally long "check forced" actions when there is an abnormal system
termination like with a power drop.

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