Trying to install Linux on a FAT32 Partition

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Myronazz

Myronazz

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Hi,

So i wanted to have Linux Mint as a secondary Operating System and i thought that i'll create a 30GB FAT32 Partition and so i did!, Partition shows up and works fine on Windows 10, but when im installing Linux Mint and im in the drive selection screen, the drive DOES show up but the partition doesn't..., then i thought maybe it's because i created the partition on Windows, so i fired up my Hiren's bootCD and entered PartedMagic and i can't mount the drive, i could yesterday though
If you're willing to help me please explain things in detail about Linux because this is my first time trying to do stuff with it

The drive i'm trying to install it to DOES not have Windows, i actually store all my files there but since the drive was first formatted a NTFS Drive and obviously i can't format the whole drive to FAT32 because i'll loose my files, and that's the reason i created that FAT32 30GB Partition
Windows is installed on a 120GB SSD
The Linux Mint drive is a 2TB HDD
 
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A

Andrea Mathew

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Dec 7, 2016
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For linux, you need to change the format to ext2, ext3, ext4, etc. While selecting the partition, you will get an option to format the partition. Please do formatting, and you can find an option to select the new format of the partition. Choose any one from Ext2, Ext3 or Ext4 and proceed.


Hope now you can install the linux operating system.
 
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S

Sylvvester

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Is the HDD still working on windows? If yes then delete 30GB FAT32 partition and leave it as unallocated space, then boot to linux mint installer and use unallocated space to install it. The installer should have tools needed to create necessary partitions.
 
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Myronazz

Myronazz

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Hi everyone and thank you for your replies
So from my understanding Linux does not support FAT32 and i need to use ext4
Thing is i tried leaving the partition unallocated and Linux STILL does not show it
And i don't know what i can do to format it as ext4 since PartedMagic can't edit the drive nor it can mount it
Can i format the partition as ext4 from Windows using a tool or something? because it DOES show up in Windows, it doesn't in Linux though
Screenshots:
Linux Drive Selection
Windows Disk Manager (sorry for the greek)
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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Mar 25, 2010
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When I read this post and saw (sorry for the greek) I thought you were saying the Windows Disk Manger screen is just hard to understand (as in "it's all Greek to me"), then I looked, and, well, it's actually in Greek LOL

I think I'll be laughing at that all weekend, thanks :)

You have a bit of an odd setup there, Disk 0 really should be C and 1 would be the secondary drive.

And the fact that the partition program can't mount the drive gives a clue that something is not quite right here.

How did your C drive end up bring Drive 1 and not 0?

You also have what looks like a system partition on drive D, which shows that some system files were installed on that disk either during Windows setup on the smaller drive or that other drive had an OS on it previously.

I suggest you start over to clean things up a bit. Remove all drives, move the OS drive to the lowest SATA port #, make sure it's disk 0 in the system and that it can boot without the second drive in. Install the second drive, copy your files from the second drive to a backup drive, then use diskpart (just a command line utility) and do a clean command on that disk. Go into disk manager, create two new partitions, with the smaller one for Linux created first. Then run the Linus setup on that smaller partition and format it however the setup wants. That should clean things up and get you the dual boot.
 
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Myronazz

Myronazz

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I apologize for my disk mess, this SSD was actually moved from my old Computer to my new one (which is this one) and i just installed it in my new Computer along with my HDD, started up the Computer and Windows 10 booted up just fine even though it came from a different Computer, so that's probably why things are messed up, i was planning to clean reinstall Windows anyway

Now, i already moved the drives in a proper order in the SATA ports and i'll clean reinstall Windows but im really not sure how to fix my other Drive
i wan't to install Linux there on a seperate partition but i can't because it seems Linux can't recognize the file system, how do i fix that? i know it's not because its formated as NTFS because i can edit the SSD (which is NTFS) fine on PartedMagic, however that drive can't be mounted, it can't be edited, it can't be used on Linux at all, while i could edit it fine on PartedMagic yesterday, maybe formatting the whole drive will fix it but i have important stuff there :/

Here's a ScreenShot
 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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Well, first thing, if you have important stuff there, you need a backup drive for that. So that will also solve your issue of where to put the files while you format the drive to blank right? I'm guessing your hardware costs will be quite a bit higher than in the US, but maybe you can find a good working used external drive (make sure you run a scan on it with a disk check utility before buying it) and use that as a backup disk.

Then you can delete all partitions on the second drive and create a new partition for Linux to use. You can probably do that when you run the setup, it should give you the option to create a partition, ask you how large and to format it.

You can also move your really important files to the main boot drive as well as the backup drive, to make sure that nothing happens to it.
 
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Myronazz

Myronazz

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That's a good idea thanks!
There's really no need to buy anything, i already have an external HDD so i'll backup my stuff there, format the drive, install Linux and make sure everything is alright and once i make sure that everything is alright i'll put my files back

One question though, since i pretty much get a chance to format the whole drive with a new file system, which one should i use? i need to use one that's compatible with both Linux and Windows, so i can access that drive from both Windows and Linux

 
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hang-the-9

hang-the-9

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I thought Linux would boot on an NTFS partition, see if there is a requirement for that or not.
 
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junkeymonkey

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like here don't seem to do anything fancy ''but '' maybe you need to choose uefi install ??? I se on mint 17 there are 2 options BIOS or EFI mode choosing the wrong one will cause inconvenience never had issue with mint 15 or below just theres latest ones like Ubuntu 16.04 as well now

I ll ways prefer live dvd over usb a few thing can be out of whack with usb use dvd way is pretty cut and dry and near goof proof

https://www.pendrivelinux.com/

maybe look that over to insure you got the usb set up right ??


http://askubuntu.com/questions/680812/dual-boot-ubuntu-windows-10-on-ssd-hdd
 
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Myronazz

Myronazz

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i never said that im trying to install Linux from a USB but whatever
i actually use a DVD
i haven't got any progress done with getting the 2tb drive formatted but i plan on doing that today or tomorrow

 
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Myronazz

Myronazz

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Managed to get Linux installed on that drive by formatting it
It was absolutely painful getting the Nvidia drivers installed because Nouveau refused to be blacklisted

Anyway, thank you everyone for the help
 
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