Originally Posted by
None of the above
I wanted to format the HDD that had been used to install a Linux distro (as above). I hung it on the end of an IDE adaptor and connected it to my main machine by USB socket with the intention of using Partition Magic to format it.
Curiously, PM wouldn't (or couldn't) do the job. I can always make a boot floppy and FDISK it suppose, but I'm surprised that it couldn't be done as planned.
Any thoughts?
I've not used a recent version of PM, but I wouldn't be surprised if it couldn't cope with Ext3 or Reiserfs formatting. I've not used PM via a USB connector either, so...
My "old" machine took happily to multiple-boot using Grub - it's got three hard drives in it, each partitioned into several logical drives, and with different versions of Linux on most of them. Apart from some distros insisting that their installation should now be the Grub master, I've not had a problem.
I keep a "master" copy of the Grub menu.lst in a safe place, and copy it back to any new installation that thinks it's the only game in town. I've had to do that a few times.
Both QTParted and GParted do their thing with great ease. Multiple boot hasn't caused me any problems using Grub and the MBR. Others have told me that's not the best way, and have recommended various other approaches, but it "just works" so I'm happy.