Using Debian, Ubuntu and Gparted

If I am using a brand new disk  Gparted is the distribution I use.
It can be mounted on a CD or USB.
Now I use GParted mounted  on a USB.

I do not like the rackety noise of the DVD driver (anyway Drive is very slow in execution).

One should not fiddle with the partition table, which GParted is capable of doing.
Partitioning is a very slow process of writing 0 and 1, what is called the machine language.

1. Number one one should have a theoretical understanding of partition table and partitions.

2. Number two, there are different file systems and I use (exclusively) journalzed Ex4.

3. If partition table is corrupted neither Ubuntu nor Gparted can remove the corrupt sectors.

A journalized memory is kept for reuse purpose and with the warning and hanging abruptly.

4. I had one terabyte external disk with lot of saved films on a NTFS partition,
The distribution I used had used 32 bit boot partition and it was not booting on 64 bit computer.

I could access all the films plugged in with Debian running, which I faithfully copied to another 320 GB external disk.

Then I tried to change the partition table using Gparted but I could not.
Tried live Ubuntu I could not.

Ubuntu also use GParted as it's default partition utility.

5. Finally I used Debian 11 and erased the hard disk of all the files.

It takes 2 days and 9 hours to erase a one terabyte hard disk.

6. I am not going to wait for 3 days.

7. Once 5 GB was erased (I had figured out the corruption file is within that region) I aborted the erasing of the hard drive.

Since I was working on partitioning, Debian had figured out my requirement and made a 25 GB FAT partition and the rest NTFS briskly.

8. Mounted Ubuntu and installed Ubuntu on the 25 GB and another 300 GB NTFS copy filing, and kept rest 500 GB reserved for future installation.

That's it.

Few more points before winding up.

I took very big RISK.

With power cuts going on, if power went out, when zeros and ones were written, I could have got a permanently damaged external hard disk.
UPS could stand for only 20 minutes.
UPS is mandatory.
If one had two UPS, better it is.

Do not do it with full stomach.

You fall sleepy when computer or the installation is waiting for you to make an entry.

One should have 6 to 8 hours completely free.

If you are married you must wait till she or he goes to see a sick aunt or uncle and is not at home.

Fridge is full of cooked food.

I had a light meal.
A tea.
A coffee.
Another snack, rather some jelly.

Unfortunately no chocolates (what is available in Ceylon is very expensive).

Another tea with biscuits.

And Ubuntu is on my external disk all nicely installed.

Due to zeros and ones this was the longest Ubuntu install in my life.
I used cell phone in between and fished out all the external disks and assortment of USBs with various distributions and MultiSystem installed on them.

If you a impatient young guy, DO not try Partitioning.

There is a guy in the YouTube who pretends installing Linux (multiple distribution s) is damn easy and breezy.

I strongly discourage using mirrors and downloading (on the go) updates while installing.

It slows down the installation and if power fails one has to do it all over again.

All one needs is in a installation image.
One can add on once the basic system is on.
Even then I cannot get AbiWord.
Only Emmabantus has AbiWord.

Ubuntu and Debian do not.

Happily I did NOT have any misadventures, at all.

I am telling you, it is not easy with over 20 years of experience.

I still make mistakes with my memory failing, like forgetting the administrator password.

I have written a few simple books  on Linux some are outdated by now but the basics are the same.

New book will come soon with Kernel 11 issues, if there are any.

Hopefully, not.
Linus Torvalds is doing a grand job.

Before that I needed, an updated Linux running in my computer.