Ok. I am semi new to linux. I have played with several live CD's but just installed Ubuntu Hardy about 3 weeks ago or so.
Anyway what I want to do is have a seperate media computer that I can not only hookup to my stereo and tv but also be able to connect a windows laptop to and a ubuntu computer to so that I can listen to music or watch movies from.

I tried doing this using another hardy box but when I put all my files on the second drive and shared them I got an error. But if I shared using the drive with the OS on it no error. So my question is there a better wat of doing this or am I doing something wrong. The reason I want the OS and the files on a different drive is I am planning on buying a bigger drive soon, plus it would be easier to replace if one or the other drive crap out on me.

By the way I am a computer tech by trade so I do know a few things not a total noob.

Thanks for any suggestions or comments. Any help will be apprieciated.

Usually when you have a disk error, depending on share type (smbfs, nfs, etc) it is a security issue. If using samba you need to set a default user in the share, i.e., who the user is to Linux when they share a drive.The shared folders MUST match the linux user you set the smb.conf file. You also need to setup a smbpasswd for the actual windows user that I usually make the same has the user name and password (see samba setup and examples on the net). NFS is easier, esp. if the users are other linux boxes, they can be setup in fstab and automatically mounted and is considerable faster.

My media server has 4.2 TB of disk space over 6 disks and I am still adding, and I have no issues with shares among windows and linux boxes and even a mac osx box. I usually setup up a group called users and then set the ownership to that group using chgrp. This matches the smb.conf file, etc. When moving files always make sure the files are owned by that group - you also need to set the privileges for that group (read/write). If you can deal with the terminal you can " ls -la" and see who owns what files - you can also use the file manager and check properties. Once you get used to this it is a piece of cake to setup and maintain.
Hopefully this doesn't sound as complex as it seems ;) Maybe someone else can suggest even a simpiler way to do this. I like the security it prevents all the nasty stuff you get with windows.

Generally, serving up files to a group of PCs with multiple OSes is right up Linux's alley. Michael's comments are right on the mark.

If you could post additional details such as the sharing method (Samba, NFS, etc) the error you receive when sharing files or any relevant log messages, it would be easier to get to the root cause of the error. At this point, all we can offer are general suggestions and encouragement.

Not sure what sharing method is being used. All I did was right click > properties > share. Checked share this folder and allow other to write in this folder.
The error Irecieve when going from ubuntu Hardy to ubuntu Hardy is "Unable to mount location. Failed to mount windows share." The error I get when going from window xp pro to ubuntu Hardy is "you do not have permision to to access this folder" I think.
The problem is I can see the folders just can't open them. And it is only on the secondary hdd.
My /etc/fstab
Here is the one that has the secondary drive that I am trying to get to.
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# -- This file has been automaticly generated by ntfs-config --
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=796185a1-98a7-41f2-b9cc-5375834c6a4f / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# Entry for /dev/sda5 :
UUID=15d0c7e7-a27b-426a-a467-b164cb4febbf none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
/dev/fd0 /media/floppy0 auto rw,user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0

And here is the other one.
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# -- This file has been automaticly generated by ntfs-config --
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>

proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# Entry for /dev/sda1 :
UUID=27e19653-9edd-4830-a77e-146bed8e4a28 / ext3 defaults,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# Entry for /dev/sda5 :
UUID=2f681f44-9d14-4573-948b-34f551ee152e none swap sw 0 0
/dev/cdrom /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0

Thanks for any help.

Ok I solved my issue. I had not formated the drive to ext3. It was still formated to fat32. I feel a little stupid not checking that in the first place. I am a tech by trade so that should have been one of the first things I checked but it was not. Thanks for the advice and help though.

If I could jump in on this thread. I need to reformat a 1TB Maxtor HDD from NTFS to ext2/ext3 so I can use it as an external USB storage device for my Topfield PVR. I gather I need to do this from Linux because Vista/XP (and Mac?) don't support ext2 file system. How do I do this? Can I boot a Windows PC or Mac with a Linux CD and reformat the disc this way? If someone can point me in the right direction here, to find the most stripped down version of the Linux OS that can be burned to a boot disc. Thanks in advance.

If I could jump in on this thread. I need to reformat a 1TB Maxtor HDD from NTFS to ext2/ext3 so I can use it as an external USB storage device for my Topfield PVR. I gather I need to do this from Linux because Vista/XP (and Mac?) don't support ext2 file system. How do I do this? Can I boot a Windows PC or Mac with a Linux CD and reformat the disc this way? If someone can point me in the right direction here, to find the most stripped down version of the Linux OS that can be burned to a boot disc. Thanks in advance.

Just download a LiveCD with gparted/parted installed. Good choices:

Parted Magic:
http://partedmagic.com/wiki/PartedMagic.php?n=PartedMagic.Downloads

MacPup Dingo (Puppy Linux 4.0 with OSX theme, has Partition Editor installed):
http://tipsforeveryone.com/macpup/

System rescue CD
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Just download a LiveCD with gparted/parted installed. Good choices:

Parted Magic:
http://partedmagic.com/wiki/PartedMagic.php?n=PartedMagic.Downloads

MacPup Dingo (Puppy Linux 4.0 with OSX theme, has Partition Editor installed):
http://tipsforeveryone.com/macpup/

System rescue CD
http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Or, any distro's Live CD should work for this simple task. All you need are fdisk and mkfs.ext2 or mkfs.ext3. I think having a good system rescue oriented Live CD is a great idea though.

RGB,

Thanks for the tip on MacPup Dingo. I installed it on an old Compaq Armada E500 laptop with 384 MB RAM and a 12GB drive. It has breathed new life into this tired old beast. It's now usable, and looks fairly close to MacOS X. Good stuff!