Translations by akong

Your computer consists of a number of connected devices, which are collectively known as computer <emphasis>hardware</emphasis>.

Ubuntu normally configures your hardware automatically, but there may be occasions when you need to make changes to hardware settings yourself. This section provides information on tools which can be used to configure your hardware.

Restricted drivers are drivers for your hardware which are not freely available or open-source.

Press <menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guimenuitem>Administration</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Hardware drivers</guimenuitem></menuchoice>

The restricted driver may have to be downloaded and installed

Checking disk capacity

Press <menuchoice><guimenu>Places</guimenu><guimenuitem>Computer</guimenuitem></menuchoice>, right click on the disk you want to check and select <guilabel>Properties</guilabel>. The free space on the disk will be displayed on the <guilabel>Basic</guilabel> tab.

Press <menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guisubmenu>Administration</guisubmenu><guimenuitem>System Monitor</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and select the <guilabel>File Systems</guilabel> tab. All disks currently connected to the system should be displayed in the list, along with their free and used capacities.

To check the amount of free and used space on a disk, do either of the following: <placeholder-1/>

Advanced disk-usage analysis

For a more accurate analysis of your filesystem, press <menuchoice><guimenu>Applications</guimenu><guimenuitem>Accessories</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Disk Usage Analyzer</guimenuitem></menuchoice> to start the <application>Disk Usage Analyzer</application>.

Press <guibutton>Scan Home</guibutton> to scan your home directory, or press <guibutton>Scan Filesystem</guibutton> to scan the whole filesystem.

See the <ulink url="ghelp:baobab" type="help">Disk Usage Analyzer Manual</ulink> for more information.

You can use <application>GNOME Partition Editor</application> to partition storage devices. Install the <application>gparted</application> package (see <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:add-applications">Add Applications</ulink>) and then press <menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guisubmenu>Administration </guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Gnome Partition Editor</guimenuitem></menuchoice> to start the partition editor.

Be careful when altering disk partitions, as it is possible to lose your data if you delete or change the wrong partition.

Freeing space for a new partition

Press <menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guisubmenu>Administration </guisubmenu><guimenuitem>Gnome Partition Editor</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

A list of partitions will appear. Select the desired partition and choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Partition</guimenu><guimenuitem>Unmount</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

To resize the partition choose <guilabel>Resize/Move</guilabel>. The dialog <guilabel>Resize/Move</guilabel> will be shown. You can use the <guilabel>Free Space Following (MiB)</guilabel> box to choose how much space to free after this partition, or <guilabel>Free Space Preceding (MiB)</guilabel> to free space before this partition. Alternatively you can use the slider to adjust the partition size.

To create a new partition inside an already partitioned device, you must first resize an existing partition. If you already have free space, skip to <xref linkend="creating-new-partition"/>; otherwise, follow the instructions below: <placeholder-1/>

From the <guilabel>Filesystem</guilabel> drop-down list choose the desired type of filesystem to use and click <guibutton>Add</guibutton>.

You can use <application>GNOME Partition Editor</application> to format disk partitions (see <xref linkend="partitioning-device"/> for more information on <application>GNOME Partition Editor</application>).

Select the partition you want to format and choose <menuchoice><guimenu>Partition</guimenu><guimenuitem>Format to</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and select from the list the type of filesystem to format the partition to.

Pressing <guibutton>Apply</guibutton> will cause all of the files on the partition to be permanently deleted.

What is formatting?

To format a hard disk, device or partition means to prepare that particular device to be used for storing data.

The operation of formatting a hard disk or partition is when a specific data-storage format is applied to that device; this format is the <quote>filesystem</quote>.

When you buy a disk it is usually not formatted, and cannot yet be used for storing data. When you format the device, you will notice that the free space on it is less than the original size. This is due to the fact that some space has to be used to make the device usable; this space is occupied by the filesystem. Also, disk manufacturers often use a different standard to measure disk capacity, which results in a further discrepancy.

A filesystem is a particular way of storing and organizing files on a storage device such as a hard disk, and is an important part of an operating system. Without a filesystem, accessing and storing files would be impossible.

There are different types of filesystem. The most common are: <placeholder-1/>

A partition is a means of dividing the storage capacity of a device, such as a hard disk, into several parts which can then be treated as separate storage devices (<quote>logical devices</quote>).

Partitioning a hard disk can be done for several reasons: <placeholder-1/>

When you connect a removable storage device to your computer, it must be <emphasis>mounted</emphasis> by the operating system so that you are able to access the files on the device.

To find out how to mount and unmount storage devices, see <ulink type="help" url="ghelp:user-guide#gosnautilus-460">Using Removable Media</ulink>

When you copy files to a storage device, they are not always written to the device immediately. Instead, they are often stored in a queue so that they can all be transferred across to the device at the same time (for reasons of efficiency). If you disconnect the device before all of the files have been transferred, then you could lose the files. To prevent this, you must always <emphasis>unmount</emphasis> a storage device before disconnecting it.

In order to save battery power, you can put your laptop into one of a number of power-saving modes when you are not using it. The available modes are detailed below:

<emphasis role="strong">Suspending</emphasis> a laptop is like putting the computer to sleep. The computer will still be turned on and all of your work will be left open, but the laptop will use much less battery power. You can wake the computer by pressing a key or clicking the mouse.

<emphasis role="strong">Hibernating</emphasis> is turning the computer off completely while saving the current state of the computer (such as keeping all of your open documents). When you turn the computer back on after hibernating, all of your work should be restored as it was before hibernation. No power is used when the computer is hibernating.

<emphasis role="strong">Shutting down</emphasis> is turning the computer off completely, without saving the current state of the computer. No power is used when the computer is shut down.

<emphasis role="strong">Resuming</emphasis> is bringing the computer out of a power saving mode and back into normal operation. You can resume the computer from being suspended by pressing a keyboard button or by clicking the mouse. You can resume from being hibernated by pressing the power button on your computer.

You can manually put your computer into a power-saving mode by pressing <menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guimenuitem>Quit...</guimenuitem></menuchoice> and then pressing the appropriate button.

Some computers may have problems going into certain power saving modes. The best way of checking if your computer can handle a power-saving mode is to try to switch to that mode and see if it behaves as you expected. Always make sure you save important documents before suspending or hibernating.

Check the test report for your laptop, if one has been made (see <xref linkend="laptops-testing-reports"/>).

Ask for assistance through an <ulink url="http://www.ubuntu.com/support/free">Ubuntu support channel</ulink>.

Press <menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Power Management</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

Press <menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Screensaver</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.

Change the <guilabel>Screensaver theme</guilabel> to <guilabel>Blank screen</guilabel>. This will simply display a blank screen as a screensaver.

When your laptop is running on battery, one of the biggest drains on power is the display. Turning the brightness of the display down could improve battery life significantly; many laptops allow you to do this by pressing <keycombo><keycap>Fn</keycap><keycap>F7</keycap></keycombo> several times.

Press <menuchoice><guimenu>System</guimenu><guimenuitem>Preferences</guimenuitem><guimenuitem>Mouse</guimenuitem></menuchoice>.