harddrive and etthernet scenario fdr linux noob

[tchk]

ok first of all i'm sry i'm totally retarded or something
i'm formatting a hard drive after install like this
i create an primary harddrive then a 5 gb swap at the beginning and end [not sure where outside of disk is but was told it's faster then interior] then ext4 in the middle of them tried primary and logical
then i restart and i can't write to them because i'm not the root but i just created them, gparted didn't let me specify partion permissions. i guess since gparted asked me password that makes me root is there a partition editor with some real options or do i just have it set up totally wrong or what?
also my mobo's ethernet ports just stopped working when i plug in cable no lights letting me know it's trying to communicate or anything, then if i plug in a nic card to pci slot and connect cable it automatically connects without even power cycling my modem. i never had problem with ultimate edition using these connections before i even loaded setup defaults in bios still no luck maybe i should try to reset cmos or something with the mobo jumpers [asus m2n-sli deluxe]
with two ethernet ports

[tchk]

i ran "gksudo nautilus" in terminal and now i can atleast write on hd

[tchk]

in running gksudo nautilus it let me take ownership of pretty much whatever i wanted
i'm now copying my 320 ntfs [to finally remove all traces of wi#$ows so it can be formatted as an ext 4 also] at 60 mbs to my newly formatted ext 4 jeez louise i've had this comp for three years and i've never seen it do anything that fast does anyone know how much faster ext4 is than ext3
also if anyone has any suggestions for my ethernet issues it would be greatly appreciated thx to everyone for their time and effort in helping a greenhorn
[no mobo ethernet and no ethernet problems if i put old nic card in pci slot, never any driver issues before with onboard ethernet in ultimate edition]

[Moebius]

Hi tchk,
To narrow down a bit, does your onboard NIC work O.K. with the Live U.E 2.3 DVD now? could a hardware fault have developed since you last used it? Does it still work with previous versions of U.E Live DVD's?
Could your onboard NIC be disabled in BIOS?

Cheers.

[tchk]

so i went to synaptic package typed in ethernet and nothing popped up
so i installed a bunch of packages for ethernet [not really knowing exactly what i needed]
rebooted and viola it attempted to connect but didnt
so i powercycled modem and it autoconnected
somehow i lucked into fixing it , thx for the help ! [resolved]
anyone know how to figure out what packages i needed and what i didn't?