[SOLVED] growing a partition

houndhen · 12-28-2010, 02:20 PM

I multiboot Windows XP and 5 linux OSes. My partitions are:

Code:

sda1
sda2
sda3 extended
sda5
sda6
sda7
sda8
sda9
sda10
60gb unallocated

All of those under the extended partiton are 10gb except for sda10. I am running out of room in sda10 and would like to increase the size of it by using the unallocated space.
I have tried using a live cd and gparted but could not increase the size of sda10. Is it because sda10 is a logical partition under the extended partition?
Is it going to be possible to grow sda10 without uninstalling and reinstalling everything in the extended partition?

johnsfine · 12-28-2010, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by houndhen

I have tried using a live cd and gparted but could not increase the size of sda10. Is it because sda10 is a logical partition under the extended partition?

We would need to see the current partition info in more detail to answer that.

Try posting the output from the following command (as root)
/sbin/fdisk -l

Quote:

Is it going to be possible to grow sda10 without uninstalling and reinstalling everything in the extended partition?

Yes. Gparted from a liveCD can move/change whatever is needed in order to grow sda10 (if necessary, also growing sda3). It may take a few steps (depending on some details of your existing partitioning).

Your liveCD may be automatically enabling the swap partition on the HD. That may interfere with what Gparted needs to do (to sda3). So after booting the liveCD and before running Gparted, you may need to turn off swapping. IIRC, that command (as root) is
swapoff -a

houndhen · 12-28-2010, 02:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnsfine

We would need to see the current partition info in more detail to answer that.

Try posting the output from the following command (as root)
/sbin/fdisk -l

Yes. Gparted from a liveCD can move/change whatever is needed in order to grow sda10 (if necessary, also growing sda3). It may take a few steps (depending on some details of your existing partitioning).

Your liveCD may be automatically enabling the swap partition on the HD. That may interfere with what Gparted needs to do. So after booting the liveCD and before running Gparted, you may need to turn off swapping. IIRC, that command (as root) is
swapoff -a

I will try turning swapoff. Meanwhile, here is the results of /sbin/fdisk -l:

Code:

Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x14c814c8

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        2662    21382483+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            2663        3057     3172837+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3            3058       22636   157268287    5  Extended
/dev/sda5            3058        4362    10482381   83  Linux
/dev/sda6   *        4363        5667    10482381   83  Linux
/dev/sda7            5668        6972    10482381   83  Linux
/dev/sda8            6973        8277    10482381   83  Linux
/dev/sda9            8278        9582    10482381   83  Linux
/dev/sda10           9583       22636   104856223+  83  Linux

after edit
Got it after turning off swap partiton. Thanks so much.

johnsfine · 12-28-2010, 03:52 PM

Based on the fdisk output you posted, I don't understand why swapoff would be needed.

Your first post made it seem likely that swapoff might be needed. But the fdisk output seems to indicate it is not needed.

I'm glad it worked for you, and I guess it doesn't matter that I don't understand why it didn't work earlier.

houndhen · 12-28-2010, 04:17 PM

It may have been that I did the fdisk output from inside an installed distro rather than the livecd.

The more I learn the less I understand, it seems.

johnsfine · 12-28-2010, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by houndhen

It may have been that I did the fdisk output from inside an installed distro rather than the livecd.

That's not an issue. Changing the partitioning requires the affected partitions not be mounted, so it is very hard to accomplish except via live CD. But listing the partitions should be the same from either place.

Quote:

The more I learn the less I understand, it seems.

I'm sure that is not the case. Not everything gets explained. But as you do more with Linux, you will find a much larger fraction of it makes sense.

I expect you needed to grow sda3 as part of growing sda10. I don't happen to know if Gparted would do that automatically, or if you need to explicitly tell it to grow sda3 before growing sda10.

I'm pretty sure you can't grow sda3 while any logical partition is mounted.

So I guessed your swap was a logical partition and swapping was enabled and that stopped sda3 from growing. But your swap partition was sda2, which is a primary partition.

houndhen · 12-28-2010, 05:26 PM

Yes, I did have to grow sda3 (extended partition) and then grow sda10. It worked out perfectly regardless of whether the swap needed to be turned off or not. I don't remember trying to grow sda3 before I posted my question but it is a possibility that it could have worked then but I was so unsure of what I was doing that I needed someone else (you) to sort of guide me.