Resize partition with parted

ShadowReaper · 12-14-2010, 10:27 AM

Hello,

I have a partition, which is 32GB and is mounted to / of the archlinux distribution.

I want to create another partition, I need about 5GB and I want to take them from this partition.

If I use parted to resize the partition will I lose any files?

Thank you

ozanbaba · 12-14-2010, 10:41 AM

Now resizing the partitions without losing data is possible, But you have to move carefully.

First shrink your filesystem. check man resize2fs for ext2/3/4 and man resize_reiserfs. they are pretty simple to use but live resize may not be supported on your system, though

Code:

fsck -f $PARTITION
resize2fs -p $PARTITION 27G

First run fsck and then resize2fs to 27G

after that use parted to resize partition with size 27G. Thick here is that new partition's starting point must be same as old partition. Take a note if you need to. If in doubt, post your commands before running here first.

ShadowReaper · 12-14-2010, 10:48 AM

Are you sure it's fsck -f? I read the man page and I cannot find a -f argument

ozanbaba · 12-14-2010, 10:51 AM

-f forces to check clean file systems and it's actually option of what fsck runs for actual file system checking.

ShadowReaper · 12-14-2010, 11:49 AM

Ok, i have done fsck and resize2fs.
Now what should i do with parted?
This is the partition table, number 2 is the partition to be resized:

Code:

Number  Start   End    Size    Type     File system  Flags
 1      32.3kB  273GB  273GB   primary  ntfs
 2      273GB   308GB  35.2GB  primary  ext3         boot
 3      308GB   312GB  3989MB  primary  linux-swap
 4      312GB   320GB  8317MB  primary  ext3

ozanbaba · 12-14-2010, 12:39 PM

Code:

(parted) print

Note the non-human readable start number for Number 2

Code:

(parted) resize 2 $NUM2 $NEWEND

Important point is that start number must be same as before.
Before jumping to running the commnads, read help resize for figuring out right numbers.