fixing the partition table

laucian · 04-10-2008, 06:01 AM

hi everyone,
i have a problem with my partition table after i reinstalled my linux system..

it looks like this..

Code:

dhcppc0:/ # fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00061407

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1        7753    62267940    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2   *        7753        8520     6160896+  83  Linux
/dev/sda3            9671        9729      473917+   5  Extended
/dev/sda4            8520        9670     9245407   83  Linux
/dev/sda5            9671        9729      473886   82  Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

there i have 2 questions:
1) as you can see from sector 1 to 7753 is windows, 7753 - 8520 Linux, 8520 9670 again Linux (i don't what it is) and 9671-9729 linux-swap. sda3 and sda5 have the same sector area but they are somehow different, any way i can fix this?

2)is there anyway that i can enlarge the size of windows partition without formatting or losing my data?

thanks a lot..

digvijay.gahlot · 04-10-2008, 06:48 AM

Firstly they are cylinders not sectors, i guess you might have missed.
The 2 identical ranging cylinder are strange entry.
This should be only identified as swap partition. During the installation there is no option to choose a file system type for swap.

laucian · 04-10-2008, 06:50 AM

no i didn't miss..i just didn't know

any idea how to fix it?

michaelk · 04-10-2008, 07:02 AM

What you see is normal. sda3 is an extended partition which in a nutshell is a container for logical partitions. Partition IDs >4 are logical partitions. So the start of sda3 and sda5 will be the same and the start/end of all logicals will be within the start/end of the extended partition. Lots of information can be found on extended/logical partitions by searching this website and googling.

The only strange thing is the end of sda1 is the same as the start of sda2

You do not have any unallocated space on this drive so enlarging your windows will mean shrinking/moving all of the linux stuff. Since you just reinstalled the easiest would be to delete the linux partitions, resize windows using gparted liveCD and the install linux again.

pixellany · 04-10-2008, 07:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

The only strange thing is the end of sda1 is the same as the start of sda2

Perhaps that means that the partitions are not aligned to cylinder boundaries?? (Not a problem)

syg00 · 04-10-2008, 07:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by michaelk

The only strange thing is the end of sda1 is the same as the start of sda2

The cylinder number is the same - sector numbers can be within the same extent. "fdisk -ul" will show it.
Cylinder allocation is the norm these days, but no big deal.