I have a 500 GB hard disk (only one) in my system. I have the following partitions:

/dev/sda1 ntfs system reserved 100 MB
/dev/sda2 ntfs 48.83 MB
unallocated 97.66 GB
/dev/sda3 extended
/dev/sda5 ext4 /boot 290 MB
/dev/sda6 ext4 / 18 GB
/dev/sda7 ext4 /home 93 GB
/dev/sda8 linux-swap 7.63 GB (4 GB RAM)
/dev/sda4 ext4 199 GB

As you can see it is a small mess. In the /dev/sda3 extended partition, I have Ubuntu. Now I would like to load Fedora 12 and it can't use either /dev/sda4 nor the unallocated space.

The problems seem to be:
Windows7 has got two primary partitions and there is one extended partition only. I can only create one more primary partition at the most, so there is a hole in the space i.e. 97.66 GB unallocated cannot be used at all. Moreover, I am unable to install Fedora at all as it says it cannot create any partitions either into the 199 GB space (/dev/sda4) or 97GB (unallocated) space.

It seems to require one more partition to have a logical volume after creating /boot, can't have /boot on the logical volume. Windows occupies two primary partitions. Can it just do with one primary partition? There also seems to be limits for no. of extended partitions.

I can start over again (data backed up), but would like to have an appropriate partitioning scheme for - Windows, Ubuntu and Fedora to co-exist and also leave some scope for future expansion. 4 primary partitions in a disk seem to be a real limitation. I can't resize the /dev/sda3 at either end, using gparted.

Also if I start over, what is the recommended sequence of loading these - WIndows7, Ubuntu, Fedora or Windows7, Fedora, Ubuntu considering Ubuntu 9.10 uses grub2?


Can anyone please help?

Starting over seems like a good idea to me: I'd start with Windows, as that avoids certain problems. Windows should only need a single partition, but pay attention to whether you're using GPT or not, 64 bit OS's will be wanting that, older 32 bit distros may not support it....

After that, I don't think it makes a huge difference. I'd probably install the linux distro you plan on changing least often next, leaving the more "volatile" distros at the end of the partition table to avoid holes. Usually you have an option to install on extended partitions, so I'd probably make 3 primary partitions and one extended...

There are any number of ways to do this task, none of them the "best" way.

Thanks for your response. Sorry, couldn't understand what GPT is.
On further thought, I guess I was unable to resize the extended partition because it was mounted!

The volatile distro to be at the end - is a good tip.

If I use gparted ISO CD, will I be able to resize the partition to fill the unallocated space before and after? Is it (relatively) safe?

GPT is the alternative to the MBR we've all been using for years. Win 7 64 bit, OS X, and most new 64 bit distros use this instead of the 4 primary partition MBR you've grown to know and love.

I've never resized a partition with gparted, I've always deleted and remade and restored: never trusted FIPS either (the older partition resizing program) Still, I understand it works fine and is (usually) safe.

Bear in mind that you should always have a backup, as you do, because working with the disk partition structure is one of the main reasons people come here and say "I need my data back after doing (fill in the blank) with gparted/fdisk/other partition nonsense."

I have never had Gparted go arwy on me during any operation; still though, as mentioned, partitioning carries some risk always, so backups are a good investment.

If you wish to resize a partition using Gparted, you can do so. But bear in mind, it is always better to move the upper end of a partition, than the lower end.

And, when any partitioning operation (mainly resizing) involves a NTFS or Windows filesystem, defragment it at least once before proceeding.

Best of success,
Sasha

Thanks for both of your replies. In fact I have used gparted from the ISO CD and it worked well to resize the extended partition covering both the upper and lower unallocated spaces nicely. It has got them into the extended partition without altering the existing partitions. And I could boot Ubuntu and Windows as usual after that.

However, here is my other problem -
I could install Fedora 12 into the free space without any problem, but for some reason as I was suspecting, it did not recognize the Ubuntu in its grub menu. I probably made a mistake in choosing the option to make it install boot loader into /dev/sda, when it did not recognize it. Now I can only boot Fedora and Other (Windows), but can't find Ubuntu. All its file systems seem intact as I can see them in Fedora, including its partitions as they were.

Now I guess I need to somehow rescue the grub2 of Ubuntu and point it to chain load Fedora or vice versa. I really don't know how to do this or have never done it before. To complicate this, grub2 looks weird to me, not just editing the grub.conf.

Can you please help me with this? Probably I might even need a good step by step stuff.

I've never used grub 2; I'd have to read up on it.

Sure, thanks. I will close this thread as the original problem of the disk partitioning is done and will open another for the grub/grub2 issue.