[SOLVED] Slackware 13.37 - cfdisk renders my partitions unusable after I delete them.

Aquarius_Girl · 05-04-2012, 10:03 AM

Windows Vista is already on the laptop.

With cfdisk -
I pressed "new" on a ntfs partition, and assigned the space to Linux. Then I realized that I should have divided that into two partitions - so I pressed "delete", and the space got labeled "unusable".

When the cursor is on the "unusable" space, I don't get any options of "formatting".

Now what to do?

TobiSGD · 05-04-2012, 10:35 AM

There seems to be something seriously wrong:

Quote:

I pressed "new" on a ntfs partition

cfdisk doesn't give the option "New" on existing partitions, only on free, unpartitioned space.

Quote:

so I pressed "delete", and the space got labeled "unusable".

I have never seen cfdisk labeling something as unusable. Are you sure that is the label?

Quote:

When the cursor is on the "unusable" space, I don't get any options of "formatting".

Why should cfdisk give you format options on partitions that it thinks are unusable?

Quote:

Now what to do?

Simple, press q to quit cfdisk and start from the beginning. Unless you press "Write" and confirm with yes the disk is not altered.

Aquarius_Girl · 05-04-2012, 11:08 AM

Thanks for replying.

There isn't any option named "new", sorry.
First time I created these partitions I did "write"
it on the disk.

Shouldn't have done that.

I inserted the DVD again, nothing changed, obviously.
Check out the screenshot attached.

And please help if you can.

TobiSGD · 05-04-2012, 11:25 AM

Simple answer: The rest of the space is unusable just because you have already four primary partitions. This is the maximum number of primary partitions, so cfdisk can't create more. If you want more partitions delete the sda4 partition and create logical partitions instead of primary partitions after that.

Aquarius_Girl · 05-04-2012, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TobiSGD

Simple answer: The rest of the space is unusable just because you have already four primary partitions. This is the maximum number of primary partitions, so cfdisk can't create more. If you want more partitions delete the sda4 partition and create logical partitions instead of primary partitions after that.

Great.
I seriously need to study out things now.

Thanks very much for the prompt response.