Partitioning woes

Avatar33 · 12-07-2005, 03:33 PM

Hi all.

I'm trying to create another partition so that I can install another linux system on my machine. When I use fdisk to create another logical partition, it seems to create it with the lowest device name possible (/dev/hda7) and then move all the other device names on(/dev/hda11 becomes /dev/hda12 etc). This would not be a problem except that it kills my bootloader. I guess this is because grub looks for its config file on the wrong partition. I've used a live cd to delete the partition that I created, so I'm back to square 1.

Heres how my partitions look:

Code:

/dev/hda1   *           1        2611    20972826    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2            2612       14593    96245415    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5            2612        5222    20972826    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6            5223        7833    20972826    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda7           13056       14593    12353953+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/hda8           10445       10457      104391   83  Linux
/dev/hda9           10458       10490      265041   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda10           7834        8562     5855661   83  Linux
/dev/hda11           8563       10444    15117133+  83  Linux

A solution to my problem (I think) would be to create a primary partition on /dev/hda3 and then move my boot loader config file to there (and then re-install the bootloader). When I tried this fdisk, reported "No free sectors available", even though there is about 20GB of unpartitioned space.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can solve this problem.

Thanks
Avatar33

michapma · 12-07-2005, 04:39 PM

It may depend on the unpartitioned space left on the disk, as well as what distribution you are installing and how much size you need for it. If you don't need to resize any of the existing partitions (this would be very good news) to make space for the new distro, then you probably don't need to use fdisk. Instead, you can possibly use the partitioning program in the installer of your new distro to partition any free space on the disk. Again, this depends on how much control the partitioning program on the distro allows you, but even dumbed-down distro partitioning programs ususally allow you plenty of control.

As far as I recall, GRUB doesn't need Linux to be on a primary partition to boot it, just Windows requires this.

Keep in mind that the two Linux installations can share a swap partition, so there's no need to create a separate swap partition. The 256MB swap you did create is pretty meager though, you may consider increasing it.

If you do need to resize your existing partitions, it can be more complicated. I've never done that.

Oh, and here's an important tip:
Make sure you back up any critical data on the disk before continuing. Both Windows and Linux.

Avatar33 · 12-07-2005, 05:41 PM

Thanks for the reply michapma

I'm not sure what distro I'm going to install (if any) so I'd like to find out how to create the partition manually. As I've mentioned I have 20GB of unpartitioned space, so there is no need to resize any partitions.

Avatar33

syg00 · 12-07-2005, 06:45 PM

I'm not understanding - the list you gave had a hda7, but stopped at hda11 ???.
Can we see a full (including header lines) "fdisk -l" of the situation before you allocate the new part.
And maybe one after as well while we're at it.

michaelk · 12-07-2005, 07:39 PM

Making a few assumptions since you did not provide the header information from fdisk.
Your free space is located between hda9 and hda7 since your logical partitions were not created in order. You can not create a primary partitions since no other free space exists outside the extended partition.

I do not know why fdisk will not create an hda12 but it might be due to partitions not being created in order and the free space being in the middle of the extended partition. Another utility like cfdisk might be able to create a hda12. A simple fix would be to edit grub and the /etc/fstab file to account for the shifting partitions.

Avatar33 · 12-08-2005, 01:58 PM

Thanks all for your replies.

Sorry for not posting fdisk's output headers.

I was just repeating the fdisk process so that I could post the new partition table. But this time it worked perfectly and create a partition at /dev/hda12.

I'm not sure why it did not work previously. It is possible that I entered in some wrong input. Anyways by discussing it and looking carefully at my "fdisk -l" output I now have a much better understanding of how partitioning works.

Thanks
Avatar33