cannot use 100% of hard disk, fdisk / parted / partition question
 

Hi all,

I have run out of hard disk space on my laptop, and after playing round for a bit noticed the following when I typed

#fdisk -l

Disk /dev/hda: 60.0 GB, 60011642880 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7296 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux
/dev/hda2 14 76 506047+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda3 77 5548 43953840 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 5549 6765 9775552+ 83 Linux

So it looks like the end of my last partition (4) is not the end of the hardrive, so I should have another 4GB or so available.

Does this mean I still have space available??

I have tried to add a new partition, but fdisk tells me I have to delete a partition first in order to create one. I have tried using parted and it gives me an error on resizing saying that my partition is of unusual layout and is not suported <yet>??

Any suggestions?

Re: cannot use 100% of hard disk, fdisk / parted / partition question
 

Nope.
It means you have unallocated space. It is *not* (currently) available.
Delete a partition - or two or three.

The partition table can only hold 4 entries - guess how many you have. A construct called an extended partition was later devised to overcome this limitation. One of the 4 primary entries can be an extended partition, within which can be allocated logical partitions. As many as you want - within limits.

Best for you might be to backup your hda4 then delete it, then allocate all the space as an extended, then start allocating partitions and restoring.
All this done most easily from something like Knoppix.

Personally I'd remove everything except hda1 (presumably /boot) and move the lot into logical partitions.

It could also be that a hidden recovery partition occupies the very end of the drive. I know that's the case with IBM Thinkpads; and may be true for others as well. You might not want to destroy it.

its an asus M3000 laptop. Surely it couldnt take up all that space??

(parted) print
Disk geometry for /dev/ide/host0/bus0/target0/lun0/disc: 0kB - 60GB
Disk label type: msdos
Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32kB 107MB 107MB primary ext2 boot
2 107MB 625MB 518MB primary linux-swap
3 625MB 46GB 45GB primary ext3
4 46GB 56GB 10GB primary ext3

As I recall, the hidden recovery area occupies ~3.5G, so it would seem that all 60G of space on your drive is accounted for (again, assuming that hidden partition does exist on your model)

thanks for that info.