[SOLVED] Is it straight forward to expand a partition

TobyV · 04-05-2017, 06:28 PM

Hi! I have a hard drive with two partitions. I want to remove one of the partitions and expand the other one to the fullest. Which program do I need and do I need to backup my data first before doing this? Thx folks!

AwesomeMachine · 04-05-2017, 06:33 PM

Ideally you should do a backup before resizing a partition. The gpated live CD would probably work the best. I've used it and it's good.

TobyV · 04-05-2017, 06:51 PM

I remembered it was a program that had parted in it's name like gparted and parted. I had to ask to be sure. I hate backing up because it just takes extra time, but it must be done just in case something goes wrong.

Thanks AwesomeMachine for the program name.

yancek · 04-05-2017, 09:26 PM

GParted has an online manual (link below) in case you want more details or run into problems. Also, as suggested, put GParted on a CD or flash drive as you can't modify a mounted system. Anytime you are modifying partitions, you should back up any data you care about.

http://gparted.org/display-doc.php%3Fname%3Dhelp-manual

jefro · 04-05-2017, 09:46 PM

Almost all partition programs need to run on an unmounted partition.

If you insist on running it mounted then this may help. https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-resiz...without-umount

You may only need to backup your personal data, not the entire OS.

TobyV · 04-05-2017, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yancek

GParted has an online manual (link below) in case you want more details or run into problems. Also, as suggested, put GParted on a CD or flash drive as you can't modify a mounted system. Anytime you are modifying partitions, you should back up any data you care about.

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefro

Almost all partition programs need to run on an unmounted partition.

If you insist on running it mounted then this may help. https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-resiz...without-umount

You may only need to backup your personal data, not the entire OS.

Yes, I know the filesystem has to be unmounted and I have to use a liveDVD or liveUSB. :-]

When I asked straight forward, I meant like does partition expansion causes issues after the expansion is done? I never done it before. :-]

rknichols · 04-05-2017, 11:15 PM

Expansion is pretty safe and unlikely to cause problems. It's shrinking a partition and its filesystem that is the far more complex operation (a lot of data has to be moved). It's still advisable to have a good backup, though, just in case the expansion operation runs into some unforseen problem (faulty disk, system crash, etc.).

TobyV · 04-05-2017, 11:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rknichols

Expansion is pretty safe and unlikely to cause problems. It's shrinking a partition and its filesystem that is the far more complex operation (a lot of data has to be moved). It's still advisable to have a good backup, though, just in case the expansion operation runs into some unforseen problem (faulty disk, system crash, etc.).

Gotcha! I will do that backup even though I hate to. :-]

jefro · 04-06-2017, 03:49 PM

I posted link to way that you didn't need to boot live.

TobyV · 04-06-2017, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jefro

I posted link to way that you didn't need to boot live.

I must have missed that line in your post. I was skimming quickly on all the posts. I just read your post again and yes, you did indeed mention the resizing of a mounted partition. I just have to decide which method to use, the gparted method or the method from your link. :-]

Thx

mrmazda · 04-06-2017, 10:09 PM

Note as the link in Jefro's reply says that enlarging the partition and enlarging the filesystem on the remaining partition require different utilities. Fdisk, gdisk and gparted only change the partition's size. Which utility is required to expand the filesystem depends on the filesystem type. e.g., resize2fs works for EXTx.

TobyV · 04-06-2017, 11:53 PM

I'm using ext4.