Redistribute space

fwc · 03-15-2009, 11:06 PM

Hello,
I have 3 partitions in NTFS which I would like to rearrange. I moved the data off one of the partitions into the other two and created unallocated space from that partition's extra space. Now I can't move the unallocated space from the old partition to any of the new partitions because it seems as if the new ones will not accept more space beyond their original size. Can anyone help me figure out how to expand the other two or am I stuck with three partitions? (I am using the gui for GParted and Im running Linux Mint) Thanks!

tommcd · 03-16-2009, 02:16 AM

Are these primary or logical partitions? Post the output of:

Code:

sudo fdisk -l

Since you have moved all the data off the partition you could just delete it and then create a new partition (or partitions) in the newly created unallocated free space.

fwc · 03-16-2009, 08:44 AM

Hello, sorry I did not realize all the technical aspect of the operation.

Here is my fdisk list

Quote:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x86c386c3

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3824 30716248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3825 19457 125572072+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 3825 7648 30716248+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 7649 12110 35840983+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 12111 16708 36933403+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8 16709 19457 22081311 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdb: 2029 MB, 2029518848 bytes
243 heads, 32 sectors/track, 509 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 7776 * 512 = 3981312 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc3072e18

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 1 510 1981936 b W95 FAT32
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(249, 242, 32) logical=(509, 184, 32)

I would like to take the now empty sda7 and add it onto the end of sda6. I see that its not possible to add it onto multiple partitions as there is a definite start and end to each partition (consecutive rings).
I suppose that I will have to boot off of the CD because sda8 will change its number. I would also like to know the risks involved sda8 and sda6 for files and functionality. Thanks very much again.
Edit: I realize that I will probably have to change the grub, can anyone tell me which files to change exactly. Thanks very much

tommcd · 03-18-2009, 01:55 AM

As far as I know, you should be able to add sda7 to sda6 since they are contiguous to each other. You are using GParted from within Mint, is that correct? If, so, are these partitions mounted when you try this? You can not partition a disk when the partitions are mounted. To simplify this try a GParted live CD or the Parted Magic live CD:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
http://partedmagic.com/
Personally, I prefer Parted Magic; but GParted live CD is fine.

As far as grub is concerned, I assume Mint uses UUIDs to boot partitions in grub and mount them in fstab since that is what Ubuntu uses. The advantage of UUIDs is that if the ordering of your partitions changes (like they will if you eliminate sda7) the UUIDs stay the same, so it *should* have no effect on booting Mint. I assume Mint is sda8. Is that correct?
To identify the UUIDs of each partition run:

Code:

blkid

in terminal. It will give something like this:

Code:

[tom@arch ~]$ blkid
/dev/sda1: UUID="420CB81A0CB80B45" TYPE="ntfs" 
/dev/sda2: UUID="11ae0c53-a8d7-464c-aa29-60a828be8ab3" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3" 
/dev/sda3: TYPE="swap" UUID="4533b483-1af3-455e-8ef4-9936467fc292" 
/dev/sda5: UUID="54e761dc-3847-4f90-9ea8-5f466c893c0a" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3" 
/dev/sda6: UUID="9d10d416-c356-4b87-907c-2f5e3bc62594" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3" 
/dev/sda7: UUID="1c82c3df-d1de-4d0a-a20c-2321803b4410" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext

If you have trouble booting with grub you can reinstall grub like this:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...highlight=fsck
Sorry I took so long to get back to you on this.