[opensuse] Partitioner has a problem with my plans
On the computer of my wife which runs Windows 7, I have sliced of three partitions. /, 10 GB, home 4 GB and a small swap. I left 60 GB for her Windows. As this Windows does not expand due to the nature of her use I planned to get a bigger slice of the hard disk. I reduced the 60 GB to 50 GB and was planning to include this new partition into a happy Linux use. The information I get if I want to add this partition I get the Info that it is not possible to create a partition on sda. A resize is only possible on sda1, the Windows partition. Any other way to get this 10 GB into the Linux setup? -- Linux User 183145 using KDE4 and LXDE on a Pentium IV , powered by openSUSE 13.1 (i586) Kernel: 3.14.4-30.gbebeb6f-default KDE Development Platform: 4.12.4 20:26pm up 1 day 2:47, 3 users, load average: 1.27, 1.07, 1.04 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 05/29/2014 09:45 AM, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
On the computer of my wife which runs Windows 7, I have sliced of three partitions. /, 10 GB, home 4 GB and a small swap. I left 60 GB for her Windows. As this Windows does not expand due to the nature of her use I planned to get a bigger slice of the hard disk. I reduced the 60 GB to 50 GB and was planning to include this new partition into a happy Linux use.
The information I get if I want to add this partition I get the Info that it is not possible to create a partition on sda. A resize is only possible on sda1, the Windows partition.
Any other way to get this 10 GB into the Linux setup?
Have you run out of primary partitions? It should not be a probelm to use that space. If your Linux is in an extended partition, then you can't expand that, you have to pack up the existing partions (don't bother with swap, just recreate it), remove the extended partition and then recreate it to fill the available space. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 29/05/14 14:45, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
On the computer of my wife which runs Windows 7, I have sliced of three partitions. /, 10 GB, home 4 GB and a small swap. I left 60 GB for her Windows. As this Windows does not expand due to the nature of her use I planned to get a bigger slice of the hard disk. I reduced the 60 GB to 50 GB and was planning to include this new partition into a happy Linux use.
The information I get if I want to add this partition I get the Info that it is not possible to create a partition on sda. A resize is only possible on sda1, the Windows partition.
You can only have a maximum of four primary partitions in the 'traditional' partitioning system. And in order to grow a partition, it must have the free space immediately after it on the drive. I'm assuming from the limited information given that you have: sda1 - Windows (now 50GB) FREE 10GB sda2 - / (currently 10GB) sda3 - /home sda4 - swap (or similar...) You need to move the sda2 partition to the start of the free space before trying to resize it, so you have: sda1 - Windows (now 50GB) sda2 - / (currently 10GB) FREE 10GB sda3 - /home sda4 - swap Various partitioning tools can do this. I can't say if it's still true, but Windows used to play badly when its partition was reduced in size. Dylan -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 05/29/2014 10:05 AM, Dylan wrote:
And in order to grow a partition, it must have the free space immediately after it on the drive.
It shouldn't be a problem to deal with free space ahead of a partition. Partioning tools generally allow for moving a partition as part of the resize. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On Thursday 29 May 2014 15:05:02 Dylan wrote:
On 29/05/14 14:45, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
On the computer of my wife which runs Windows 7, I have sliced of three partitions. /, 10 GB, home 4 GB and a small swap. I left 60 GB for her Windows. As this Windows does not expand due to the nature of her use I planned to get a bigger slice of the hard disk. I reduced the 60 GB to 50 GB and was planning to include this new partition into a happy Linux use.
The information I get if I want to add this partition I get the Info that it is not possible to create a partition on sda. A resize is only possible on sda1, the Windows partition.
You can only have a maximum of four primary partitions in the 'traditional' partitioning system. And in order to grow a partition, it must have the free space immediately after it on the drive. I'm assuming from the limited information given that you have:
sda1 - Windows (now 50GB) FREE 10GB sda2 - / (currently 10GB) sda3 - /home sda4 - swap
(or similar...) You need to move the sda2 partition to the start of the free space before trying to resize it, so you have:
sda1 - Windows (now 50GB) sda2 - / (currently 10GB) FREE 10GB sda3 - /home sda4 - swap
Various partitioning tools can do this.
I can't say if it's still true, but Windows used to play badly when its partition was reduced in size.
Dylan Above is precisely the actual setup. But the FREE 10 GB cannot be reached with the partitioner of Yast. Which partitioning tool would format this free partition? Suggestions please. fdisk or similar? The linux parts are formatted as Ext 4 but it would be okay to use Ext 3. This Windows 7 setup has not complained and plays well with the reduction of its reduction. -- Linux User 183145 using KDE4 and LXDE on a Pentium IV , powered by openSUSE 13.1 (i586) Kernel: 3.14.4-30.gbebeb6f-default KDE Development Platform: 4.12.4 21:34pm up 1 day 3:55, 3 users, load average: 0.73, 0.58, 0.50 -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 05/29/2014 11:06 AM, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
Above is precisely the actual setup. But the FREE 10 GB cannot be reached with the partitioner of Yast. Which partitioning tool would format this free partition? Suggestions please. fdisk or similar? The linux parts are formatted as Ext 4 but it would be okay to use Ext 3.
This Windows 7 setup has not complained and plays well with the reduction of its reduction.
I used a Linux Rescue CD and, IIRC, the tool was GParted. However, you still won't be able to resize the extended partition. You'll have to backup (always a good idea) the partitions, then remove and recreate the extended partitions and then restore the partitions. Incidentally, I generally start with a full disk image backup, and then back up the partitions individually. Depending on the partition, I may backup the entire partition to a file. With others, just use cp -a to copy all the contents of a partition to a temporary directory. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 05/29/2014 11:14 AM, James Knott wrote:
I used a Linux Rescue CD and, IIRC, the tool was GParted. However, you still won't be able to resize the extended partition. You'll have to backup (always a good idea) the partitions, then remove and recreate the extended partitions and then restore the partitions.
*sigh* I use LVM so I *never* have this problem. It was long ago and only on a 80G drive. I shrunk the W partition to 40G and had a 10G /boot since in those days you couldn't boot from LVM. Gradually I whittled away the W partition adding to the LVM. Eventually the W partition was all gone. -- /"\ \ / ASCII Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML Mail / \ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 05/29/2014 11:18 AM, Anton Aylward wrote:
I use LVM so I *never* have this problem.
I have also use LVM in the past, but with today's huge drives, it's not a problem to provide much more space than is needed for the various partitions. However, I still use LVM when working with RAID. One problem with LVM is working with it when booting from a CD. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 05/29/2014 11:29 AM, James Knott wrote:
On 05/29/2014 11:18 AM, Anton Aylward wrote:
I use LVM so I *never* have this problem.
I have also use LVM in the past, but with today's huge drives, it's not a problem to provide much more space than is needed for the various partitions. However, I still use LVM when working with RAID. One problem with LVM is working with it when booting from a CD.
Indeed. That is because when I run my normal system the kernel module for handling LVM -- the 'device mapper' -- is included. Booting from a CD it is not. One has to explicitly load it with modprobe: dm_mod. Not a big deal. -- /"\ \ / ASCII Ribbon Campaign X Against HTML Mail / \ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 29/05/14 16:14, James Knott wrote:
On 05/29/2014 11:06 AM, Constant Brouerius van Nidek wrote:
Above is precisely the actual setup. But the FREE 10 GB cannot be reached with the partitioner of Yast. Which partitioning tool would format this free partition? Suggestions please. fdisk or similar? The linux parts are formatted as Ext 4 but it would be okay to use Ext 3.
This Windows 7 setup has not complained and plays well with the reduction of its reduction.
I used a Linux Rescue CD and, IIRC, the tool was GParted. However, you still won't be able to resize the extended partition.
The OP has made no mention of an extended partition, and the description of his problem (inability to create a 5th partition) and statement that my assumed scheme was correct strongly implies he doesn't have one on that drive. GParted will definitely allow the root partition to be moved and resized, but of course you *cannot* move a mounted partition so a 'rescue' system needs to be used. And, of course, backing up is essential in such undertakings (or acceptance that un-recoverable failure may occur...) Dx -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
On 2014-05-29 11:14 (GMT-0400) James Knott composed:
I used a Linux Rescue CD and, IIRC, the tool was GParted. However, you still won't be able to resize the extended partition. You'll have to backup (always a good idea) the partitions, then remove and recreate the extended partitions and then restore the partitions.
The better, more intelligent partitioning tools capable of moves and resizes either: 1-make existence of any "extended" partition transparent, or 2-automatically make the size of the "extended" the sum total of all contiguous logicals plus contiguous freespace. IOW, it *should* not be necessary to ever take any explicit step to create or resize an "extended", which is nothing but one MBR table entry plus zero or more sectors used to define logical(s), not a place any filesystem or LV can be installed. Explicit management of extended size or existence is an unnecessary complication except possibly WRT to the occasional existence of non-contiguous primaries in conjunction with multiple freespace and/or logicals on the same device, which can be handled without anything more than saying what to do to enable use of otherwise unusable space, e.g. move a primary to butt against another to move one freespace into contiguity with another. -- "The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation) Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks! Felix Miata *** http://fm.no-ip.com/ -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org
participants (5)
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Anton Aylward -
Constant Brouerius van Nidek -
Dylan -
Felix Miata -
James Knott