Partition confusion

[oopsie]

I installed Ubuntu for the first time ever a few weeks ago. I've played about with it a bit, and it's pretty cool.

But the problem is, because I was just testing it, I gave it about as little space as I could, and now it's all full.

So, I thought I'd uninstall Ubuntu and reinstall it again with a lot more room on a different drive.

Anyway, I used the live CD I downloaded to make the installation the first time, and I got to the partitioning step and noticed that it couldn't resize the drive at all.

My oldest drive is 27GB FAT32 and it seems to see that okay, and I could resize it if I wanted.
My 2nd oldest, and the drive I have Ubuntu on now is 76GB and was NTFS before I gave 10GB of it to Ubuntu the first time I installed.
My newest drive is also NTFS and is 300GB with 160GB of room, and I want to put Ubuntu there with about 50GB of space.

But, the partition part of the install CD can only see the size of the drive and not how much is used. And the only option I think might work is a complete format, which I can't do due to having a lot of stuff I want to keep on it.

So, is there anything I can do to partition this drive? Windows sees it okay, I just deleted a few files and I defragged it ready for partitioning.

Help!:confused:

[caljohnsmith]

Have you tried using the "manual" partitioning choice during the installation? That should allow you to set up partitions for Ubuntu. If for some reason that doesn't work, how about opening a terminal (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and do:

sudo fdisk -lu
sudo sfdisk -d
sudo parted -l
And please post the output.

[oopsie]

Yeah, I only ever did manual partioning.

sudo fdisk -lu gave this


Disk /dev/sda: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 620181 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4397e1fd

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 63 625142447 312571192+ 42 SFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 27.3 GB, 27325218816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3322 cylinders, total 53369568 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb35350d4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 * 63 53351864 26675901 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/sdc: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders, total 160086528 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x42bc91a1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 63 140536619 70268278+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdc2 140536620 160071659 9767520 5 Extended
/dev/sdc5 140536683 151284104 5373711 83 Linux
/dev/sdc6 151284168 155284289 2000061 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdc7 155284353 160071659 2393653+ 83 Linux


sudo sfdisk -d gave this


# partition table of /dev/sda
unit: sectors

/dev/sda1 : start= 63, size=625142385, Id=42
/dev/sda2 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0
/dev/sda3 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0
/dev/sda4 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0
# partition table of /dev/sdb
unit: sectors

/dev/sdb1 : start= 63, size= 53351802, Id= c, bootable
/dev/sdb2 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0
/dev/sdb3 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0
/dev/sdb4 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0
# partition table of /dev/sdc
unit: sectors

/dev/sdc1 : start= 63, size=140536557, Id= 7
/dev/sdc2 : start=140536620, size= 19535040, Id= 5
/dev/sdc3 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0
/dev/sdc4 : start= 0, size= 0, Id= 0
/dev/sdc5 : start=140536683, size= 10747422, Id=83
/dev/sdc6 : start=151284168, size= 4000122, Id=82
/dev/sdc7 : start=155284353, size= 4787307, Id=83


sudo parted -l gave this

Model: ATA WDC WD3200KS-00P (scsi)
Disk /dev/sda: 320GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 320GB 320GB primary ntfs


Model: ATA Maxtor 92732U8 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdb: 27.3GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 27.3GB 27.3GB primary fat32 boot, lba


Model: ATA Maxtor 6Y080P0 (scsi)
Disk /dev/sdc: 82.0GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/512B
Partition Table: msdos

Number Start End Size Type File system Flags
1 32.3kB 72.0GB 72.0GB primary ntfs
2 72.0GB 82.0GB 10.0GB extended
5 72.0GB 77.5GB 5503MB logical ext3
6 77.5GB 79.5GB 2048MB logical linux-swap
7 79.5GB 82.0GB 2451MB logical ext3


I hope all that makes more sense to you than it does to me.

[caljohnsmith]

According to the output of those commands, you have a 320 GB drive that has an NTFS partition on it, but the NTFS partition takes up the entire drive. Also, for some reason the NTFS partition appears to be mislabeled as "SFS" instead of NTFS. I would first correct that problem by doing:

sudo sfdisk -c /dev/sda 1 7
Then how about pulling up the partition editor (System > Admin > Partition Editor), and see if you can resize the NTFS partition on drive sda (your 320 GB drive). If that works, you could also use the partition editor to set up partitions for Ubuntu if you want. Let me know if that works or not.

[oopsie]

Ummmm

I just went back into windows to check everything was working, and it says my E drive isn't formatted =S

I think I've buggered something up ='(

Should I still do your "sudo sfdisk -c /dev/sda 1 7"?

[caljohnsmith]

Yes, I would go ahead and do the sfdisk command, because it can only help to give the NTFS partition the correct label in the partition table. But if Windows doesn't recognize that partition, it may be that the partition is corrupt. Do you have anything important on that partition, or can you maybe reformat it?

[oopsie]

There is some stuff which is semi-important.

That command still hasn't made it so windows can see it and Linux still can't partition it.

I redid "sudo fdisk -lu" and it just seems to have moved things around.



Disk /dev/sda: 27.3 GB, 27325218816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3322 cylinders, total 53369568 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xb35350d4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 53351864 26675901 7 HPFS/NTFS

Disk /dev/sdb: 81.9 GB, 81964302336 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9964 cylinders, total 160086528 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x42bc91a1

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 140536619 70268278+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2 140536620 160071659 9767520 5 Extended
/dev/sdb5 140536683 151284104 5373711 83 Linux
/dev/sdb6 151284168 155284289 2000061 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb7 155284353 160071659 2393653+ 83 Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 320.0 GB, 320072933376 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 620181 cylinders, total 625142448 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x4397e1fd

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdc1 63 625142447 312571192+ 42 SFS


It still says SFS =\

I sense a reformat impending :confused:

Or is there something else I can do?

Thank you for your time and effort anyway, even if I am doomed

[caljohnsmith]

OK, that's not good the device letters are moving around, but we'll just work around it. First do again:

sudo fdisk -lu
Find which is your 27 GB drive (it was sda in your last post, but use the fdisk command output to know for sure) and do:

sudo sfdisk -c /dev/sdX 1 c
Replace sdX above with your 27 GB drive. Next, replace sdX in the following command with your 320 GB drive (it was sdc in your last post, but be sure to check with the fdisk command above):

sudo sfdisk -c /dev/sdX 1 7
And then run fdisk again to make sure your 320 GB drive shows an NTFS partition now, and also that your 27 GB drive has a FAT partition on it. IF that works, you could try gparted on the 320 GB drive again, and let me know how that goes.

[oopsie]

Thank you sooooo much!

Windows can read everything again! Although there was a scary 30 seconds when it couldn't even see my 320GB drive *YIKES*

Anyway, the partitioner software can even see it and seems to offer the ability to partition it.

But, I'm tired now, and I don't think it's wise of me to partition while bleary eyed, so I'll attempt to do the rest tomorrow.

Thank you again for being soooooo helpful.

If there's anything I can do in return, feel free to ask

Anyway, thank you!

[caljohnsmith]

I'm really glad to hear that's all it took to fix the problem. Cheers and good luck partitioning it. :)