gparted will not let me add a partition

[lindsay7]

I have a 500 gig drive with Ubuntu 8.10 which is using the whole drive. It is formatted ext3. I want to add a partition in order to move my home directory to it. When I try to add a 100 gig partion, gparted runs but then stops with errors.


resize2fs /dev/sda1 377326655K

nice: resize2fs: Input/output error


How can I fix this?

[neilevan814]

Are you trying to run gparted from your installed distro? Because you won't be able to do that. You need to run gparted from the live CD in order to repartition the OS. I do believe.

[lindsay7]

I am using the live cd.

[dandnsmith]

I'm not sure that you can reduce an ext3 partition in size.
You may need to back it up, delete the partition, add the new partitions, and then restore from the backup.

I hesitate to suggest how you do the backup, as you haven't given any indications of size, and whether you can attach external HDDs ...

[lindsay7]

Is this a problem with Gparted or is this an issue because it is an ext3 partition?

Could I use Acronis Tools to do this? Would resizing the ext3 partition mess up my install of Ubuntu on this drive?

I have looked all over the internet and can not find much that helps. I would have thought that this would have been a common question. The reason why I am trying to do this is I read in this forum that I would be a good idea to move your home directory to its on partition because upgrading would be safer.

[lindsay7]

Ok, thanks for the help. I have Ubuntu on a 500 gig drive used only by Ubuntu. So it is on sda1 and I want to partition it and use about 100 gigs for a home partition. Gparted runs but them stops and give an i/o error.

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo df
Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
tmpfs 1003436 2000 1001436 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-7-generic/volatile
tmpfs 1003436 2000 1001436 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-7-generic/volatile
tmpfs 1003436 0 1003436 0% /lib/init/rw
varrun 1003436 84 1003352 1% /var/run
varlock 1003436 0 1003436 0% /var/lock
udev 1003436 2856 1000580 1% /dev
tmpfs 1003436 104 1003332 1% /dev/shm
rootfs 1003436 21892 981544 3% /
/dev/scd0 715592 715592 0 100% /cdrom
/dev/loop0 691712 691712 0 100% /rofs
tmpfs 1003436 12 1003424 1% /tmp
/dev/sdb1 995024 16480 978544 2% /media/disk


From the live cd

Code:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ cat /etc/fstab
aufs / aufs rw 0 0
tmpfs /tmp tmpfs nosuid,nodev 0 0
/dev/sda5 swap swap defaults 0 0
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo df
bash: ubuntu@ubuntu:~$: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ Filesystem 1K-blocks Used Available Use% Mounted on
bash: Filesystem: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ tmpfs 1003436 2000 1001436 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-7-generic/volatile
bash: tmpfs: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ tmpfs 1003436 2000 1001436 1% /lib/modules/2.6.27-7-generic/volatile
bash: tmpfs: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ tmpfs 1003436 0 1003436 0% /lib/init/rw
bash: tmpfs: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ varrun 1003436 84 1003352 1% /var/run
bash: varrun: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ varlock 1003436 0 1003436 0% /var/lock
bash: varlock: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ udev 1003436 2856 1000580 1% /dev
bash: udev: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ tmpfs 1003436 104 1003332 1% /dev/shm
bash: tmpfs: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ rootfs 1003436 21892 981544 3% /
bash: rootfs: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ /dev/scd0 715592 715592 0 100% /cdrom
bash: /dev/scd0: Permission denied
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ /dev/loop0 691712 691712 0 100% /rofs
bash: /dev/loop0: Permission denied
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ tmpfs 1003436 12 1003424 1% /tmp
bash: tmpfs: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ /dev/sdb1 995024 16480 978544 2% /media/disk
bash: /dev/sdb1: Permission denied
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
bash: ubuntu@ubuntu:~$: command not found
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$


From the drive without the live cd

stevepoulton@stevepoulton-desktop:~$ cat /etc/fstab
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point> <type> <options> <dump> <pass>
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
# /dev/sda1
UUID=c67425dc-c774-4ef9-8be9-b0d47c55e478 / ext3 relatime,errors=remount-ro 0 1
# /dev/sda5
UUID=9d077e0a-cd5f-41ad-9e34-e8e6a9d66095 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/scd0 /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0 0
stevepoulton@stevepoulton-desktop:~$



here is the disk info

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -lu

Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x1d56957a

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 63 965024549 482512243+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 965024550 976768064 5871757+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 965024613 976768064 5871726 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 1019 MB, 1019215872 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 123 cylinders, total 1990656 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0accb65c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 63 1990655 995296+ e W95 FAT16 (LBA)
Partition 1 has different physical/logical endings:
phys=(122, 254, 63) logical=(123, 232, 45)
ubuntu@ubuntu:~$
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Last edited by lindsay7; 6 Minutes Ago at 01:03 AM.. Reason: more info

[boof1988]

I'm not sure that you can reduce an ext3 partition in size.

Please note this website...

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/features.php

gparted (on Ubuntu LiveCD) can (in fact) shrink ext3, among many other operations. The only limiting factor is if you are using a standard Ubuntu install, there may be additional packages needed to give the full functionality to gparted.

The website above indicates the required packages for the extended capabilities of gparted.

[Therion]

You have to shrink the existing partition as step one.
Step two will be the formatting and partitioning of what will be the "unallocated space" after the completion of step one.

Eesh, that's bad even for me... Let me rephrase that.

Step 1: Shrink the existing Ext3 partition. This shrinking will leave you with "unallocated space".
Step 2: Create and format the new partition in the "unallocated space" created by step 1.

[lindsay7]

Thanks to all for the help. I downloaded Gparted as an ISO cd and that solved the problem. I could not do this from the Ubuntu live cd.