Increasing unallocated space using Gparted.

[benon]

Am using ubuntu 8.04 on a dell vostro a860 notebook. I had made a partition of just 10GB for windows-xp using Gparted. Now i need to increase the size of this partition to 20GB so i can replace xp with vista. I have failed to use the resizing option in Gparted to increase the size. It seems to just move the partition not resize it!

I even deleted the partition hoping it would disappear completely so that i can make a new one but it remains as unallocated space. I just need to either resize to 20 GB it or remove it completely so that i can make a new partition.

seems simple but i just can't get around it!

[benon]

I managed to get the solution as i kept looking around. When u use the live CD the drives are not mounted so u get the resize option.
Guess the thread is closed!

[raymondh]

I managed to get the solution as i kept looking around. When u use the live CD the drives are not mounted so u get the resize option.
Guess the thread is closed!

Congratulations.

Links that may serve you in the future.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/generalities/gparted.htm
http://www.dedoimedo.com/computers/gparted.html

Once again, congratulations.

[Idefix82]

Before you proceed, be warned that you will have to repair the boot sector as Windows will kick out grub from the MBR upon installation and you won't have the option of booting into Ubuntu until you reinstall grub.

[benon]

Thanks everyone for the advice. Am now happily duabooting ubuntu and vista! My main challenge now is resizing the vista partition as safely as possible without losing data. I had given it little space.

[Mark Phelps]

Thanks everyone for the advice. Am now happily duabooting ubuntu and vista! My main challenge now is resizing the vista partition as safely as possible without losing data. I had given it little space.

"Without losing data" is the key phase here ...

So, be sure to use the Vista Disk Management tool to shrink the Vista OS, not the Ubuntu partition editor or a GParted Live CD. Using either of the latter runs the risk of corrupting the Vista OS partition. If you have a Vista DVD, you can reboot using it and run Startup Repair repeatedly until it finds no more problems -- and that MIGHT repair the partition. But, it also might not.

[raymondh]

another tip ....

Before shrinking, try to defrag 1 or 2x which (HOPEFULLY) will push all data to the front of the partition.

Mark is right .... use Vista' disk management tool to shrink the Vista partition.

Good luck.

[benon]

Thanx. However i need to expand not shrink the vista partition. I want to get some space from the ubuntu partition and give it to the vista partition. Does the advice still hold?

[raymondh]

Thanx. However i need to expand not shrink the vista partition. I want to get some space from the ubuntu partition and give it to the vista partition. Does the advice still hold?

Sorry, my mistake. Thought you were shrinking Vista.

[benon]

Well, it's probably my mistake too. Didn't specify. U see i installed ubuntu 1st then created some little space for vista to try it out. This is why i now need to give vista a bit more space .

This is totally different but my computer's fanning system is a little louder than usual, like the fan is hitting on something! Any ideas.

[raymondh]

Well, it's probably my mistake too. Didn't specify. U see i installed ubuntu 1st then created some little space for vista to try it out. This is why i now need to give vista a bit more space .

This is totally different but my computer's fanning system is a little louder than usual, like the fan is hitting on something! Any ideas.

Couple of ideas ...

Fan may be out-of-mount.
You may need to do some cleaning.
Fan may be going kaput.

Also, it may be getting HOT inside hence requiring the fan to do some extra work.

Is it the same noise when you run Vista?

Some threads for reading.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=477258
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty#How_to_enable_your_CPU.27s_Power_Sav ing.2FFrequency_Scaling_features
http://ubuntuguide.org/wiki/Ubuntu:Feisty#How_to_control_fan_speed_.28lm-sensors.29

They may be for feisty but they may give you clues.

If you post a new thread with a specific title, someone in the know may get to see it and give you proper directions.

Good luck.

[benon]

Thanx. The sound is in both operating systems. I'll check out the links. But what about increasing the vista partition.

[raymondh]

Thanx. The sound is in both operating systems. I'll check out the links. But what about increasing the vista partition.

Kindly share a screenshot of gparted as well as outputs of these terminal commands


sudo fdisk -l
df -h


on the fdisk ... that's a small L and not number 1

Thanks.

[benon]

http://http://img181.imageshack.us/img181/2312/screenshotdevsdagparted.png (http://www.imagehosting.com/)


benon@benon-laptop:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for benon:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000080

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 3853 30947328 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 3854 18704 119290657+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 18705 19457 6048472+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 18705 19457 6048441 82 Linux swap / Solaris


benon@benon-laptop:~$ df -h
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda2 113G 88G 22G 80% /
varrun 1009M 228K 1009M 1% /var/run
varlock 1009M 0 1009M 0% /var/lock
udev 1009M 44K 1009M 1% /dev
devshm 1009M 12K 1009M 1% /dev/shm
lrm 1009M 39M 971M 4% /lib/modules/2.6.24-19-generic/volatile
gvfs-fuse-daemon 113G 88G 22G 80% /home/benon/.gvfs

Hope that helps. Sorry i took a little long to reply.

[benon]

Hey! Am still waiting for some advice. Anyone please.

[anchorschmidt]

Download EASUS partition manager for Windows vista from

http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Partition-Manager-Home-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html

Its completely free and you can increase your Vista partition. Please defrag first though. Reply if you have problems using it.

[raymondh]

Hey! Am still waiting for some advice. Anyone please.

Hello Benon,

Disclaimer : I usually prefer not to resize partitions by grabbing the left side and moving it because it may subsequently move root (/) or boot files and create havoc. The operative word is may. So back up your files pls.

Use the liveCD and access gparted. Better option is to burn yourself a standalone gparted CD, latest version, as it seems to be better.

Right click on all partitions and if youre given the option to unmount, go ahead and unmount. Same for swap ... swapoff. Then try

1. With everything unmounted, move/resize down sda2 to give desired space.
2. Extend sda1.
3. Review and apply

Once done, check booting into sda2 (Ubuntu). I can't seem to post links now. If you visit gparted.sourceforge.net (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/), you'll find the gparted manual for reference. Another link for reference is howtoforge.com/partitioning_with_gparted (http://howtoforge.com/partitioning_with_gparted).

Good luck.

[benon]

Thanks guys. I'll keep in touch.