ChristianMartel
July 22nd, 2009, 02:36 PM
1) This thread was initially submitted to: http://forums.techguy.org/unix-linux/843883-ubuntu-choked-hangs.html#post6821769 but more knowledge was req'd to answer.
2) Have submitted a request to Gparted team but such people tend to be very, very busy and may not have time for such inquiries, and I need to get this resolved as quickly as possible.
3) Here is the important and critical issue:
Have initially tried Ubuntu 8.04 installed in Win on NTFS partition. Worked fine till I "choked" the small 10GB pseudo partition I created by adding an adding packages.
Decided to move to 9.04 on a seperate Ext3 partition. I didn't go this route initially because I was concerned that when resizing the NTFS partition, I might accidentally squash the tail end of something on that partition.
When you Defrag a hard disk I don't know how to obtain the largest continguous space available, and if the partition manager, like Gpart, does any checks when executing a resizing (downsizing) request.
Here is the output of Fdisk and Du commands:
Disk /dev/sda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x282d282d
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 10531 84590226 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 10533 12030 12032685 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3 12031 12161 1052257+ d7 Unknown
ubuntu@ubuntu:/media/Nomade$ sudo du -s
37540483 .
But more importantly here are some screen shots of the issue:
Gparted screen shot#1: overview of the hard disk situation on this HP Pavillion dv9000 notebook computer - indications that there are a bit more than 44GB of space to create a partition for Ubuntu; and in fact as can be seen in screen shots #2 & #3 this is confirmed - Gparted is willing to allow a reduction of the Win XP partition by about 45GB.
Screen shot #4 is a map produced by the Win XP defrag program. This is after "defragging the hell out of the disk" as posted on another Ubuntu support item. The first issues appear:
a significant amount of "unmovable" data is shoen
a sliver of data at the end of the disk, presumably in the zone that would be freed after a Win XP partition reduction: thus resulting in loss of this data
Screen shot #5 is a similar map but produced with a defrag program by PerfectDisk (30$). This confirms concerns and brings a MUCH more important one: metadata such as boot records, file tables, etc. are NOT moved up to make space for a partition reduction.
>>> Two other pertinent screen shots in following reply (max of 5 uploads per message).
So this would SEEM to explain why many people who want to go with a dual boot end up trashing their Windows system:
It is not clear that the defrag process is an iterative one for most programs of this type
Most defrag programs do NOT defrag and move metadata or "unmovable" data
the partition program Gparted (or probably all others) does not seem to have enough checks and balances to avoid loosing critical metadata.
simple methods of calculating available space do not provide checks and balances for not overruning a residually framented space
So what I would like to know is how can I make sure that no metadata or other files that are to remain in the Windows partion will not be lost when I reduce that partition to make room for Ubuntu. Please see next reply for one last piece of info.
Thx
xian
2) Have submitted a request to Gparted team but such people tend to be very, very busy and may not have time for such inquiries, and I need to get this resolved as quickly as possible.
3) Here is the important and critical issue:
Have initially tried Ubuntu 8.04 installed in Win on NTFS partition. Worked fine till I "choked" the small 10GB pseudo partition I created by adding an adding packages.
Decided to move to 9.04 on a seperate Ext3 partition. I didn't go this route initially because I was concerned that when resizing the NTFS partition, I might accidentally squash the tail end of something on that partition.
When you Defrag a hard disk I don't know how to obtain the largest continguous space available, and if the partition manager, like Gpart, does any checks when executing a resizing (downsizing) request.
Here is the output of Fdisk and Du commands:
Disk /dev/sda: 100.0 GB, 100030242816 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 12161 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x282d282d
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 10531 84590226 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 10533 12030 12032685 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda3 12031 12161 1052257+ d7 Unknown
ubuntu@ubuntu:/media/Nomade$ sudo du -s
37540483 .
But more importantly here are some screen shots of the issue:
Gparted screen shot#1: overview of the hard disk situation on this HP Pavillion dv9000 notebook computer - indications that there are a bit more than 44GB of space to create a partition for Ubuntu; and in fact as can be seen in screen shots #2 & #3 this is confirmed - Gparted is willing to allow a reduction of the Win XP partition by about 45GB.
Screen shot #4 is a map produced by the Win XP defrag program. This is after "defragging the hell out of the disk" as posted on another Ubuntu support item. The first issues appear:
a significant amount of "unmovable" data is shoen
a sliver of data at the end of the disk, presumably in the zone that would be freed after a Win XP partition reduction: thus resulting in loss of this data
Screen shot #5 is a similar map but produced with a defrag program by PerfectDisk (30$). This confirms concerns and brings a MUCH more important one: metadata such as boot records, file tables, etc. are NOT moved up to make space for a partition reduction.
>>> Two other pertinent screen shots in following reply (max of 5 uploads per message).
So this would SEEM to explain why many people who want to go with a dual boot end up trashing their Windows system:
It is not clear that the defrag process is an iterative one for most programs of this type
Most defrag programs do NOT defrag and move metadata or "unmovable" data
the partition program Gparted (or probably all others) does not seem to have enough checks and balances to avoid loosing critical metadata.
simple methods of calculating available space do not provide checks and balances for not overruning a residually framented space
So what I would like to know is how can I make sure that no metadata or other files that are to remain in the Windows partion will not be lost when I reduce that partition to make room for Ubuntu. Please see next reply for one last piece of info.
Thx
xian