Anyone know how to unmount a partition?

[listerdl]

Hi does anyone know how to unmount a partition?

I am trying to delete a winRE partion that has been 'reserved' using GParted but it refuses to let me delete or format it...

Any ideas?

I think the trick is to unmount it but am unsure how to do this - thanks ;)

[lisati]

Does right-clicking on its name in gParted's list of partitions give you an "unmount" option?

[Mrandersonjr]

In the terminal type:
umount /dev/sd*
where the * is your drive number.
If it won't unmount then use,
umount -f /dev/sd*

[oldos2er]

In gparted, right-click on the partition and choose 'Unmount'. I don't understand what you mean by using gparted to reserve a partition.

[listerdl]

In gparted, right-click on the partition and choose 'Unmount'. I don't understand what you mean by using gparted to reserve a partition.

Thanks - let me try that - (Ill mark this thread as answered if that works)

Using GParted I meant that one of the partitions has been reserved for the winRE - and I would like to unreserve that by using GParted.

[JamesParnell]

umount /dev/sd***

or umount -f /dev/sd*** (this will force the partition to unmount)

[listerdl]

thanks !

[listerdl]

I tried the above and this happened:

henry@henryUbuntu:~$ umount -f /dev/sda1
umount: only root can do that
henry@henryUbuntu:~$ unmount /dev/sda1
No command 'unmount' found, did you mean:
Command 'umount' from package 'mount' (main)
Command 'umount' from package 'loop-aes-utils' (universe)

I changed the format for this partition to linux-swap but still when i boot the grub screen still lists this partition as Vista Loader...

Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Thanks!

[nickpaton]

I tried the above and this happened:

henry@henryUbuntu:~$ umount -f /dev/sda1
umount: only root can do that
henry@henryUbuntu:~$ unmount /dev/sda1
No command 'unmount' found, did you mean:
Command 'umount' from package 'mount' (main)
Command 'umount' from package 'loop-aes-utils' (universe)

I changed the format for this partition to linux-swap but still when i boot the grub screen still lists this partition as Vista Loader...

Any ideas what I am doing wrong?

Thanks!
Try putting "sudo" in front of the command.

[listerdl]

Try putting "sudo" in front of the command.

thanks...i tried and:

henry@henryUbuntu:~$ sudo umount -f /dev/sda1
[sudo] password for henry:
umount2: Invalid argument
umount: /dev/sda1: not mounted


Thats weird...says that it isnt mounted but when I boot it is clearly there in the grub menu. Should I simply ignore? Thing is that I would like to use that partition as a swap area

[Paqman]

Is the partition you're trying to unmount inside an extended partition that has other partitions that are mounted? If so, Gparted will show the whole extended partition as locked.

[oldos2er]

henry@henryUbuntu:~$ sudo umount -f /dev/sda1
[sudo] password for henry:
umount2: Invalid argument
umount: /dev/sda1: not mounted

Thats weird...says that it isnt mounted but when I boot it is clearly there in the grub menu. Should I simply ignore? Thing is that I would like to use that partition as a swap area

Can you run each of these commands and post their output?

sudo fdisk -l

mount

[listerdl]

Can you run each of these commands and post their output?

sudo fdisk -l

mount

Hi this is the output:

henry@henryUbuntu:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for henry:

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x01eb4677

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1020 8192000 82 Linux swap / Solaris
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/sda2 * 1020 3570 20483001 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 3571 6120 20482875 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 6121 19457 107129452+ 7 HPFS/NTFS

The partition that contains the Vista Loader, (that I am trying to get rid of and covert to linux-swap) is the first one that says, "Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary."

Does that mean that that partition cannot be deleted?

Thanks for all advice.

[oldos2er]

I am not certain--and please don't act on my advice until someone else chimes in--but you may need to create a new partition table, which would involve wiping out everything on the disk and then recreating what ever partitions you need. So you would want to have backups of any data you wish to keep beforehand.

Or you could leave things as they are. I'm a little concerned though that the error "does not end on cylinder boundary" may be putting some of your data at risk.

[mkoehler]

Personally, I always say that it's worth tossing in a live cd and playing around with it. If sda1 is an extention of sda3, it may be trying to remount the drive - obviously when the drive is mounted, no formatting options can be run on it. Basically, I'd just suggest pulling out the 'ol live cd and running gparted.