Is it possible to reduce my ubuntu primary partition

[sureshsaragadam]

Hi Forum,

With default installation of Ubuntu 11.10 on my Laptop,
It has occupied the full 500 GB,

$sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 968564735 484281344 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 968566782 976771071 4102145 5 Extended
Partition 2 does not start on physical sector boundary.
/dev/sda5 968566784 976771071 4102144 82 Linux swap / Solaris


Now i need to reduce the ' sda1' which is my primary partition,

I have a Ubuntu 11.10 USB Startup Disk.
Booting from my Startup Disk, Can i reduce my sda1 with gparted tool?

And later, Can i safely boot my laptop?

[raja.genupula]

yeah you can use gparted for that and it is safe . no problem will rise .

all the best.

[Mark Phelps]

No partition work is absolutely safe ... there is always the possibility of something going wrong.

Also, GParted can take a LONG time with large partitions, so:
1) Don't abort or interrupt the process before it finishes, even if it keeps running for HOURS
2) Make sure that your laptop is on AC power, not Battery, as power failures while in progress will leave your partitions corrupted.

[sureshsaragadam]

Yes It worked fine, After resizing my primary Ubuntu partition with external Ubuntu using gparted,

And it tool lot of time, Now my hard-disk can be utilized far better,

As i booted from the external ubuntu, with gparted

1. delete both 'sda5', 'sda2' (both swap and extended partitions)
2. resize the sda1 (which is the primary partition, don't delete this)
3. create your own partition lay out.
4. apply for the changes.
5. get ready to wait for a long time to get job done.

so:
1) Don't abort or interrupt the process before it finishes, even if it keeps running for HOURS
2) Make sure that your laptop is on AC power, not Battery, as power failures while in progress will leave your partitions corrupted.


$fdisk -l /dev/sda

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
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0002e658

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 253962239 126980096 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 253962240 460685311 103361536 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 460685312 563902463 51608576 83 Linux
/dev/sda4 563902464 976773119 206435328 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 563904512 636569599 36332544 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 636571648 709375999 36402176 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 709378048 778901503 34761728 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 778903552 823226367 22161408 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 823228416 856393727 16582656 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 856395776 864784383 4194304 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Now i have my partitions ready for multi-boot.