Superblock warning - cannot resize partition

[kamelie1706]

Hello,

I have 3 hard drive with the following partition setup



NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda 8:0 0 59.6G 0 disk
├─sda1 8:1 0 57.2G 0 part /
├─sda2 8:2 0 1K 0 part
└─sda5 8:5 0 2.5G 0 part [SWAP]
sdb 8:16 0 465.8G 0 disk /media/disk1
sdc 8:32 0 465.8G 0 disk /media/disk2
sr0 11:0 1 1024M 0 rom


I have actually one for sdb (sdb1) and one for sdc(sdc1) but they are not shown with the above command "lsblk". Both occupies full capacities of each hard drive.

This is how I mount them


UID=290de80e-6f64-4dea-9cd6-704351e250c6 none swap sw 0 0
UUID=fe3c9af4-f074-426e-9bf2-a4c8aa55e372 / ext4 errors=remount-ro,user_xattr 0 1
/dev/sdb /media/disk1 ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/sdc /media/disk2 ext4 errors=remount-ro 0 1


When I use gparted I get the same warning for sdb1 & sdbc1 partition (see attached screenshot)

fdisk -l


Disk /dev/sda: 64.0 GB, 64023257088 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 7783 cylinders, total 125045424 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000c31ea

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2048 119851007 59924480 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 119853054 125044735 2595841 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 119853056 125044735 2595840 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Disk /dev/sdb: 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 / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdb doesn't contain a valid partition table

Disk /dev/sdc: 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 / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000


I cannot re-size or change sdb1 & sdc1 but both have data I can access normally.

It seems I have not partition for sdb & sdc disk but I can still use them and mount them directly without partition! :confused:

Any idea where to look in order to fix the situation?

Thanks

[darkod]

Why did you start using sdb and sdc without creating a partition table and partition(s) first? Honestly, I have never seen such a case so far.

The only situation I have seen using disks directly (not partitions) is mdadm software raid. It allows to be created from disks or partitions.

I would suggest moving the data somewhere temporarily, and creating one or more partitions on the disks. It's up to you whether you create a single partition taking the whole disk and the filesystem you use on that partition. After that put the data back.

[kamelie1706]

Hi,

this is what happened ... ubuntu just partitioned my main disk sda during installation but i could start using the 2 others without partitioning.

I will probably follow your advice but need to find the correct command to backup/copy keeping all files information (user rights & permissions included) and buy an usb hardrive to backup.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BackupYourSystem/TAR


I have NAS but as they are not ext4 so I am afraid to lose the user rights (one hard drive contain my backintime directory).

[oldfred]

If you copy to NTFS or other non-Linux formats you will lose ownership & permissions. But if it is just data, not system, you should be able to just reset, unless you have lots of users and have manually changed permissions.

But if you use any of the compressed backups, that will preserve your settings.

discussion of alternatives/strategy backups
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BackupYourSystem

I just use rsync but tar will preserve your ownership & permissions.
Tar backup script:
https://help.ubuntu.com/12.04/serverguide/C/backup-shellscripts.html


#If you cannot read and write then change the permissions. Not for NTFS
# Note that the -R is recursion and everything is changed, do NOT run on any system partitions.
# 777 is read, write & execute by everyone
I recently learned something - see post #8 & 10 by morbius1. Seems like a better way as you have more control over what is executable.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1795369
sudo chmod -R a+rwX /mnt/data
#is better than this:
sudo chmod 775 /mnt/data
sudo chown $USER:$USER /mnt/data
#where $USER should be your login name
# better if both directories & files
chmod -R a+rwX,go-w /path/to/folder
sudo chmod -R a+rwX,o-w /folder
All directories will be 775.
All files will be 664 except those that were set as executable to begin with.

[darkod]

When I was moving my root and /home partition to my new SSD I used from live session:
sudo cp -ax /source /target

The options -ax keep the ownership and permissions. The OS worked just fine after copying with cp -ax without the need to do anything more.

[kamelie1706]

the only directory I need to be carefull is my backintime directory as it contains many logical & hard links ... any hint for this one? Rest should be fine as they are only data files.