[SOLVED] merge partitions

[rkakkar]

I am running out of space on my windows drive (ntfs). is there any utility (like partition magic for windows) where i can bit off a chunk from my ext3 partition and merge it with my windows partition?

[prshah]

I am running out of space on my windows drive (ntfs). is there any utility (like partition magic for windows) where i can bit off a chunk from my ext3 partition and merge it with my windows partition?

System-Administration-Partition Editor; if you don't have that entry, install gparted (apt://gparted)

Things can get hairy if your ext3 is in an extended partition and you intend to add space to a primary partition; but it can be done.

[logos34]

where i can bit off a chunk from my ext3 partition and merge it with my windows partition?

only if the two partitions are contiguous. You don't 'merge', but rather shrink the ext3 (using Gparted) and expand the ntfs into the free space. If the ext3 partition in question is /, then you'll obviously have to work from Gparted on the ubuntu live cd.

[rkakkar]

System-Administration-Partition Editor; if you don't have that entry, install gparted (apt://gparted)

Things can get hairy if your ext3 is in an extended partition and you intend to add space to a primary partition; but it can be done.

unfortunately that's exactly what i want to do.

my partition table is as follows:


Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1095 8795556 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1096 14593 108422685 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 1096 14219 105418498+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 14220 14593 3004123+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris


and now i want to take a chunk out of /dev/sda5 and merge it with /dev/sda1. how can i do so? gparted allows me to shrink /dev/sda5 but there is no option to merge the new space with /dev/sda1

[logos34]

[/code]and now i want to take a chunk out of /dev/sda5 and merge it with /dev/sda1. how can i do so? gparted allows me to shrink /dev/sda5 but there is no option to merge the new space with /dev/sda1

Using Gparted on the live cd, shrink sda5 (from the left), then shrink sda2 to match. Expand sda1 to incorporate the freed space.

good luck

[rkakkar]

Using Gparted on the live cd, shrink sda5 (from the left), then shrink sda2 to match. Expand sda1 to incorporate the freed space.

good luck

no luck. its not allowing me to shrink sda2 to match.

[prshah]

no luck. its not allowing me to shrink sda2 to match.

You need to "unmount" the swap; booting off a live CD activates swap if a swap partition exists.

From the live CD:

EITHER:

right click the linux-swap partition (in gparted) and choose "Swapoff"

OR:

Close gparted, open a terminal, and give the command
sudo swapoff -a, then restart gparted