HOWTO: Resize the WUBI virtual disk

[bcbc]

thank you very much . It's very useful

You're welcome

[eros_1983]

Thank you very very very much... =D>

[bcbc]

Thank you very very very much... =D>

No prob

[jhatto]

Hi I am sorry to be so ignorant but I hoped never to get back into Windows but I have had problems trying to use USB-ModeSwitch Wans when abroad, so I thought I would hang on to this new copy of Windows 7 until the ModeSwitching under Ubuntu is more reliable. My question is that I can not get Windows to show me the root.disc. It is some years since I last struggled with Windows. I wonder if this 7th incarnation is different.
I have followed bcbc's advice from July 7th, 2011 #418 and I appear to have transferred 100GB of extra Hard Drive to Ubuntu but I can not see how to rename the root files.

Regards
John

[QUOTE=bcbc;10134374]This HOWTO describes how to resize a Wubi virtual disk. There are two distinct techniques.

The first, described here, is not strictly a resize, but rather a duplication to a larger virtual disk. E.g. if you have a 7GB root.disk, and you want to make it 10GB you need 10GB of free space (plus leave enough for Windows). This is safer than attempting to expand the current root.disk.
This technique must be run from within the booted Wubi install.


6. You're done!
Reboot into windows, rename the file \ubuntu\disks\root.disk to \ubuntu\disks\OLDroot.disk
Rename the file \ubuntu\disks\new.disk to \ubuntu\disks\root.disk
Reboot back into Ubuntu -- only delete the OLDroot.disk if you are sure it worked.

NOTE: if you have previously created separate virtual disks e.g. for /home, this process will merge /home back into the new virtual disk. That means you need to remove the separate entry for /home from your /media/newdisk/etc/fstab (before the umount command) (or change the rsync command to --exclude '/home/*' altogether).

[bcbc]

jhatto,
You'll find the root.disk in the C:\ubuntu\disks folder under Windows. You'll find the root.disk and new.disk in there.

PS 100GB is a lot. I have no reason to believe there is a problem with this, however, this means you can store up to 100GB of data (probably important stuff) that will be stored within a single file. If this file is corrupted, or lost through accident or Windows chkdsk cleanup - you stand to lose a lot. (Although I've never had this problem on my Wubi installs, some people have - whether through forced shutdowns or perhaps incompatible hardware or other reasons unknown)

So my personal view is to store personal data files on the /host partition (the Windows host drive - normally C:\ ). You can access any data on your ntfs host through that if you need to.

Or go the real dual boot option - you can still keep both Windows and Ubuntu. Here's a good guide: http://members.iinet.net.au/~herman546/p22.html

And don't forget you can migrate your existing wubi without losing any of it's settings, programs, data: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1519354

[jhatto]

Thanks bcbc, very much for such a prompt and full reply:

Regards

John

[exiledangel420]

In place Resize of root.disk

It Worked!!! Thank You Bcbc!!!!

I used it about two weeks ago and it solved the problem.
Except theirs some kind of error when I boot up.
The error message pops up says that ubuntu has encontered a problem do you want to send a report blah, blah, blah.
But it doesn't cause any problems.
So I'm wondering if it's actually even really an error.
It doesn't crash all programs run fine.
I haven't had single problem with it.
Other then a pop messenge when I logon.
Has this happen to anyone else through this resize?

[bcbc]

In place Resize of root.disk

It Worked!!! Thank You Bcbc!!!!

I used it about two weeks ago and it solved the problem.
Except theirs some kind of error when I boot up.
The error message pops up says that ubuntu has encontered a problem do you want to send a report blah, blah, blah.
But it doesn't cause any problems.
So I'm wondering if it's actually even really an error.
It doesn't crash all programs run fine.
I haven't had single problem with it.
Other then a pop messenge when I logon.
Has this happen to anyone else through this resize?

Hi, thanks for the feedback.

This doesn't sound like a problem with the resize. That prompt you get is usually if an application crashes. So what I'd suggest is follow the prompts and create a bug report (you'll need a http://launchpad.net/ account for this).

If there was a problem with the resize - my expectation is that it'd be something like a corruption of the root.disk in which case it wouldn't boot at all.
However, if the program crash appeared on the first reboot following the resize with no other changes, and switching back to your backed up root.disk prior to the resize doesn't produce the error - then I guess there could be something in it. If that's the case, try another resize and see if you can reproduce the problem.

But as I say, this doesn't sound like the sort of error I'd expect and it's worth it to figure out whether the crash you are getting is a new bug or an existing one - which would rule out the resize.

Hope that helps.

[allen.kempe]

I have an eMachines with Ubuntu - wubi installed. I tried post #2 but it failed at step 3. I have a usb drive mounted that I used to backup the root.disk.
/media/win/ubuntu/disks/root.disk no such file or directory.I have a usb drive mounted that I used to backup the root.disk. usb_700_ext4 which is mounted with the name "/media/_usb_700_ext4_"

Here is the procedure that worked for me:

In place Resize of root.disk

1. You have to boot from a live CD/USB. This won't work while running Wubi.

2. Backup the root.disk
cp /media/eMachines/ubuntu/disks/root.disk /media/usb_700_ext4_

3. Check the size of the root.disk (not required)
Code:
du -h --apparent-size /media/eMachines/ubuntu/disks/root.disk
4. Run fsck on the root.disk
Code:
fsck -f /media/eMachines/ubuntu/disks/root.disk
5. Resize - specify the desired final size (this example resizes to 10 GB)
Code:
resize2fs /media/eMachines/ubuntu/disks/root.disk 10G
6. Reboot back into Wubi Ubuntu

[jhatto]

Thanks allen.kempe,
I am grateful for the help I am currently exploring various possible solutions but as it is this difficulty is not too pressing other things are taking over!

John