gparted for '/' partition resizing [SOLVED]

upengan78 · Guru Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 431 Location: IL

Hi,

I have /dev/sda 160 GB. 40 GB is alloted to windows

This is my partition structure,
Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19452 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Rob1n · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 3:21 pm Post subject:

You can't resize a mounted partition, no - I'd advise using the GParted Live CD (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php).

Veldrin · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 3:21 pm Post subject:

As you already found out, resizing a mounted fs is not possible. Using a LiveCD with gparted (ubuntu or gparted comes to my mind) always a better option in such a case as yours.

cheers
V.

manlydan · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 3:33 pm Post subject:

Use a liveCD, such as KNOPPIX, to resize your root partition.

My personal preference for resizing ext2/ext3 partitions is to use resize2fs and fdisk because the parted programs wouldn't work for me:

For shrinking hda3:
(in this example i'm shrinking the partition to 10 gigs)

1) e2fsck -f /dev/hda3
2) resize2fs -p /dev/hda3 10G -- the new number of blocks and block size will be output something like this (you'll need this later): 2621440 (4k) blocks

3) fdisk /dev/hda
> p --> take note of the starting cylinder of hda3
> d > 3 --> delete hda3
> n > 3 --> create hda3
> start this partition at the same cylinder as it was before
> add the size of the partition in KB to determine the ending cylinder. This size is the number of blocks multiplied by the size of each block. In this example it is 2621440x4 = 10485760K
> w --> save the new partition table and now your partition is successfully smaller.

To enlarge hda3:

1) fdisk /dev/hda3
> p --> take note of the starting cylinder of hda3
> d > 3 --> delete hda3
> n > 3 --> create hda3
> start this partition at the same cylinder as it was before
> specify how large you want your partition to be
> w --> save the new partition table

2) e2fsck -f /dev/hda3
3) resize2fs -p /dev/hda3

And that's it.
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upengan78 · Guru Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 431 Location: IL

:

thanks to all who replied, I hope using gparted is safe and it will not make me lose my data in / Partition :?:

manlydan, you suggested this method, I have this Qn for you,

Is this a safe method to do because I have some data stuff on the / and I dont have separate /home and I also have windows in sda1.

BTW is gparted or something freely available for windows OS ?

Thanks
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SiberianSniper · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 8:41 pm Post subject:

I've used gparted recently to grow my / (formatted as ReiserFS) and it worked great - no loss of data at all. As far as a Windows copy, I don't think there is one - however the livecd is fine. I had to use the force VESA boot option, but autodetect video mode might work for you. It's incredibly simple to use, too.

manlydan · Posted: Wed Jul 18, 2007 10:03 pm Post subject:

upengan78,

The method I presented is perfectly safe so long as you pay very close attention to the beginning cylinder of the partition before deleting it. When you recreate the partition and use a different cylinder as the starting point then you will get corrupted data.

As I already stated, the reason I use this method is because gparted wouldn't resize my partitions for some reason or another. You should most definitely try gparted before attempting this. I only presented it just in case.

upengan78 · Guru Joined: 27 Jun 2007 Posts: 431 Location: IL