Moving OS from sda1 to sda2 - is it possible? "RESOLVED"

[Danial]

Hi,

First of all thanks for your interest in this question.

I have been searching forum for quite sometime but did not get the specific answer (or may be did not look in the right direction), so here I am.

my current setup is as follows:

mint@mint ~ $ sudo fdisk -l

]Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xbd3c5204

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 2558 20547103+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda2 2559 3187 5052442+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda3 3188 10216 56460442+ 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 3188 5741 20514973+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda6 6371 8965 20844306 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 5742 6370 5052411 82 Linux swap / Solaris

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 40.0 GB, 40020664320 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4865 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9c879c87

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sdb1 1 399 3204936 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb2 400 2953 20515005 7 HPFS/NTFS
mint@mint ~ $

More specifically:
sda1: Ubuntu
sda2: Swap
sda3: Extended
sda5: Mint (Helena)
and some more temporary partitions for moving some data files (documents,pictures, media..)

Upon reading some posts and threads, (Fred - specifically - sorry I don't know his complete user id), I decide to move swap to sda1 and bring ubuntu to sda2, also if possible move mint to sda3 (I may re-install the Mint since I don't have much of apps. installed on it yet) and create the last partition as extended partition for data (per Fred's advice). Is it possible - I guess it is. Do I need to make changes in the grub to boot properly or my only option is to re-install both OSes?

All your advice, help and time is very appreciated.

Danial

[DataMan]

First of all.... if it ain't broke... don't fix it!

Moving your ops and swap around you will need to:

1. Adjust GRUB totally. I can help you out with 1x but not 2 (I have a dedicated GRUB1x boot partition).
2. Your /etc/fstab will be totally in need of major editing also.

My advice is to wait until you come up on a clean install. At that point, save your data partitions and your /home file settings. Delete the ops and related partitions using your partition editor of choice. Build new partitions that you want and do the install (use the manual option on the install).

Addition Note: You do not have to go extended until you have 3 primary partitions. At that point, you need to create your extended partition.

My perspective....


-DataMan

[Danial]

First of all.... if it ain't broke... don't fix it!
.
.
.
My advice is to wait until you come up on a clean install...
Addition Note: You do not have to go extended until you have 3 primary partitions. At that point, you need to create your extended partition.

My perspective....
-DataMan

Dataman,
Thanks for your time and guidance.

Point well understood - you are right - it is not broken yet - however, can't promise how long it will stay that way... - but yes I can wait and I will !!!
Out of curiosity and for my learning, I have a question (if you have few minutes to spare). I understand that we can not have more than 4 Primary partitions (probably coming from DOS ages), so after 3 primary we can make the last one as extended and have as many logical partitions within as we need. My question: does an extended partition affects the performance? If you have few minutes, please help - it is not an urgent thing to know and I can wait for it.

Once again, thanks for your time and help.

Danial

[DataMan]

I'm mounting 17 partitions spanning 2 hd's and extended partitions within each hd. I've seen no degradation in performance.

There's a lot of discussion floating about regarding the location of the partition in relation to the start of the h/d. Personally I think it's like counting the hairs on my golden retriever's back... .

-DataMan