Partitioning

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sudofreak
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Partitioning

Post by sudofreak »

Hi, I wonder if anyone has run into the same problem that I have with the GPARTED partition editor: unallocated space in the extended partition becomes unusable.
I have a 232.83 GB hard drive (sold as a 250GB hard drive [fdisk -l reports it as 250.0 GB]). I have the first two partitions defined as windows ntfs partitions;
the third partition a fat32 partition; then the extended partition, which consists of a small linux swap partition, an ext3 root partition, an ext3 home partition and
some unallocated space, which should be usable to create other logical partitions in, but which both the GPARTED utility and FDISK reports as unusable
(see attached screenshot).
Has anyone else encountered this problem :?:
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 1 time in total.
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sudofreak
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Re: Partitioning

Post by sudofreak »

Yeah, that seems to be the problem. When I created the extended partition, I requested all of the available space after the end of the
third primary partition to the end of the drive. The problem seems to be that the space at the end of the last logical partition defined
is not assigned and is marked as unusable. I should be able to create another logical partition from the unallocated space.
I am unable to do this even using FDISK (see below)

dick@Desktop ~ $ sudo fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 250.0 GB, 250000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30394 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xc586318c

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 6374 51199123+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 6375 10198 30716280 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 10199 12748 20482875 c W95 FAT32 (LBA)
/dev/sda4 12749 17610 39054015 5 Extended
/dev/sda5 12749 12991 1951866 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6 12992 14571 12691318+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 14572 17610 24410736 83 Linux

dick@Desktop ~ $ sudo fdisk /dev/sda

The number of cylinders for this disk is set to 30394.
There is nothing wrong with that, but this is larger than 1024,
and could in certain setups cause problems with:
1) software that runs at boot time (e.g., old versions of LILO)
2) booting and partitioning software from other OSs
(e.g., DOS FDISK, OS/2 FDISK)

Command (m for help): n
No free sectors available

Command (m for help):
sudofreak
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Re: Partitioning

Post by sudofreak »

Hi, I decided to try the install again to test out the partitioning editor, but got similar results.
First, I downloaded the complete Partimage ISO (http://www.partimage.org/Main_Page)
and burned it to a CD. Then I booted my computer with the Partimage CD. I deleted
the 3 logical partitions I mentioned in my earlier post (swap, / and /home) from the extended
partition. I then deleted the extended partition and recreated a new one, requesting all of the
available free space on the drive. I then rebooted the computer, using the Linux Mint install
CD and proceeded with the install. I got to the partitioning section of the install and defined
the partitions as in the first screenshot shown below.
Screenshot-Install.png
I then completed the installation and checked the partition editor and got the results shown
in the 2nd screenshot.
Screenshot--dev-sda - GParted.png

As you can see, about 100 GB of my hard drive is unallocated and now unusable until
the next time I want to delete the extendedpartition and recreate it. Any suggestions :?:
curt_grymala

Re: Partitioning

Post by curt_grymala »

Have you tried growing your extended partition with gparted? I don't have a hard drive available at the moment to test with, but you should be able to stretch the extended partition to fill the unallocated space.
sudofreak
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Re: Partitioning

Post by sudofreak »

Good suggestion. I just tried it on my laptop by highlighting the extended and clicking Partition from the top of screen,'
but all options except 'Manage Flags' and 'Information" are grayed out (as shown in the screenshot)
Screenshot--dev-sda - GParted.png
kansasnewb

Re: Partitioning

Post by kansasnewb »

sudofreak wrote:Good suggestion. I just tried it on my laptop by highlighting the extended and clicking Partition from the top of screen,'
but all options except 'Manage Flags' and 'Information" are grayed out (as shown in the screenshot)
Screenshot--dev-sda - GParted.png
Are you working from the live CD? You can't work from the installed gparted because it would be like sawing off the branch you're sitting on.

Another common "stopper" is needing to tick "swap-off" before moving/resizing. Just be sure to tick "swap-on" when you're done.
sudofreak
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Re: Partitioning

Post by sudofreak »

It worked :D
Thank you so much :!:
I mainly wanted the extra space available to install different Linux distributions to try them out.
I thought I knew alot about drives & partitions, but never thought about performing operations
on the drive currently in use. thanks again. Here is a current snapshot of my partition table.
Screenshot--dev-sda - GParted.png
AK Dave

Re: Partitioning

Post by AK Dave »

sudofreak wrote:never thought about performing operations
on the drive currently in use.
Thats exactly why I keep telling people to boot a livecd to use gparted.
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