F-disk doesnt see any partitions

[jermur1]

]Hi I installed Mint through windows 7 with no problem. So I am using the windows boot loader. I now want to extend linux partition but when I run fdisk -l it only show the whole hard drive as if there were no partitions but of course there are two because one is windows. Gparted says there is no partitions either

[karlchen]

Hello, jermur1.

As you stated yourself you have installed Mint through Windows. I am dead sure that this means you have used mint4win.exe from inside the running Windows 7 and performed a mint4win installation of Mint 15.

In this case fdisk and gparted are right. Your harddisk does only hold the Windows partitions. On one of these partitions there will be a folder named \linuxmint.
Inside this folder \linuxmint there will be a subfolder named disks. Inside the subfolder \linuxmint\disks there will be two files: root.disk and swap.disk.

You can verify my words either from inside the running Windows 7 with the help of Windows Explorer.
Or you can verify my words from inside the running Mint 15 by launching Nemo and navigating to /host/linuxmint/disks.

root.disk is a container file. It holds the Linux Mint filesystem, very likely formatted as the filesystem ext4.
swap.disk is a container file, too. It holds the Linux Mint swap space.

In order to increase the size of the Mint filesystem, you will have to increase the size of the container file root.disk.
You can find the instruction on how to do so here: [url=http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1625371]HOWTO: Resize the WUBI virtual disk[/url].
The instruction has been written by one of the few people in the Linux forums who really know what they are talking about when they talk about Wubi installations, bcbc. He is involved in the Wubi development. And mint4win is just the Mint flavour of Wubi.

HTH,
Karl
--
P.S. from a mint4win installation of Mint 13 on a Windows 7 machine:

Code: Select all

$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for user: 
Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 Köpfe, 63 Sektoren/Spur, 38913 Zylinder, zusammen 625142448 Sektoren
Einheiten = Sektoren von 1 × 512 = 512 Bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Festplattenidentifikation: 0x2883650d

   Gerät  boot.     Anfang        Ende     Blöcke   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048   250056703   125027328    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sda2       250056704   625139711   187541504    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Code: Select all

$ cd /host/linuxmint/disks
user@machine:/host/linuxmint/disks$ ls -l
total 30720000
drwxrwxrwx 1 root root           0 Jul 20 23:59 boot
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root 31188844544 Sep 30 23:01 root.disk
-rwxrwxrwx 1 root root   268435456 Okt 25  2012 swap.disk

[karlchen]

Hello, jermur1.

As you wish to increase the size of your Mint filesystem and as according to your own words you installed Mint through Windows, i.e. you performed a mint4win installation, therefore I wonder whether you might also be affected by the problem reported here: [url=http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=131139]mint4win usable drive space and disk image size mismatch[/url]?

Essence:
A user had only performed the Windows part of any mint4win installation.
Having completed the Windows part he had incorrectly assumed the Mint installation had been completed.
The truth is, the actual Mint installation is part 2 of the mint4win installation. It has to be initiated manually after the reboot by clicking on the "Install Linux Mint" icon on the desktop.
As the user had failed to do so he kept on using the Mint live system (now located on the harddisk), which limited the disk space available inside Mint to a minimum.
The solution was achieved by completing the missing installation step.

Karl

[jermur1]

For your second post I had all ready done that step..but your first post looks like the answer though thanks!

[karlchen]

For your second post I had all ready done that step..

Oh. Great!
Sometimes people to not realize there is a second step and they need to launch it manually. So I thought I'd mention it.

your first post looks like the answer though

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Karl

[jermur1]

I forgot to reply,
Yes that was the problem, I ended up installing from scratch was the easiest option.
Thnks for your help,
Jerry