[SOLVED] Repartitioning now over 20+ hours! Please advise.

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jaderiver
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[SOLVED] Repartitioning now over 20+ hours! Please advise.

Post by jaderiver »

Yesterday I decided to install Rebecca from the Live DVD. I have had experience w/ installation, both Mint 13 (Maya) and Mint 17 (Qiana). I dual boot, always preserving Windows Recovery and Windows 7 partitions, and my /home partition in Mint.... always choosing to do "Something Else."

Yesterday, I thought it would be good to shrink the first partition a little, from 27G to 25G, the Windows Recovery Partition, since only 7G was being used. (25G seemed like a good basic size for an unused partition.)

That was more than 20 hours ago. The computer is still partitioning. I am at my wit's end. After the first half hour, I hit the "Revert" button a couple of times. Nothing. All five temperature indicators have been showing > 60C - 65C. My computer generally stays in the 40C range. Memory usage has increased from about 440m to 460M. .. about 7-8% of availability.

Is this normal?!! Is the hard drive in the process of memorizing or taking an image of everything first? May I just hit the "Quit" button? My priority is to save my /home partition. So, If I "Quit", will my /home partition be safe? Is my computer at risk of burning out?

Thank you for any advice from those experienced w/ re - partitioning during the installation process.

jaderiver
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Buzzsaw
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Re: Repartitioning now over 20+ hours! Please advise.

Post by Buzzsaw »

Oh dear. It shouldn't take over 20 hours to shrink a partition by 2GB. Something seems to have gone wrong.

Because you chose to preserve your old home partition, there's a good chance that it is still intact.

I doubt your computer will burn out. 65C is not very hot for a computer. My computer considers 84C to be high and 100C to be critical.

I personally would quit the installation process. As you've chosen to preserve your home partition, quitting the installer won't destroy it because it wasn't going to do anything to it anyway.

Rather than resize Windows partitions, it's always less risky to reinstall Windows from the installation disc or the backup discs that you should have either received or made.
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Derek_S
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Re: Repartitioning now over 20+ hours! Please advise.

Post by Derek_S »

jaderiver wrote:Yesterday, I thought it would be good to shrink the first partition a little, from 27G to 25G, the Windows Recovery Partition, since only 7G was being used. (25G seemed like a good basic size for an unused partition.)
Hello jaderiver - It's too late for me to say this, but please keep this in mind for the future. The only partition you should shrink in order to make room for a new OS is the Windows C:\ partition. Shrinking or relocating any other Windows partitions is never a good idea, especially the factory installed recovery partition.

There is a reason there is "extra" room inside a recovery partition. During the Windows recovery process, the compressed data stored in the .bin files is extracted as a series of temporary files inside the recovery partition, then these files are copied in a specific sequence to the Windows C:\ partition. After the recovery process is complete, all of these temporary files are deleted and the recovery partition is restored to it's original condition. So it's never a good idea to shrink such a partition, or you might find that if you ever need to recover Windows, the process just might fail because of a lack of available room inside the recovery partition. See this link: http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c03736755
"When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself." - Tecumseh
jaderiver
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Re: Repartitioning now over 20+ hours! Please advise.

Post by jaderiver »

Hello Buzzsaw and Derek_S:

Thank you, both, so much for taking time to shed light on my increasingly panicky repartitioning situation last week. After 24+ hours of my computer churning at a hotter temperature, and being fearful that quitting the process would wreak drive havoc, at a certain point it flashed on me that indeed there was the message - during the installation process - that an image of my disk needed to be made before proceeding with repartitioning. So, I figured, rightly or wrongly, that what must be taking so long was the making of an image of the entire Windows and Mint OS's. Then, I took the leap and hit "Quit."

The world did not end. The computer did not blow up. Aside from what was unnecessary wear and tear on my computer (sigh), nothing seemed to have burned out. My /home drive is fine, and I got online w/much relief and read Buzzsaw's very welcome comments. I was enlightened by Derek_S's insight on Windows Recovery partitions and will never ever mess w/ that partition again!

There were a few strange issues after "quitting" the installation process and restarting the computer, such as being stuck at some sort of "grub terminal/cursor", instead of seeing the grub selection list. Yet, all my drives were still accessible with the live CD. So, gParted was used to check and fix all partitions, but still, the restart was stuck at a "grub terminal and cursor." The solution to the grub problem and not being able "to get in" was to successfully install Rebecca.

The Linux Mint community is wonderful, refreshingly green and thriving. I am so appreciative of this forum -- for sensitive, objective responses, and the motivation to support others.
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