Problema con partizioni linux, non riesco a unirle!

[Brunogees]

Salve! E' il mio primo topic e già devo rompere le palle! XD
Allora, ho un portatile, e a fianco di Windows (prima Vista, ora 7) uso con soddisfazione Linux Mint, dalla sua versione 7 in poi...
Ora ho un problema di partizioni che non riesco proprio a risolvere, vi devo chiedere una mano!
Mi trovo con l'hard-disk partizionato così:

Screenshot.png

Come posso fare ad unire sda 7 e 8 con 5 e 6? è tutto spazio che potrei utilizzare... Non vorrei ne formattare ne far altro... (si, con gparted non riesco a farlo, sarò troll io... )

Se mi poteste dare una mano sarebbe fantastico!

[inktitan]

Io non sono del tutto sicuro di quello che si sta cercando di fare. Non vedo 5 e 6. Lo swap e le partizioni estese sono creati durante l'installazione. Se non si desidera rimuovere la partizione di swap. Si tratta, per quanto ne so, usato in modo simile ad un buffer cache come memoria virtuale. La partizione estesa è solo per le sezioni nessuno primari come deposito. L'unione di questi potrebbe causare la corruzione delle tue informazioni. Perché si desidera combinare queste partizioni? Se il mio italiano è male mi scuso. Sto usando Google Translate. Spero di essere stato educativo.

[Brunogees]

Ok, I can try to explain it in english...
So, I wanna join up the linux partitions, 7 and 8 (where mint 9 is installed) WITH 5 and 6 (scroll down the image to see them... it's the old partition of another mint version), to expand the allocated space for mint, but I cannot do it for some reason, gparted say something about the progressive numbers, I don't remember...

[inktitan]

So let me clarify. You want to remove an old version of mint and give the space to the current version?

[Brunogees]

Not exactly, the old version is still removed, but the old partition remains, and I cannot resize nor merge with the new one where Mint 9 runs, or I'im not able to
do that...
The old one is sda 5 (and 6 is the default swap area), formatted with ext4, the new part with Mint is sda 7 (swap 8, obv)... I want to merge them, to have back more space for the new Mint...

[inktitan]

Well if reformatting the entire drive is an option that is the easy way. I will keep looking to see how to merge them outside of gparted since that doesn't seem to be working for you.

[Brunogees]

Yeah, but we aren't on windows now, we don't want the easy way, right?
I've used Gparted to reduce the sda5 partition, if I'll install a small distro on this partition (like Puppy or DSL) maybe I'll be able to install gparted and reallocate the free space? ...if it doesn't work I'll format all...

[inktitan]

Another option is Parted Magic
http://partedmagic.com/download.html
It is designed for specifically partitioning. I don't know why I didn't mention it earlier. Give it a go and see if it will help. It also has grub tools and a gui.

[ej64]

1. backup sda7
2. boot with Linux Live CD
3. Delete sda8 and sda5.
4. Resize sda7.
5. mount sda7 und edit swap entry in /etc/fstab to use sda6.
6. Check with blkid wether UUID of sda7 and/or sda6 have changed and edit fstab accordingly.
7. reboot and hope ...

[Edit: first version was rubbish]

[Brunogees]

Ok, I've used the long way! XD
So, I've started the pc from Win7, then with a program used for read the linux partitions under windows mounted them (the linux partitions) as others disks... fast formatting of these partitions, then restart... Ok, the grub didn't work! No problem, I've insert the Mint Live DVD, and after the boot of the system in ram I've started gparted, reallocating all the space to Windows 7... Restart the pc with the Live DVD inserted, and reinstalled Linux selecting the free space to allocate!
Ok, all done!
Thanks to all, now I can use decently Mint!

[inktitan]

That is goo to know