[SOLVED] gparted question?

[mariane_08]

I have a slight logistical problem on my windows partition. I won't go into the specifics as they are not really relevant here. But I have some unpartitioned space on my hard drive and I want to temporarily move, ie enlarge my windows partition. My question is this. Is Gparted running within Linux capable of resizing my windows partition? if so is it safe to do so?
Thanks

[jayd512]

So long as a partition isn't actually mounted, you shouldn't run into any issues.
But I have to give the obligatory warning: Don't forget your back-ups!

[devils casper]

Let us check partition structure of your Hard disk first. Post the output of sudo fdisk -l command here.

sudo fdisk -l

* Its small L in fdisk -l.

[mariane_08]

Let us check partition structure of your Hard disk first. Post the output of sudo fdisk -l command here.

sudo fdisk -l

* Its small L in fdisk -l.

Obligatory warning (jayd512) heeded :grin

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
mbdb@M2000:~$ sudo fdisk -l
[sudo] password for mbdb:

Disk /dev/hda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x94e494e4

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 2550 20482843+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 2551 3766 9767520 83 Linux
/dev/hda3 3767 3815 393592+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
mbdb@M2000:~$

[devils casper]

Its not easy to resize Windows partition because free space is not adjacent to it.

Boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD or GParted CD.

* Merge free space in /dev/hda3. Shrink /dev/hda3 and create free space in between /dev/hda2 and /dev/hda3.
* Merge free space in /dev/hda2 and create free space between /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2.
* Resize /dev/hda1 partition.

[mariane_08]

Its not easy to resize Windows partition because free space is not adjacent to it.

Boot up from Ubuntu LiveCD or GParted CD.

* Merge free space in /dev/hda3. Shrink /dev/hda3 and create free space in between /dev/hda2 and /dev/hda3.
* Merge free space in /dev/hda2 and create free space between /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2.
* Resize /dev/hda1 partition.

Yes I was wondering about that. I'm working on a solution in windows to sort the issue without having to resize. However, if I have to do so is this going to screw up my Linux installation (other than the regular risk)? I mean all the moving and merginging etc?

[jayd512]

When I replied previously, I was kinda half asleep. So I didn't consider the moving of partitions... otherwise I would have mentioned it. Just to let you know, I have moved my partitions around with GParted on more than one occasion.
GParted is such a wonderful tool, that I've never actually had any issues with moving/merging partitions with it. You may have the Windows check-disk automatically run afterwards, though.

[Jonathan183]

Yes I was wondering about that. I'm working on a solution in windows to sort the issue without having to resize. However, if I have to do so is this going to screw up my Linux installation (other than the regular risk)? I mean all the moving and merginging etc?

Options you have are create additional ntfs partition and copy info from Windows ... depending on what you need to do this may help. Lowest risk & quickest if it does what you need.

Move swap then Linux partition to end of disk to free up space next to Windows partition and expand the Windows partition. This option changes every partition on the drive and may take quite a while. There is the usual risk to data from resize failure due to power failure during resize etc. This approach should work and should not change uuid of partition so Linux should still boot after partition moves.

Resizing Linux partitions may change the uuid for the partition, this may stop Linux boot until you correct grub menu.lst and /etc/fstab.

I always do partition resize/move from a live CD and use PartedMagic CD which has gparted.

I found PartedMagic to be much more reliable than Windows Partition Magic which has let me down badly in the past

[mariane_08]

Ok thanks everyone for the comments. In the end I avoided moving partitions. I created a tempory NTFS partition and moved a bunch of files over and sorted out my problem. Now back to the "proper" OS!