How can I use free space

[sjainuni]

Hi,

I have fedora 7. I have two XP and fedora on my PC. I deleted a 10GB logical partition from XP. Now I want to use it in Linux. Please help me how to create a new partition and use it in Fedora.

When I use fdisk -l I got this

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1275 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1276 2550 10241437+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 2551 9729 57665317+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 6376 7650 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 7651 9728 16691503+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 2551 2614 514017 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 2615 3889 10241406 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 3890 4969 8675068+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 4970 5100 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris

I think /dev/sda3 is my free space. Now I want to use it as /work file system. kindly let me know How can I do it.

Thanks

[rcgreen]

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 1 1275 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 1276 2550 10241437+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 2551 9729 57665317+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 6376 7650 10241406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 7651 9728 16691503+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7 2551 2614 514017 83 Linux
/dev/sda8 2615 3889 10241406 83 Linux
/dev/sda9 3890 4969 8675068+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda10 4970 5100 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris

You have free space starting with cyl 5101 and ending at
6375. /dev/sda3 is an extended partition that contains
the logical partitions /dev/sda5 through /dev/sda10
You can create another logical partition from 5101 to 6375

[sjainuni]

Hi,

Thank you for your reply,
I am unable to understand how can I determine that I can create partition starting from 5101 to 6375. I have 10GB free disk space. Kindly let me know the appropriate commands to create partition, format partition and access that partition.

Is it possible to make a partition that I can access both from Windows and Fedora?

Thanks

[rcgreen]

You should probably use something like gparted, because
it is graphical and will probably show you exactly how to create
a partition in that unused space. Afterward, you can format
it to whatever type of partition you want. If you want it accessible
both Windows and Linux, you could make it FAT32 or NTFS.
You could boot Windows and format it from there.

[dxqcanada]

This is easier to look at:

Device Boot Start 	End 	Blocks 		Id 	System
/dev/sda1*	1 	1275 	10241406 	7 	HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 	1276 	2550 	10241437+ 	7 	HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda3 	2551 	9729 	57665317+ 	f 	W95 Ext'd (LBA)

/dev/sda7 	2551 	2614 	514017 		83 	Linux
/dev/sda8 	2615 	3889 	10241406 	83 	Linux
/dev/sda9 	3890 	4969 	8675068+ 	83 	Linux
/dev/sda10 	4970 	5100 	1052226 	82 	Linux swap / Solaris
		5101	6375
/dev/sda5 	6376 	7650 	10241406 	7 	HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 	7651 	9728 	16691503+ 	7 	HPFS/NTFS

This puts the partitions in order by their starting and end blocks.
As rcgreen stated ... the empty space on your drive resides between block 5101 and 6375.
You can use a partitioning tool such as fdisk or parted (or a GUI one like gparted) to create a logical partition in that space.
As rcgreen stated ... you can format this partion as a FAT32 so both OS's can read/write to it ... or you can just format it for Linux (eg. ext3).
Then you can add it to your /etc/fstab to be mounted.