Resize a partition

[TDT]

Hi guys. I'm trying to resize my /home partition, as I'm running out of space, but I can't find a way to do it without messing with my stuff. My Linux installation is on a 1TB hdd, and the partitions are like this (in gparted): ntfs partition (with lots of free space) ---- linux swap ---- root partition ----- home partition. Ideally, I would resize the ntfs partition and use some of its free space for the home partition, but I can't do it, it seems. Doesn't work with the root partition either.

 

I tried with gparted on a live ubuntu session, no luck.

 

I also thought about cloning to another hdd (I have a 400GB empty one) with Clonezilla, but I can't do a HDD clone, since it would also clone my ntfs partition, and I don't want that.

 

Any solutions? Thank you.

[Haggis Veteran]

do u download a lot?

 

one way around it would be to have the extra 400gb mount as a data drive and use that to store stuff

 

for example in my laptop i have a 300gb HDD and a 128gb SSD

 

If i download stuff through Torrents or browsing etc is all download automatically to the HDD and not my SSD

 

I hope i explained that well enough lol

 

 

 

 

 

using gparted in a live environment should allow you to resize the partitions though as i did this before

[TDT]

I know it should, but I think it doesn't let me because of the order of the partitions. I can shrink the ntfs partition or the root partition, but I can't add that unalocated space to the home partition...

 

Yes, I know I can use another partition or hdd as storage, but I can't figure out how to "move" stuff that uses the home partition to another place. Like Crossover, for example, it stores all the bottles in the home partition and I don't know how to create them somewhere else...

[Haggis Veteran]

ah ok i understand

 

The partitions as far as i know would require you to resize the ntfs one and then redo the Linux Partitions (the other guys will confirm if this is right)

 

 

for crossover you can set the bottle directory

 

http://www.codeweavers.com/support/docs/crossover-pro/cxbottlepath

[+BudMan MVC]

Your going to have to move your other parts to take up the space you free up with your ntfs shrink.. so that the no unallocated space is to the right of your /home part.

So you have this

[ntfs][swap][/][/home]

when you shrink ntfs you get this

[ntfs][unallocated][swap][/][/home]

you need to then move your swap / and home to the left to be next to ntfs so you have this

[ntfs][swap][/][/home][unallocated]

You can then expand /home into the unallocated space.

I don't really understand why you don't just have a / partition with /home just being a folder under the 1 partition

As to just creating a new partition - if these are primary your at the limit and can not just create a new primary partition it would have to be extended with logical inside.

If it was me I would just blow away linux and then resize your partition ntfs to give you space you need, then just create swap an /

[TDT]

I think I'll try that with the live gparted and see where it goes.

 

About having just one partition, well, the EOS setup created separate partitions for / and home (that's a standard in linux setup from what I've seen in other distros too) as defaults, so... :) But yeah, it would've been much easier that way...

 

What do you mean "blow away linux"? Like reinstalling it? I really don't want that, I did a LOT of tweaks and stuff since I installed and I don't want to loose them :(

[+BudMan MVC]

Why would you loose them, they are not a movie of your kids first b-day party.. They are tweaks and settings - just redo them, or this time do it better ;)

Copy your DATA off, like your kids pictures and then just redo it. But gparted live will allow you to move partitions to the left, etc.

edit: ok I downloaded EOS, and not seeing where it created a / and a /home?

I had to create the partition table.. You could not have picked use the whole disk - so confused where /home on its own partition came from other than you doing it for some reason?

[Karl L.]

You seem to be on the right track. Based on your description of your partition table, you shouldn't have too much trouble resizing your partitions from GParted Live. You will need to make your NTFS partition smaller; move your swap, root, and home partitions to the left to move the free space previously occupied by your NTFS partition to the end of the disk; then expand your home partition to encompass the free space you just created. After you have done this your Linux system will not boot. Therefore you will also need to chroot into your system from GParted Live and reinstall the bootloader after your new partitioning scheme is settled.

 

I tried to replicate your setup in a virtual machine so I could demonstrate the procedure I just described with screenshots. Follow the steps below to move space from your NTFS data partition to your EXT4 home partition.

 

1. Boot into GParted Live. You should choose the GParted Live image for the same processor architecture as your operating system. Therefore if you installed the default 32-bit Ubuntu image, you want to use GParted Live i686 PAE. However if you installed the 64-bit Ubuntu image, you want to use GParted Live AMD64. This is very important. You will not be able to reinstall your bootloader if the architecture does not match.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. Resize your NTFS partition to make more free space on disk.

 

 

3. Move your swap partition to the left.

 

 

4. Move your root partition to the left.

 

 

5. Move your home partition to the left.

 

 

6. Expand your home partition to the right into the available free space.

 

 

7. Apply the operations you have just queued. WARNING: This may take a while!

 

 

 

 

8. Open Terminal and become root.

$ sudo su -

 

9. Chroot into your Linux system, and reinstall the bootloader.

# mount /dev/sda1 /mnt
# mount -o bind /proc /mnt/proc
# mount -o bind /sys /mnt/sys
# mount -o bind /dev /mnt/dev
# mount -o bind /dev/pts /mnt/dev/pts
# chroot /mnt
# grub-install /dev/sda
# exit

 

10. Reboot.

# reboot

[+BudMan MVC]

^ Fantastic level of detail!! Above and Beyond the call for sure! Great Post - even I could not be bothered to go into such detail. And I am a screenshot junkie ;)