Unable to resize partition

[SuperHumanly]

I have Windows XP installed on my laptop, and when i try to install Ubuntu 7.10 (alternate iso), i get an error message when I try to resize my hdd(SATA).

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The resize operation is impossible

Because of an unknown reason it is impossible to resize this partition.

Check /var/log/syslog or see virtual console 4 for details.

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This problem also happens when i use the 7.04 alternate iso, and both normal iso's won't install, they freeze up on Loading.

Laptop Specs:

Windows XP MCE 2005

1GB DDR2 RAM

1.6GHz Core Duo

120GB HDD (All 120 is on C:\ Partition)

I already defragged the drive once, at the moment im doing it again using a third-party application (O&O Defrag).

[Amano]

Acronis Disk Director is great for resizing partition on Windows.

BTW, "O&O Defrag" is great too!

[SuperHumanly]

I tried that, it doesn't see my hard drive on reboot....

[kyro]

Try Gparted utility on some LIVE cd, like. sysrescuecd.org b carefull though .

[SuperHumanly]

That doesn't see any disk drives on my computer either...

[Kardona]

What does /var/log/syslog say after you try to resize the partition in Ubuntu 7.10? You probably only need to paste the last ten lines or so -- tail /var/log/syslog

[markwolfe Veteran]

My standard direction, given a failed attempt to resize parititons, is to check the partitions to make sure they are healthy. Run a scandisk on them. Fix any errors that come up. Then do a defrag to push the data (as much as possible) to the front of the partition. If you have data fragments all throughout the partition, it can't "shrink" it without cutting out some of that data.

Then we go from there, if it still fails. Try shrinking only by a teeny-tiny amount, and see if that works.

[SuperHumanly]

  Kardona said:

What does /var/log/syslog say after you try to resize the partition in Ubuntu 7.10? You probably only need to paste the last ten lines or so -- tail /var/log/syslog

I can't check what's in that foleer, all I have to use is windows xp, which doesn't have the /var/log/syslog folder, and it wouldn't see my SATA HDD to copy the file.

  markjensen said:

My standard direction, given a failed attempt to resize parititons, is to check the partitions to make sure they are healthy. Run a scandisk on them. Fix any errors that come up. Then do a defrag to push the data (as much as possible) to the front of the partition. If you have data fragments all throughout the partition, it can't "shrink" it without cutting out some of that data.

Then we go from there, if it still fails. Try shrinking only by a teeny-tiny amount, and see if that works.

That's what I did, I defragged it 4 times with Windows, and twice with O&O Defrag, then tried running Partition Magic, it then gave me an error saying "Error 983: Too Many Errors" which I assumed was disk related, so I ran chkdsk /f when it rebooted it fixed all the errors.

So I tried running Partition Magic again, and it resized / created the new partition just fine.

Now I gotta re-burn the ISO, I think I had a messed up CD-RW because it had some corrupted files when I did the disk verification.

PROBLEM SOLVED.