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Re-sizing ext3 partitions in Linux

edited December 2007 in Technology
I have been using Ubuntu for awhile and it has been an enjoyable experience. I was worried about the reliability of the HD so I replaced it. I managed to duplicate the entire HD successfully with Clonezilla. The only problem I have is the new HD is larger and I as of yet been unable to repartition the ext3 partition to utilize the entire HD. I have tried using a Ubuntu live CD and GParted as well as another system recovery live CD and haven't had any success.

I have done some searching around the Ubuntu forum and Google and haven't yet found a solution, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Comments

  • I typed resize ext3 into Google, and this was the top link.

    http://www.howtoforge.com/linux_resizing_ext3_partitions.
  • I have tried using a Ubuntu live CD and GParted as well as another system recovery live CD and haven't had any success.
    Did you try the GParted liveCD/USB? Works perfectly for me.
  • I use GParted LiveCD and it is damn good. Does NTFS too.
  • edited December 2007
    Did you try the GParted liveCD/USB? Works perfectly for me.
    I had some problems getting GParted live to boot up. I used version 0.3.4-11. I burned a couple of copies of the ISO and even downloaded another copy just to see if something was wrong with the copy I download. I'll try my luck with 0.3.4-10 and see if it works any better for me.

    Update: Got 0.3.4.10 to boot up but was still unable to increase the size of my primary partition. The majority of the HD is listed as unallocated.
    Post edited by JohnU on
  • Update: Got 0.3.4.10 to boot up but was still unable to increase the size of my primary partition. The majority of the HD is listed as unallocated.
    Good, good. Do you have more than one partition on that HD? Have you made room between the partition you want to resize and the one after it? I mean you can't resize something if there's no space. Can you make a screenshot of gparted? Running under Ubuntu.gksu gpartedand then make a screenshot. Or make an image from scratch in the Gimp.
  • Here is the image of my current HD config. Using a live CD I can shrink sda1 but not increase it at all.

    image
  • *coughs* See the extended partition? And the linux-swap? Those have to be moved/removed to be able to resize the first partition. You can't resize something when there's no space mate. Plan out your partitions also, it's nice having a few. Separates the data, and in case your boot partition dies you can still recover data on the other partitions without problems.

    I'd personally remove the linux-swap and extended partition, move the ext3 partition 2 gigs to the right and resize it to 50 gigs or so, then make a linux-swap partition in those first 2 gigs, create a extended partition encompassing the unallocated part and put 2 equal partitions in it.

    Will take some time depending on your drive speed and so on, but is easiest. And gives you room for rearranging your data partitions later on.
  • Make sure you use the GParted liveCD as your hard drive OS is not going to like it if you try moving your swap file around while its running.
  • Make sure you use the GParted liveCD as your hard drive OS is not going to like it if you try moving your swap file around while its running.
    o.o?... Oh, I removed that part. Heh, rewriting stuff without rereading what I wrote. Yeah, you have to use the LiveCD. You can't unmount the boot partition anyways afaik.
  • If you are going to remove the swap partition and put it somewhere else I would put it at the end of the drive, if I were you, as then it's out of the way and you don't have to change it. 2gb is the most you should ever set your swap to; If you are using more than 1gb of it regularly you should get some more RAM.
  • I moved the swap partition to the end of the drive and resized the ext3 partition normally with GParted live.

    Thanks again for the help, I am still a Linux n00b!
  • edited January 2008
    Don't worry about it. Whereas, in Windows, you can eventually learn just about everything, in Linux you can always get more complex.
    On a somewhat tangential note: Rym/Scott, did Rezound just work when you installed it from the repositories as it crashes for me when I tried to record anything and this seems to be a very common problem.
    Post edited by Omnutia on
  • On a somewhat tangential note: Rym/Scott, did Rezound just work when you installed it from the repositories as it crashes for me when I tried to record anything and this seems to be a very common problem.
    I recall them saying on the show it didn't work out of the box. Having to compile it from source with some parameters. Then again, I'm often wrong, hehe.
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