Partition manipulation

TJ

I run a dual-boot system with Mandriva 2008 and Windows 98SE. Currently,
I have Windows and my Mandriva / partition co-existing on my primary 40
GB drive, and a Windows image sharing space with /home on my 80 GB
secondary drive. Having that Windows image backup has saved Windows from
itself more times than I like to think about, and the setup has served
me well over the years.

Now, however, I've purchased an external USB drive big enough to hold
all of my internal hard drives' information, and more. My plan is to put
the Windows backup image onto the external drive(as well as a backup of
/home), and expand my /home partition to fill the 80 GB internal drive.
Currently, the Windows image resides on the hdb1 partition, while /home
is on hdb5. The external drive has been set up, backups have been made,
and I've now used it enough to know it's reliable.

Now I admit to knowing little about Linux drive designation and its
requirements. I've always just let the Mandriva installer enumerate them
as it wanted to. It would seem at first glance to be a simple matter to
use Diskdrake to eliminate the hdb1 Windows partition and expand hdb5 -
but is it that simple? Can the expanded partition retain the hdb5
designation when it's the only partition on the drive? If not, would
Diskdrake automagically take care of the redesignation and all the
details that have to be addressed with the system, or must I muck around
manually in places where I don't know what I'm doing (probably missing
something)? Or is there a simpler way to do what I want to do?

TJ

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ray

On Sun, 06 Jan 2008 09:00:54 -0500, TJ wrote:

> I run a dual-boot system with Mandriva 2008 and Windows 98SE. Currently,
> I have Windows and my Mandriva / partition co-existing on my primary 40
> GB drive, and a Windows image sharing space with /home on my 80 GB
> secondary drive. Having that Windows image backup has saved Windows from
> itself more times than I like to think about, and the setup has served
> me well over the years.
>
> Now, however, I've purchased an external USB drive big enough to hold
> all of my internal hard drives' information, and more. My plan is to put
> the Windows backup image onto the external drive(as well as a backup of
> /home), and expand my /home partition to fill the 80 GB internal drive.
> Currently, the Windows image resides on the hdb1 partition, while /home
> is on hdb5. The external drive has been set up, backups have been made,
> and I've now used it enough to know it's reliable.
>
> Now I admit to knowing little about Linux drive designation and its
> requirements. I've always just let the Mandriva installer enumerate them
> as it wanted to. It would seem at first glance to be a simple matter to
> use Diskdrake to eliminate the hdb1 Windows partition and expand hdb5 -
> but is it that simple? Can the expanded partition retain the hdb5
> designation when it's the only partition on the drive? If not, would
> Diskdrake automagically take care of the redesignation and all the
> details that have to be addressed with the system, or must I muck around
> manually in places where I don't know what I'm doing (probably missing
> something)? Or is there a simpler way to do what I want to do?
>
> TJ

That should work. If you run something like gparted, you'll find that you
have at least three partitions on hdb. You have hdb1 and hdb5, but also
(most likely) hdb2 which is the primary partition in which the hdb5
extended partition resides. You should at least be able to resize hdb1 to
a minimal size - possibly eliminate it, I'm not sure. Then resize hdb2 so
that you can resize hdb5.

Bit Twister

On Sun, 06 Jan 2008 09:00:54 -0500, TJ wrote:

> and expand my /home partition to fill the 80 GB internal drive.

Waste of space, may make backup a bear. Not much room if you want to
make a multi-boot system.

I have several ~12gig partitions. They get used for hot backup, cd/dvd
iso generation, used to install new release candidate, new releases,
other distributions,....


> Currently, the Windows image resides on the hdb1 partition, while /home
> is on hdb5. The external drive has been set up, backups have been made,
> and I've now used it enough to know it's reliable.
>
> Now I admit to knowing little about Linux drive designation and its
> requirements. I've always just let the Mandriva installer enumerate them
> as it wanted to. It would seem at first glance to be a simple matter to
> use Diskdrake to eliminate the hdb1 Windows partition and expand hdb5 -
> but is it that simple?

Yes, but a waste of 3 partition numbers.
You move the extened left edge first, then hadb5.


> Can the expanded partition retain the hdb5
> designation when it's the only partition on the drive?

Yes.

> If not, would
> Diskdrake automagically take care of the redesignation and all the
> details that have to be addressed with the system,

No.

> or must I muck around
> manually in places where I don't know what I'm doing (probably missing
> something)?

Yes.

> Or is there a simpler way to do what I want to do?

My suggestion, Think about what you want, then backup your install,
verify install media has the files, needed, wipe the drive, and set it
up like you want it from the git go.

Here is something to think on

# cfdisk /dev/sda
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sda1 Boot Primary NTFS [^C] 31755.39*
Pri/Log Free Space 2.42*
sda5 Logical FAT16 [ ] 1908.27
sda6 Logical Linux swap / Solaris 1258.47
sda7 Logical Linux ext3 [accounts] 13415.44
sda8 Logical Linux ext3 [free_a08] 42500.03
sda9 Logical Linux ext3 [bk_up] 11416.69
sda10 Logical Linux ext3 [2008_1] 11350.89
sda11 Logical Linux ext3 [2007_1] 11293.31
sda12 Logical Linux ext3 [fc7] 10964.30
sda13 Logical Linux ext3 [kubu7] 11128.81
sda14 NC Logical Linux ext3 [2008_0] 12371.31*
Pri/Log Free Space 31600.56*
sda2 Primary W95 FAT32 (LBA) 9080.71*
Primary Free Space 0.49*


# cfdisk /dev/sda
Name Flags Part Type FS Type [Label] Size (MB)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
sdb1 Boot Primary Linux ext3 [local] 91020.95
sdb2 Primary Linux ext3 [free_b02] 13086.43
sdb3 Primary Linux ext3 [hotbu] 13464.79
sdb5 Logical Linux ext3 [fc8] 13004.17
Logical Free Space 369528.93

David W. Hodgins

On Sun, 06 Jan 2008 09:00:54 -0500, TJ <TJ@invalid.invalid> wrote:

> Now I admit to knowing little about Linux drive designation and its

See
and

Regards, Dave Hodgins

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TJ

David W. Hodgins wrote:
> On Sun, 06 Jan 2008 09:00:54 -0500, TJ <TJ@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>> Now I admit to knowing little about Linux drive designation and its
>
> See
> and
>
> Regards, Dave Hodgins
>
You guys have given me a lot to think about. I think I'll try just
expanding the current hdb5 partition to take up the whole disk, as long
as it will work OK that way for now. Then I'll use it a while and see
how I like it. By the time Mandriva 2008.1 comes out I'll know what I
want to do and I'll manipulate things with the 2008.1 installer accordingly.

TJ

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TJ

David W. Hodgins wrote:
> On Sun, 06 Jan 2008 09:00:54 -0500, TJ <TJ@invalid.invalid> wrote:
>
>> Now I admit to knowing little about Linux drive designation and its
>
> See
> and
>
> Regards, Dave Hodgins
>
You guys have given me a lot to think about. I think I'll try just
expanding the current hdb5 partition to take up the whole disk, as long
as it will work OK that way for now. Then I'll use it a while and see
how I like it. By the time Mandriva 2008.1 comes out I'll know what I
want to do and I'll manipulate things with the 2008.1 installer accordingly.

TJ

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