GParted – Use Ubuntu Live CD and GParted to Partition HDD

11.10gpartedlive-cdpartitioning

I'm encountering a problem with my HDD's partitions and can't resize it. I've described my problem and my system here: https://askubuntu.com/questions/89427/gparted-0-3-encounters-problem-with-file-system-and-wont-resize-partition.

Now, from a more general perspective, I was thinking on whether it is possible to use an Ubuntu Live CD and use GParted in a live session to possibly go around that problem. Is that possible? I made a separate question as I'm interested in the possibility independently from my current problem.

You see, I only have one partition and that's mounted. When I use GParted through Ubuntu I don't get any error reports (unlike the case reported in the question linked above).

Thanks beforehand.

Best Answer

Yes, you surely can..it is the easiest way to partition hard disks. Here are instructions on how to do it with Ubuntu:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowtoPartition

Please, note that, if you want to format, delete or resize a partition, the drive must be unmounted before doing it.

Related Solutions

Partitioning – How to Change Partitions on Ubuntu Virtual Machine

You need to connect your VM with the iso of a live CD - the file you can download. I assume you are not using a GUI-Tool (like virt-manager Install virt-manager ), so you will have to do it from the command line.

You can use virsh to get an XML file of the VM config (I called my VM qemu1)

virsh dumpxml qemu1 > qemu1-config.xml

Now edit that file, look for something like

<disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
  <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
  <target dev='hdc' bus='ide' tray='open'/>
  <readonly/>
  <alias name='ide0-1-0'/>
  <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='1' target='0' unit='0'/>
</disk>

and replace it with

<disk type='file' device='cdrom'>
  <driver name='qemu' type='raw'/>
  <source file='/media/data/isos/gparted-live-0.13.0-1.iso'/>
  <target dev='hdc' bus='ide'/>
  <readonly/>
  <address type='drive' controller='0' bus='1' target='0' unit='0'/>
</disk>

The important points are

adapt the paths and file names
the line <source file=.../> contains the iso-file
the line <target .../> should not contain tray open now

And now you put the new settings into effect with

virsh define qemu1-config.xml

The VM will need a restart.

Ubuntu – Resizing extended partition with gparted

Managed to solve my issue, reflecting on Nattgew's comment.

Since you cannot move an extended partition through gparted, you have to expand it, then move the inside partitions and then shrink it on the other side.

The problem was that the partition was set to be aligned to MiB, and after taking the available space it became unaligned on the right, leaving a small chunk of data on the other side. That was the "unsatisfied constraint", removing the align to MiB constraint solved this since it didn't leave the chunk and could be expanded properly

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Partitioning – How to Change Partitions on Ubuntu Virtual Machine

Ubuntu – Resizing extended partition with gparted

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