1 Topic by GMB (edited by GMB 2016-12-20 14:01:43)

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Topic: Move unused space across from extended to non-extended

Maybe it can do this in a complicated way, someone could tell me, but it would be nice to have this simple-to-implement feature (I would rather not do this with a hex editor)....

So starting with a load of partitions, I want to increase the size of the last main partition before the extended block.
So I delete the first partition in the extended block to make some space.
Now I want to move the start of the extended block up so the free space I just created will lie directly above the last non-extended partition, so I can then use that to make it bigger.

This is a simple thing to do - doesn't involve any data copying.
This is a more likely situation than you might expect because if you started with Windows installed and then added a load of stuff by stealing space off the Windows C: partition - but over egged it - so that 5 years later Windows has guzzled the space away and now will barely work - I want to give it some back.

I was disappointed that I couldn't see a way to get GParted to do it as it seemed like a rather good tool. But I may have missed something?

(Oops, maybe this in the wrong sector of the forum - sorry)

2 Reply by gedakc

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Re: Move unused space across from extended to non-extended

You might take a look at Migrating Space Between Partitions to learn how to migrate space inside and outside of primary, logical and extended partitions.

3 Reply by GMB

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Re: Move unused space across from extended to non-extended

OK I will look at this again. Maybe I messed up.

I was trying to do what it says in that article, but it didn't seem to want to do it in my situation.

4 Reply by class413

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Re: Move unused space across from extended to non-extended

Thread moved to the main GParted support forum.

*** It is highly recommended to backup any important files before doing resize/move operations. ***

5 Reply by GMB

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Re: Move unused space across from extended to non-extended

OK, I got it to work.

This may be an example of "easy when known" so for the benefit of the developers I would just comment that there is something about the dialogue box that hides the fact that it can do it.
I would never have guessed that you have to slide the bar display. The box didn't mention the space that it could have made use of so it didn't appear that it was possible to deal with my situation.
On doing what was suggested it became clear that it was going to work.

My suggestion is that it could include text in the box to indicate the amount of space that is available in this way.

Anyway, my problem solved - so many thanks.