1 Topic by budachild (edited by budachild 2010-03-31 22:54:50)

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Topic: [Solved] Unable To Grow My Operating System

I have two physical hard drives in my computer.

- 80GB hard drive partitioned into two halves [OS, and data] <--- Disk 0 in the picture below

- 160GB hard drive partitioned into two halves [both used for data] <--- Disk 1 in the picture below


The following picture shows my disk management in Windows XP prior to using GParted boot disc v0.5.2-1:

http://i44.tinypic.com/245y91w.jpg

As you can see I have little to no space left on my "C" drive which carries my operating system. So I did a little research and discovered that I'd be able to add more space to it by using GParted. So I backed up my entire 80GB hard drive to an external usb hard drive using "Acronis True Image" software boot disc. & than decided to launch the GParted boot disc. Upon doing so this screen came up recognizing the hard drive I wanted to rearrange:

http://i41.tinypic.com/15zsa37.jpg

Now my idea was to shrink dev/hda5 to the right, than shrink down dev/hda2 the same way I did dev/hda5. Therefore leaving hard drive space preceding dev/hda2 & dev/hda5, which could be used by dev/hda1 to grow. So I left "Round to cylinders selected, and 0mb space following" and shrunk dev/hda5 and dev/hda2 to the right by about 10GB. Than I resized dev/hda1 by assigning all of the following free space to it while leaving "Round to cylinders" selected. I also applied the entire procedure all at once. But GParted ending up displaying an error after about an hour. It said that two operations were completed but one didn't. This turned out to be the end result:

http://i41.tinypic.com/8z0dqp.jpg

http://i42.tinypic.com/16iwpl4.jpg

http://i43.tinypic.com/mbqw78.jpg

I don't know where I went wrong... I mean this is my first time using Gparted so I am kind of a newbie. & I was trying to do this with an extended partition. Which I don't know if that complicates things or not. All I know is after I closed the details popup GParted ended up displaying my hard drive like so:

http://i41.tinypic.com/2i7lmrl.jpg

I don't think the image above shows what I was aiming for! LOL. I don't even know how the heck that ended up happening! I obviously need help... I was able to restore the drive using my backup. But I'm willing to try GParted one more time. I need more space on my OS drive!!!!!!!!!! cool




Thanks

2 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [Solved] Unable To Grow My Operating System

Which version of GParted did you use?

Also it would help if you saved the details file (gparted_details.htm) when the error occurred.  Then we could examine precisely what occurred and troubleshoot from there.

Now without this information, I am guessing that perhaps windows was not shut down properly.  In such a situation, your C: drive (dev/sda1) would fail to resize.

What you proposed to do is the correct set of steps (especially the part about making a backup first - one never knows when a software bug, hardware problem, or power outage might occur).

When resizing NTFS, it is advisable to boot back into windows after each resize operation to permit windows to complete it's file system checks.

3 Reply by budachild (edited by budachild 2010-03-28 19:17:52)

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Re: [Solved] Unable To Grow My Operating System

As I said in my first post I used GParted boot disc v0.5.2-1. I was unable to save the details because I didn't know how to do so. I followed the instructions as per the tutorial on this site but still couldn't seem to figure it out. I was trying to save it to USB. Regardless you did mention I should reboot into windows after each resize. What do you mean by that?

Are you saying that after I resize dev/hda5 I should reboot, than resize dev/hda2, reboot, than resize my os on dev/hda1, and do a final reboot?

Or should I resize dev/hda5 & dev/hda2 at the same time, reboot, than resize dev/hda1, and reboot?

4 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [Solved] Unable To Grow My Operating System

Oops, my mistake.  I missed seeing the GParted version in the first post.

Each time an NTFS file system is resized it is advisable to reboot into windows  to permit windows to perform it's own file system checks.

Since /dev/hda5 and /dev/hda1 have NTFS file systems, these would be the two that should have a reboot performed before proceeding to resize the next one.  /dev/hda2 is an extended partition so there is no need to reboot after resizing this one.

'Hope that helps.  smile

5 Reply by budachild

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Re: [Solved] Unable To Grow My Operating System

Call me a rookie but I still don't get it.

Are you saying that after I resize dev/hda5 I should reboot, than resize dev/hda2, reboot, than resize my os on dev/hda1, and do a final reboot?

Or should I resize dev/hda5 & dev/hda2 at the same time, reboot, than resize dev/hda1, and reboot?

If I'm wrong in either of these two methods please DESCRIBE the exact way I should go about this entire operation in your own words.

6 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [Solved] Unable To Grow My Operating System

budachild wrote:

Are you saying that after I resize dev/hda5 I should reboot, than resize dev/hda2, reboot, than resize my os on dev/hda1, and do a final reboot?

Or should I resize dev/hda5 & dev/hda2 at the same time, reboot, than resize dev/hda1, and reboot?

Either of these methods will work.  If you are in doubt then it is best to perform only one action at a time and then reboot.  That way you will know precisely the results from each individual action.

With file systems other than NTFS, this is not required, but it still provides the best way of knowing what each individual action accomplishes.

7 Reply by budachild (edited by budachild 2010-03-31 15:31:35)

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Re: [Solved] Unable To Grow My Operating System

Ok well I started from scratch again after restoring my hard drive from an image backup I made because things went so bad on my first try with Gparted. The first thing I did was shrink dev/hda5 by 10237mb (round to cyclinders, no free space following), moved it to the right, and rebooted. Upon reboot Windows did a consistency check on the hard drive. After rebooting itself I was able to look at Disk Management in Xp and confirm that dev/hda5 was indeed resized and healthy. With an unallocated space of 10Gb just before it in the same extended partition.

I reboot the pc and went right back into Gparted, resized dev/hda2 by the same size (10237mb, round to cyclinders, no space following), moved it to the right and rebooted. I dont think Windows did a consistency check on the drive that time. I looked in Disk Management and saw there was 10Gb of unallocated space now BEFORE the extended partition, and all was well.

Rebooted, went back into Gparted, this time resized dev/hda1 to take up the 10237mb of unallocated free space that was at the right of it, with round to cyclinders selected again. I noted that prior to hitting "apply" I seen dev/hda5 and dev/hda1 hugging eachother because they were one in the same size. After Gparted resized dev/hda1 successfully it rescanned my drive and eveything looked fine with the exception that I now saw something like 7mb of unallocated space in between dev/hda1 and dev/hda2! I don't know why this occurred. Windows checked for consistency on the drive when it rebooted, rebooted again, and when the desktop showed up displayed a message in my systray saying "new device found", and than a grey popup that read:

System Settings Change: "Windows has finished installing new devices. The software that supports your device requires that you restart your pc. You must restart your pc before the new settings take effect."

I have no idea why that message popped up too, nevertheless I rebooted and it never came back up. I checked Disk Management in Xp and all looks normal... My C drive was resized, and so was my E drive extended partition (dev/hda1, and dev/hda2, dev/hda5). I did not see any 7mb unallocated space between dev/hda1, and dev/hda2.

My questions:

1. Was it correct for me to use "Round to cyclinders" when resizing?
2. Why was is there an unallocated space of around 7mb still between dev/hda1, and dev/hda2? (only displaying in Gparted, not in Xp Disk Management)
3. Why did I get a "System settings change" message after resizing dev/hda1 and booting into Windows?
4. Other than that is all well? Did I miss anything?



Thank you for your time!

8 Reply by gedakc

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Re: [Solved] Unable To Grow My Operating System

budachild wrote:

My questions:

1. Was it correct for me to use "Round to cyclinders" when resizing?
2. Why was is there an unallocated space of around 7mb still between dev/hda1, and dev/hda2? (only displaying in Gparted, not in Xp Disk Management)
3. Why did I get a "System settings change" message after resizing dev/hda1 and booting into Windows?
4. Other than that is all well? Did I miss anything?

A1.  Yes, using "Round to cylinders" is a good way to use GParted.  When this is de-selected, you must reserve space for the Master Boot Record and Extended Boot Records yourself which requires more knowledge of the disk structure.

A2. This unallocated space is the amount of 1 Cylinder and should be between the start of hda2 and hda5.
       1 cylinder = (255 heads) x (63 sectors/track) x (512 bytes/sector) = 7.84 MiB
This occurs because "Round to Cylinders" set the partition to start on a cylinder boundary, and Logical partitions require space for an Extended Boot Record.  If the lost space is bothering you, you could resize hda5 by reducing free space preceding to 0, but this is not necessary.  If you do perform this action then 63 sectors will be unallocated between the start of hda2 and the start of hda5, but this will not be graphically visible in GParted.

A3.  Windows does not like changes made it's file systems without it's knowledge.  Each version of windows appears to handle this file checking and boot up in a slightly different way.  What is important is that Windows will boot after it has performed it's checks.

A4.  All is well.  Congratulations on successfully repartitioning your drive.  smile

To help others searching for questions that were solved, you can edit your initial post and prefix "SOLVED" in front of the title.

9 Reply by budachild

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Re: [Solved] Unable To Grow My Operating System

gedakc wrote:

A2. This unallocated space is the amount of 1 Cylinder and should be between the start of hda2 and hda5.
       1 cylinder = (255 heads) x (63 sectors/track) x (512 bytes/sector) = 7.84 MiB
This occurs because "Round to Cylinders" set the partition to start on a cylinder boundary, and Logical partitions require space for an Extended Boot Record.  If the lost space is bothering you, you could resize hda5 by reducing free space preceding to 0, but this is not necessary.  If you do perform this action then 63 sectors will be unallocated between the start of hda2 and the start of hda5, but this will not be graphically visible in GParted.

A3.  Windows does not like changes made it's file systems without it's knowledge.  Each version of windows appears to handle this file checking and boot up in a slightly different way.  What is important is that Windows will boot after it has performed it's checks..

Question to Answer 2.
Ok now will this unallocated space cause any issues when I try to backup just the second extended partition with myhard disk drive image backup software in the future?

Question to Answer 3.
Would the changes the system applied with that special check affect my other hard drives in my computer which I didn't even use with Gparted? (ie: secondary hdd)

10 Reply by class413

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Re: [Solved] Unable To Grow My Operating System

Question to Answer 2.

Unallocated parts of the hard drive aren't partitions. The partitions are defined in the partition table. Now, your system understands every partition with the same numbering and with its new limits. There is no problem, except some little "lost" space. However, it seems that windows xp like partitions aligned to the cylinder borders.
Now, you can check that everything works as expected in your system, and then update your backups smile

Question to Answer 3.

These changes don't affect any other hard drive. This behavior is absolutely normal. This check is done during the system boot-up, that's why at least 2 reboots are necessary.
It is possible to see this kind of check after some system crush or power failure (not always).

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

11 Reply by budachild

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Re: [Solved] Unable To Grow My Operating System

I've got to say that I'll now have to add Gparted to my toolbox. This program is extremely useful once you learn to use it properly. I'd like to thank you both for spending your personal time reading and replying to my thread. You have now opened a new door for me allowing me to have more space in my pc. I was running out of space on my primary disk drive. Programs such as iTunes were sucking up space to make backups of my iPhone. And I also have other apps that need the free temp space. System restore in xp was also making less checkpoints because I had little to no room. I'll be free now...

Thank you so much!