1 Topic by sf2

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Topic: resize adds free space on wrong side of partition

I have a Dell pe2950 running server 2003. It has a perc5 with a RAID 5 array and 1 virtual disk.

In order there is a small Dell diagnostic partition, C: is 16 Gb and d: is 250 Gb with 50% free.

I used a Gparted live CD (11.0.2). I tagged the larger partition (/dev/sda3) and told it to resize by adding 8000 Mb to the left. It announced something like "shrinking /dev/sda3 from 250 to 242 Gb and moving it to the right.

2 1/2 hours later it completed. When it rescanned it showed there was 8 Gb of free space to the right of the last partition. That is exactly the opposite of what I told it to do and what it reported it was doing.

Any thoughts appreciated.

2 Reply by gedakc

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Re: resize adds free space on wrong side of partition

Did you happen to save the gparted_details.htm log file?

If not then would you be able to reproduce the problem, even if on a smaller scale, and post the log file?

3 Reply by class413

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Re: resize adds free space on wrong side of partition

"moving it to the right"

This is sometimes related to slight moves, due to the alignment option used.

mswindows server 2003 uses the "align to Cylinder" option by default (I mean the initial partitioning). This option was the default align option for older GParted versions. The latest GParted versions default to the MiB alignment, that is used by newer operating systems and is best for the newer hard drive generations (SSD, "advanced format" 4096byte drives/512e drives).

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

4 Reply by sf2

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Re: resize adds free space on wrong side of partition

gedakc wrote:

Did you happen to save the gparted_details.htm log file?

If not then would you be able to reproduce the problem, even if on a smaller scale, and post the log file?

Sorry, I did not save the log file. I will if I try it again.

5 Reply by sf2

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Re: resize adds free space on wrong side of partition

class413 wrote:

"moving it to the right"

This is sometimes related to slight moves, due to the alignment option used.

mswindows server 2003 uses the "align to Cylinder" option by default (I mean the initial partitioning). This option was the default align option for older GParted versions. The latest GParted versions default to the MiB alignment, that is used by newer operating systems and is best for the newer hard drive generations (SSD, "advanced format" 4096byte drives/512e drives).


If I attempt this again should I choose "align to cylinder" or let it use Mib alignment since it already used that on the first attempt (in the interest of not breaking things).

When the machine rebooted after my first attempt the drive letter for the altered partition was gone.  I used diskmanagement to restore it.

6 Reply by class413

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Re: resize adds free space on wrong side of partition

I think it is easier to keep the existing alignment. You can find it by checking the exact positions of the partition's start sector.
For this, you can use the command
sudo fdisk -lu
from the terminal. Take into account that numbering starts from 0.
In case of dubt, you could post here the result of the command.

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