1

Topic: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

Here's what I got:

1.partition  2.file system  3.size  4.used  5.unused  6.flag
/dev/sda1  ntfs  19.53gb  11.43gb  8.10gb  boot
/dev/sda2  extended  200.98gb  -  -  lba
>unallocated  unallocated  17.28gb  -  -  -
>/dev/sda5  ntfs  183.70gb  171.23gb  12.46gb  -
unallocated  unallocated  12.37gb  -  -  -

Does this mean I have 3 partitions?  I had thought I only had two.  Anyways, I'm trying to get the first partition bigger.  I've already got the 183gb partition moving over to the right so that the 17gb unallocated bit will be between it and the first partition.  I should be able to resize the first partition after I do that, right?  But what about the 12gb unallocated bit.  How can I get that to be on the first partition?  Do I delete it?  Where will it go?

Also, what's the deal with the sda1,sda2,sda5?  Does that matter?  Should I be trying to end up with something like:
/dev/sda1  ntfs  Xgb
/dev/sda2  ntfs  Xgb

In other words, why is sda5 a subset of sda2?  Can that be fixed, and/or should it?

Thanks so much!

2

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

No you have two partitions with file system, but the second is include into an other kind of partition which may contain many partitions (called logicals partitions).
Please give here the out put of # fdisk -l
It will give some idea of your configuration.
thx

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

3

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

I don't quite understand what you're asking me to do.  But I want to report back that I was able to figure it out.  Turns out that I was trying to move/resize the wrong bits and in the wrong order.  I finally have it moving everything over to eliminate the unallocated areas and resizing the first partition with that extra space.  So, I just have to wait 4 hours for that.... smile

Only thing left is to install my OS on the now bigger partition.

4

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

Yes, I know it may take a while, depending on the amount of data to move/copy, and file system too.
Happy with you !

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

5

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

Forget the 4 hours...that was just "read only" ...now it's telling me that it won't be done for another 23 hours.  Is that at all normal?  I can't even quit out of it, without risking severe file damage, it says.

6

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

What about the amount of data to move/copy, and file system ?

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

7

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

It's about 180GB, NTFS.

8

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

So I guess it may take a while !

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

9

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

You could say that.  Another 5 hours and it will be done, hopefully.

Thanks for answering my questions. smile

10

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

I finished up resizing/moving things and I formatted the partition that housed my original OS (XP), leaving just XP MCE on another partition.  After rebooting, it told me that a kernel file is missing and to insert a system diskette.  I'm thinking that maybe the Vista DVD would solve this if I go ahead and try to install it.  But I wasn't really prepared to do that right away.  What I want to do is get XP MCE to boot.  I know that the formatted partition is flagged as "boot" and that the XP MCE is flagged as "lba".  I'm guessing that changing it so that the partition with XP MCE is set as "boot" that it might work.  Am I right?

Can you describe what lba means?  Do I need to put the formatted partition as lba?  When I install Vista, would I just change it back to how it is now?

11

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

I can't get anything to boot or even be recognized.  I have one formatted partition then an extended partition with one partition inside it with the OS I want to boot.  I've putting the boot flag on both the extended partition and the OS partition.  Neither work.  Looking at the information on them, the OS partition isn't mounted.  All my searches turn up stuff relating to Linux, which I'm not using.  I just want my partition to be found and my OS to boot.

12

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

Please could you post a screenshot of the layout of GParted ?
I think I guess what problem you have but prefer to be sure...
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/ti … enshot.htm
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/ti … etails.htm

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

13

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

I will report back later as I'm going to go ahead and install Vista and see if that works on the first partition.  If not, I'll try and get a screenshot for you.  Thanks again.

14

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

Well, it *CAN'T* work on logical partition !
Vista *must* be installed on primary partition...

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

15

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

Sorry no screenshot yet but how do I tell if it's a primary or not?  I'm going to look that up, but I didn't even think that that might be where I was slipping up.

/dev/sda1 ntfs boot
/dev/sda2 extended lba
>/dev/sda5 ntfs

I reboot and I get a "kernel file is missing from the disk" error.  I'm able to TRY loading an OS from a DVD/CD (I tried Vista and XP) but they're not working.  XP just gave me an error, Vista too forever loading a splash screen and just sat there for half an hour without any way to continue the process.   And like I said, I can't even boot to sda5, even if I flag it as the boot partition.  I also tried flagging sda2 as boot, but no luck there either.

Only thing I can think of is some issue with a corrupted primary partition that's not booting properly and preventing Vista or XP from installing.  My internet searches on a possible fix usually involve using the OS discs as repair disks...well my problems with even loading them prevents that.  I have no idea if this is a GParted issue or something completely different.

16

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

This has been a bad day or so for me.  But if it helps, all I want out of this mess is Vista installed in a stable way with it as the C drive and either XP MCE dual booting or at least I'm able to access the data from that drive (E).

17

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

Well, like i said above, Win can't boot from a logical partition. You need primary partition.
Primary partitions can be sda1, sda2, sda3, sd4.
But one of sda1, sda2, sda3, sda4 may also be extended partition (only one per hard drive !)
Extended partition is a partition that contains logical partitions.
In one extended partition you can put as many logical partitions as you want.

In your example, you have :
sda1 : primary partition
sda2 extended partiition (contains one logical partition : sda5)
sda3 : not existing
sda4 : not existing.

What you need to do is to shrink sda5, then shrink sda2, then create a new partition in the unallocated space, that will be called sda3.
If it is called sda6 that means you didn't shrink sda2.

I know this is not so easy to understand, but I really do my best to give you explanation...
Maybe a screen shot may help you : http://gparted.free.fr/screenshots/partitions.jpg
In my example, you can see :
hda1 is primary partition
hda2 is primary partition
hda3 is extended partition that contains other partitions ; but those partitions are *not bootable* !

Hope it help....

I guess, after you deleted your sda5 you should have delete sda2 too. And the problem may come from the fact you kept this sda2 as extended !

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

18

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

LarryT wrote:

Well, like i said above, Win can't boot from a logical partition. You need primary partition.
Primary partitions can be sda1, sda2, sda3, sd4.
But one of sda1, sda2, sda3, sda4 may also be extended partition (only one per hard drive !)
Extended partition is a partition that contains logical partitions.
In one extended partition you can put as many logical partitions as you want.

In your example, you have :
sda1 : primary partition
sda2 extended partiition (contains one logical partition : sda5)
sda3 : not existing
sda4 : not existing.

Okay, I have tried to install Vista with sda1 flagged as boot.  I get a Kernel is missing error.  It asks for a system disk.  I can't use any OS disk for this as it won't load and let me repair.

Additionally, I have had, and have used XP MCE on sda5.  You say that Win can boot from this logical partition, but I had been up to a day or so ago dual booting XP Pro on sda1 and XP MCE on sda5 which was contained withing sda2, an extended partition.

What you need to do is to shrink sda5, then shrink sda2, then create a new partition in the unallocated space, that will be called sda3.
If it is called sda6 that means you didn't shrink sda2.

I can't shrink sda5 as it is full and has data I want to keep if at all possible.  There's nothing on sda1, so can I shrink that to create sda3?

I guess, after you deleted your sda5 you should have delete sda2 too. And the problem may come from the fact you kept this sda2 as extended !

I never deleted sda5.  The only actions I have performed on it are resizing and moving.  I used the extra space from these actions to grow sda1 as it was originally around 20gb and I wanted something larger.

Thanks.

19

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

Hold off on answering.  I was able to get Vista to install, but may have lingering questions afterward.  Thanks!

20

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

Okay. I didn't know win could boot off logical drive : I though it was impossible. Be kind enough to excuse me about that mistake.

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)

21

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

I would not dispute your knowledge Larry.  Mostly I'm probably showing I'm confused about what was and is happening.  If you say it's not possible, then I'm probably wrong about what the situation was when it was booting.

In any event, I have Vista up and running nicely.  What's more, I can access all my files on the other currently unbootable OS.  I do not have much on it as it was only being used for a couple months and I avoided cluttering it up during that time.  That being the case, I think my plan going forward is to move over whatever I want to keep and just formatting it, and deleting the partitions.

My current tv tuner isn't Vista compliant, so I might either set up a second primary partition and dual boot, or perhaps run XP MCE in a virtual machine, if it would work that way.  Until then, I'll just thank you and save whatever questions I might have in the future for another time.

22

Re: How do I get unallocated bit onto a partition?

Lt. Washburn wrote:

I would not dispute your knowledge Larry.  Mostly I'm probably showing I'm confused about what was and is happening.  If you say it's not possible, then I'm probably wrong about what the situation was when it was booting.

I know very few things... and I know the more your learn, the more you guess how few you know ... Sio I was really serious about that.

Lt. Washburn wrote:

In any event, I have Vista up and running nicely.  What's more, I can access all my files on the other currently unbootable OS.  I do not have much on it as it was only being used for a couple months and I avoided cluttering it up during that time.  That being the case, I think my plan going forward is to move over whatever I want to keep and just formatting it, and deleting the partitions.

ATM I didn't try to make a dual boot VIsta/XP, but I can try this if it could help. Any way, I will make this test one day, so.... I have a running test machine with some OS and Vista business and XP too, so I will try asap.

Lt. Washburn wrote:

My current tv tuner isn't Vista compliant, so I might either set up a second primary partition and dual boot, or perhaps run XP MCE in a virtual machine, if it would work that way.  Until then, I'll just thank you and save whatever questions I might have in the future for another time.

wink

Larry
GParted-project Admin
Former GParted-LiveCD maintainer (2007)