1 Topic by Miyamoto

  • Miyamoto
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  • Registered: 2007-08-01
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Topic: GParted can't see my used or free space

I am trying to create a new partition on my hdd to install Ubuntu. I am currently running windows xp and have about 20% free space (30gigs). When i boot into GParted from the latest live cd, it sees my hdd fine and the size of the partition but it can't read how much used and free space there is. I am guessing that this is the reason why i can't resize it. There is also an exclamation mark next to the partition which seems to be an error message but i couldn't find any information about the message on the site. Do i need to run some tools under windows to fix up my hdd so gparted can read it fine? If so could you please say where to get them from (such as where in windows or a open-source/free tool to d o the same).

Thankyou for your help

2 Reply by class413

  • class413
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  • Registered: 2007-05-25
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Re: GParted can't see my used or free space

Perhaps there is an error in the filesystem.
You can run chkdsk with the option /f on this disk to find any errors.
You have to run windows defragmentation too. As your disk is pretty full, a good idea is to disable virtual memory (swap file on disk) to make defrag better.

Then, run Gparted again to see if the exclamation mark remains, and copy here the table with the information on the partitions, please.

Anyway, try to leave enough free space on the windows partition, otherwise you could have problems running xp.

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