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Topic: Disable memory Check?

Using the live CD I can not load GParted (UBuntu Fiesty). It states there is insufficient memory to load a file into memory. I have at least 1 gig of memory but on startup it always shows as 256mb.

I need urgently to change the partition sizes but so far can not use gparted to do it.

Is there a way to force gparted not to check for memory size?

Robin

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Re: Disable memory Check?

Please, *don't* use Gparted that comes with Ubuntu (version 0.2.5). It is very old and buggy. Use the latest livecd instead (version 0.3.4-x), that has no problem, even with 256MB RAM.

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

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Re: Disable memory Check?

Unfortunately the latest version is not in the Ubuntu repository. Synaptec is only bringing up 2.5. Would it be possible for the repository  to be updated. In the meantime I will attempt to install it.

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Re: Disable memory Check?

The latest versions are in the main Gparted site as ISO Image file to burn as a LiveCD, not installed versions.
http://gparted.sf.net/

With the liveCD you can do even more than with the installed version, because you can work on *any* partition on the computer. It doesn't mount partitions at all. With the installed version you can't resize working partitions.

You can find there all previous versions too.
The latest installed version is 0.3.3 and is available there as source.

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

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Re: Disable memory Check?

The drive that I gparted has 4 partitions. I used the live cd 0.3.4-8. It is a data drive. I expanded the partition from 6mg to 12mg.  I saw it copying over the old contents as part of the move. When I look in the enlarged partition nothing is there. All my data appears lost.  Is there a utility I can use to extract the data or see the data again?

The partition that I did not touch on the same drive still has all its data.

I  have just  run win2k in a vmware virtual machine on ubuntu. It can not see any data but Win2k thinks the size of the altered drive is still at 6mg. This is a mapped drive.

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Re: Disable memory Check?

I'm afraid I don't understand very well what exactly you did to enlarge the partition. Gparted can't expand a partition over another partition, because it checks the partition range on the hard drive.
(what mean 6mg and 12mg ? GB ? )
If you can provide the details of your disks and partitions as they are detected by Gparted LiveCD, or a screenshot, it could be much clearer.

Anyway, one of the best tools to recover lost partitions is TestDisk.
http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk
Photorec is a file recovery programme.

Perhaps you could check the RAM or the RAM configuration. The Ubuntu Feisty live+install cd works well even with 512 MB RAM.

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

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Re: Disable memory Check?

The partition that has all the data no longer showing is a NTFS partition. Qparted shows that 7.01 gigs have been used  and the total size is 11.72 with the balance used.

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Re: Disable memory Check?

http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/1167/screenshotfq8.th.png

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Re: Disable memory Check?

I ran testdisk and it was able to find all the files in the damaged partition. Currently I am coping them all out to another drive. That at least gives me the files back and that is wonderful.

I would like to know what went wrong and if the original drive can be repaired. Can you suggest a strategy?

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Re: Disable memory Check?

Testdisk offers some other options apart from copy. I was referring to the other options that I might use to recover the partition, but I do not know which to use.

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Re: Disable memory Check?

I wonder if I could have some replies to my comments. In particular I would not like others to have the same problem that I had. It is not fun to loose all one's files. Fortunately you were able to help me recover them but it would be very good to know what went wrong.

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Re: Disable memory Check?

It is not easy to tell what exactly went wrong, without details on the system, the disk before and the operations. But there is always a chance for problems, that's why it is necessary to have backup of important data, in any case and especially when working on partitions.

The "TestDisk" utility program is included in the Gparted LiveCD.
You can't copy selected files with Gparted. It can copy entire partitions only. You can copy selected partitions or even an entire disk, with "clonezilla", that you can find alone as a LiveCD, as well as with Gparted in the "Gparted-Clonezilla" liveCD, from the main Gparted site, or from the Clonezilla site.

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

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Re: Disable memory Check?

Thank you for the reply. I hope no one else has that trouble. It is very worrying to see that none of the files in a directory are showing as being there.

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Re: Disable memory Check?

I am trying to make my linux swap partition bigger

The drive has

HDA1 ext3   98gb
Unallocated 2.89 gb
HDA5 Linux swap file 2.89

At the moment I can not expand the swap file into the unallocated are at the front of it. I assume this is because the unallocated are should be at the end of the swap file. How do I move the swap file in front of the Unallocated area?

http://img251.imageshack.us/img251/5995/screenshot1wb0.th.png

Robin

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Re: Disable memory Check?

No dear. That's not the problem. You just forgot the extended partition /dev/hda2.
You need first to expand the /dev/hda2 partition to take the unallocated space (by moving the start to the left), and then expand /dev/hda5 same manner.

BTW, you need perhaps to learn more in depth on the partition system for intel-type computers. Please, search for "Linux Howto" about partitions. smile

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