[ale] GParted & unallocated space

Sun Sep 26 16:12:58 EDT 2010

I know openSUSE will refuse to shrink a Vista / WIn7 created
partition.  You have to do it from within Windows.

Have you tried that with Fedora yet?

On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 3:53 PM, Jim Philips <briarpatch.jim at gmail.com> wrote:
> I tried again to see if things would work for me the way they did for you.
> No luck. The newly freed space was listed as "unusable". I could neither
> format it nor set a mount point and if I tried to move forward, the
> installation complained there was no mount point.
> I also tried installing FC13. FC13's partitioning program never successfully
> shrank sda2, where Windows resides. It saw all partitions as 0 megabytes.
> I'm beginning to feel really screwed here.
>
> On Sun, Sep 26, 2010 at 1:38 AM, Richard Faulkner <rfaulkner at 34thprs.org>
> wrote:
>>
>> Yes.  I did install Ubuntu 9.10 to unallocated space without
>> pre-formatting.  I did not attempt to format it in advance...I did that step
>> in the installer by selecting the option to install the OS to the largest
>> unallocated space.  Ubuntu created an extended partition and two logical
>> partitions.  Since the end-user is new to Linux I did a simple single
>> partition installation on ext4 with a swap partition (trying to make it
>> easier for them to learn...will do upgrades in the future).  This is a
>> common way that I install for dual booting systems for new users and have
>> never had major issues with it.  The last build I did this with was last
>> weekend and was an IBM MT-M 8183-CTO SFF desktop system.  Runs like a dream
>> with the only issue being I was having a hard-time getting DVD movies to
>> play in Movie Player.
>>
>> I don't know if there has been changes to the installer on 10.10 and
>> believe the "Install to largest unallocated space" is an option in 10.04.
>> It is an option on the Live CD for 9.10.  I do not have Vista or 7 and
>> really have not kept-up with the fine points of changes since XP...and to
>> tell you the truth I really don't want to know.  I'm more interested in
>> spending my time in *nix than M$ so I cannot tell you what will happen when
>> doing a tandem installation using 7.  I would expect no major issues....
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jim Philips <briarpatch.jim at gmail.com>
>> To: rfaulkner at 34thprs.org, Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!
>> <ale at ale.org>
>> Subject: Re: [ale] GParted & unallocated space
>> Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 21:00:54 -0400
>>
>> Let me get this straight: Are you saying Ubuntu installed to unallocated
>> space without formatting? I couldn't install, because GParted refused to
>> format that space.
>>
>> On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 8:27 PM, Richard Faulkner <rfaulkner at 34thprs.org>
>> wrote:
>>
>> I've shrank Windows partitions with GParted successfully -- I just make
>> sure I run chkdsk on M$ to make sure Bill is "happy".  If you can
>> successfully resize the partition and create the appropriate "unallocated
>> space" then I wouldn't worry about formatting that space -- I'd just install
>> Ubuntu to the unallocated space and be done with it.  This is exactly what I
>> did last weekend on a build for a buddy who is dual-booting XP and 9.10 and
>> he loves it!  So much so he can't imagine why in the world anyone would want
>> to use Windows when you have Linux to choose from!!  : )
>>
>> The scenario under-which I did this was:  WD 160GB HDD "System C:" 40GB
>> NTFS; "Storage D:" 40GB NTFS and the remainder as Unallocated Space for
>> Ubuntu 9.10 to install to (which it did flawlessly!)  I had attempted an
>> installation of 64 Studio on this box after installing XP but the whole
>> build got corrupt during the late phases of the install of Studio (boot
>> loader crapped-out).  During that installation the "Storage" drive got
>> repartitioned to 56GB from the original 40GB I specified so I used GParted
>> on the Live CD I have for 9.10 and parred it back to 40GB.  I then nuked the
>> ext3 partitioning from the botched 64 Studio installation, rebooted to M$
>> and ran chkdsk on D: and confirmed all was well.  Then back to my Live CD
>> and did the installation on the Unallocated Space.  Viola!
>>
>> Note:  I did not format the unallocated space prior to Linux
>> installation...I did that during the installation.
>>
>> Fly low, beat the radar and may the wind at your back not be your own....R
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Jim Philips <briarpatch.jim at gmail.com>
>> Reply-to: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux! <ale at ale.org>
>> To: Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux! <ale at ale.org>
>>
>>
>> Subject: Re: [ale] GParted & unallocated space
>> Date: Sat, 25 Sep 2010 12:25:55 -0400
>>
>> I went back to Windows and tried to format the "unallocated space". It
>> wouldn't let me. So, I used the Windows partition tool to regrow the Windows
>> partition to its maximum size and reclaim that space. I then tried to shrink
>> that partition again, thinking I could format the empty space as ntfs. When
>> I went to shrink, Windows complained that tghe partition could not be shrunk
>> because it was corrupted and I needed to run chkdsk to fix the problem. I
>> ran chkdsk twice, but I s'm still not being allowed to shrink that partition
>> in Windows. I could shrink it again in GParted, but I will end up again with
>> "unallocated space" that GParted refuses to format. This is getting to be
>> less fun as it goes along.
>>
>> On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 10:43 AM, justin caratzas
>> <justin.caratzas at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> I've seen people advocate with either choice for shrinking the windows
>> partition.  I just went through a similar situation where I wanted to
>> keep the Windows installation on a new laptop (Civ 5 ftw) and install
>> Archlinux to occupy half of the hard drive.  Unfortunately for me, the
>> archlinux installer didn't like the partition that windows had setup
>> as a result of the shrinking, something about cylinder boundaries and
>> such.  GParted wasn't working either, giving a similar message when I
>> tried to just give archlinux the large partition to work with.  One
>> challenge was all the partitions that Lenovo had in place (recovery,
>> installation, etc).  What I ended up having to do is manually
>> partition the unallocated space in GParted, and only make the
>> archlinux installer assign mount points, and it seemed fine with that.
>>
>> As far as the space being unformatted, I think I ran into that
>> situation and got around it by formatting the partition as NTFS in
>> windows, and then simply reformatting once GParted was able to see it
>> upon reboot.
>>
>> -- justin
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Sep 25, 2010 at 10:14 AM, Damon L. Chesser <damon at damtek.com>
>> wrote:
>> > On Sat, 2010-09-25 at 09:58 -0400, Jim Philips wrote:
>> >> I bought a new laptop and I'm trying to install Ubuntu on it. The firs
>> >> time around, I ended up destroying the Windows installation (which I
>> >> did not want to do). The second time I went in and looked for the
>> >> "side by side" option for installing from the live CD. It wasn't
>> >> there. So, I decided to try GParted. I shrank the nearly 475 gigs
>> >> dedicated to Windows in half. After that, I am left with 235 gigs of
>> >> unallocated space. The Ubuntu installer will neither format nor
>> >> install to that space. Gparted won't format it either. So, from where
>> >> I am now, there is nothing I can do with that space either with the
>> >> Ubuntu installer or GParted. The "Format to" option is just grayed out
>> >> in GParted. I don't remember my last install being this hard.
>> >>
>> >> This is a Windows 7, 64 bit laptop.
>> >
>> > It is desirable to "shrink" the partition from with-in windows.  Right
>> > click on "my computer" select "manage" go down to "disk manager".  I
>> > don't remember the exact thing to do, but from there (perhaps by right
>> > clicking menu on the disk partition?) you can select to change the size
>> > of the partition.  Give that a try.  I have never "seen" the situation
>> > you are describing, however, I have broke windows 7 by NOT using windows
>> > built in disk manager to change the size.
>> >
>> > HTH
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> >
>> > --
>> > Damon
>> > damon at damtek.com
>> >
>> > _______________________________________________
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>>
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>>
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>
>
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