I’m hoping that someone out there can help an absolute novice. My laptop has a 60GB hard drive, which my ex-husband set up with a 20GB partition for Windows XP and a 40GB partition with Suse 11, which suited me fine at the time. However, I’m now finding that I need to install a whole bunch of extra Windows programs relating to my work, and the 20GB partition is no longer sufficient, while I’m hardly using any space at all under Linux.
Please could someone explain in very simple words of one syllable how I might go about redistributing the space between the two partitions (any other solutions to my lack of space problem also welcome)? Please bear in mind that I’m pretty clueless when it comes to this kind of thing!
Changing partition sizes is not a easy thing at anytime unless you have the knowledge and understand the theory. It is extremely easy to mess everything up. That said…
To start we need to see the real partitioning not just your understanding.
Boot into the Linux OS and open a command line window console/Konsole/xterm.
become root (administrator) by typing
su -
then the root password (note the password does NOT echo to the screen)
type
**fdisk -l **
(note that is a lower case L not a one)
report the output here. (Note you can copy and paste into a browser by using the menu on the console window to copy selected text)
I would backup any important data from both partitions and I would be prepared for the worst in case you hose something when trying to resize the partitions.
Also, I would first see if I could free up the Windows partition by removing programs and data not needed and then I would clean out any temp files using cCleaner.
Changing the size of a partition is fairly simple, but can be risky (although I myself have never had anything bad happen by doing it).
You didn’t mention how exactly the Home, Root, and Swap partitions are setup. Are they extended partitions? Or are they all Primary partitions? If so, which one do you want to shrink? The root one or the Home partition, or the swap area? After making these decisions, do the following:
Backup important data.
Fire up a tool for resizing partitions. I prefer to use PartedMagic, but you can use whatever you like.
Choose to shrink a Linux partition to what size you want and expand the Windows partition to fill up the unpartitioned space you got by shrinking the Linux partition.
Done. Make sure everything’s working. When you start Windows after this resize procedure, it will want to check the drive for errors on the first boot-up, this is normal.
Choose to shrink a Linux partition to what size you want and expand the Windows partition to fill up the unpartitioned space you got by shrinking the Linux partition.
You also will need to move partitions. You can only add/take away from the end of a partition thus you need to move shrunken partitions to provide space to the partition you are expanding. The number of partitions you have to move will depend on the partition layout of the disk. Which at this point in time we do not really know.
Would it help if you used Ext2IFS for Windows to save files to the openSUSE 11 partition? If you’re running Windows 7 set the compatibility to Win Vista or Win XP.
Ext2IFS for Windows will allow you to read/write to Linux non-LVM partitions.
Maybe you wouldn’t need to resize your Linux partition though that could be a good learning experience.
Please could someone explain in very simple words of one syllable how I might go about redistributing the space between the two partitions (any other solutions to my lack of space problem also welcome)? Please bear in mind that I’m pretty clueless when it comes to this kind of thing!
What you want to do here can be done with Parted magic it is however a bit complex, with a number of steps involved.
I suggest using Parted magic to instead resize your linux partition and create a partition you can use with windows.
If you let us know what you would like to do one of us can guide you through it.
Unfortunately, the responses have gone straight over my head
In this case, where I state
resize your linux partition
what this does is to take some free space from linux so it can be used elsewhere.
create a partition you can use with windows.
This changes that free space into what windows will call a drive, For example E: you can then install windows programs there, save files there, etc.
From the sounds of it your not even really using opensuse at all. If your not using it, have you considered using the windows partitioner, just deleting opensuse, and expand windows to the entire hard drive. I hate to say this, I really do, but if your not using it, its just taking up space, and this solution would be extremely self explanatory.
What version of windows are you running? If it is win7, be advised that its pretty bulky, and if your installing even more programs, you may need a new hard drive anyway just for the space.
