Can anyone tell me if it’s still possible to extend sdb1 using the unpartitioned area?
During the installation oS made an extended partition sdb2 and there were sdb5, sdb6, sdb7 and sdb8 in it. I deleted sdb8 and want to give it back to sdb1 which belongs to the windows partition. Is it possible now?
http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/7720/screenshotfrom201302121.png](http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/703/screenshotfrom201302121.png/)
Uploaded with ImageShack.us
Thanks in advance.
On 2013-02-12 16:16, bonedriven wrote:
>
> Can anyone tell me if it’s still possible to extend sdb1 using the
> unpartitioned area?
>
> During the installation oS made an extended partition sdb2 and there
> were sdb5, sdb6, sdb7 and sdb8 in it. I deleted sdb8 and want to give it
> back to sdb1 which belongs to the windows partition. Is it possible now?
>
> ‘[image:
> http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/7720/screenshotfrom201302121.png]’
> (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/703/screenshotfrom201302121.png/)
Please use susepaste instead, no silly commercials.
No, you can not add two non-contiguous partitions. You can, however,
format is as ntfs and use it for data both in Windows and Linux.
I don’t know if you can shift the rest of the partitions and do it. Some
Windows commercial software can, but then perhaps Linux will no longer
boot or work. I’m not sure if there are Linux tools for it.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
Although Carlos is correct, the problem he describes is easily overcome.
I use GParted Live to move/re-size partitions without destroying the data. In your case you would move your sdb5,6,7 are logical partitions within the extended partition, so you’d start by extending your sdb partition into the empty space, then moving sdb5,6,7 from the beginning to the end of the extended partition, then re-size the extended partition to re-claim the empty space which would then be contiguous to NTFS partition.
Although you likely can continue with GParted from this point on, this is where I prefer to boot into the Windows system and use Windows tools which are much faster.
When you boot into Windows the Partiton Manager will recognize the empty contiguous space and support extending the existing NTFS partition into the empty space with a simple click. If you have a very old version of Windows, parted won’t be built into Partition Manager so you may need to run it from the command line before formatting using Partition Manager. Also, by using Windows Partition Manager to extend and format you will be certain Windows will be able to recognize and use the new disk space, when I use Linux tools, <sometimes> the partition remains unrecognized.
As always, if you value the data in these partitions (particularly the ones with data being moved), BACK UP. Although I’ve never experienced data loss, it’s very possible and if it happens you may not find it easy to recover.
Lastly, the issue Carlos describes about possibly altering the partitions so an OS won’t apply here because you’re not creating or re-ordering any partitions… You are simply re-sizing and shifting partitions, otherwise your layout is exactly the same as before. In some cases if you are dealing with primary partitions and you use the last megabytes on the disk the arcpaths for Windows boot may be affected, but I see you are using an extended partition to hold your Linux partitions so again… no problem.
HTH,
TSU
On 2013-02-12 18:16, tsu2 wrote:
>
> Although Carlos is correct, the problem he describes is easily overcome.
>
> I use GParted Live to move/re-size partitions without destroying the
> data.
Nice! 
I’ll have to remember it can do that.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)
Thanks ! It’s just that by the time I am reading this, I’ve already clicked the “delete” button…
p.s. sorry for the image link. I have get used to that the forum doesn’t allow image hosting.
On 2013-02-12, tsu2 <tsu2@no-mx.forums.opensuse.org> wrote:
> Although you likely can continue with GParted from this point on, this
> is where I prefer to boot into the Windows system and use Windows tools
> which are much faster.
>
> When you boot into Windows the Partiton Manager will recognize the
> empty contiguous space and support extending the existing NTFS partition
> into the empty space with a simple click.
When you refer to Window’s Partition Manager, are you referring to the
Disk Management GUI tool and Administrative tools in the Control Panel
or are you referring to it’s CLI equivalent (diskpart)? In Windows 7, I
found the GUI tool very restrictive because there was no way (at least
as far as I could see) to perform basic tasks such as creating extended
partitions. The CLI equivalent possesses no such limitations and (albeit
to the disapproval of several forum regulars here I suspect) can be
useful I find.
Thanks ! It’s just that by the time I am reading this, I’ve already clicked the “delete” button…
If you mean that you have deleted the Linux partitions from within windows, then have you moved the boot flag or repaired/reinstalled the boot loader? (I’m not sure which of those options windows needs these days).
Assuming you did not add Linux to the windows boot loader, on first reboot windows will not boot, so prepare for that.
Edit: On closer look, Is windows installed on sda? Where was the Linux boot loader (Grub) installed?
Yes, “Disk Management” but you <can> easily extend into adjacent free space and format quickly starting in Vista (and later), and that is not the same as creating an extended partition. It’s been awhile since I’ve created an extended partition using Windows Disk Management but IIRC it’s simple, too… But, you <may> have to turn off the default “Dynamic Disks” so you can work with “Basic Disks.”
Earlier than Vista (eg XP) you will likely not be able to use Disk Management to extend an existing partition into unused space, in that case you’ll need to run diskpart from the command line (or if already using Gparted, do that step before leaving to use Windows tools).
Extend into partition = Existing partition plus adjacent unused space. Under the hood, a new partition is created in the unused space, then is joined to the pre-existing partition.
Extended partition = A new, separate container is created as a Primary Partition, then within it you can create individual logical partitions which are recognized by the OS as usable partitions no different than Primary Partitions. This can often be used to enable >4 partitions on the disk and to preserve the order of enumerated partitions even when removable disks are removed or added.
TSU
