im new to linux
ive installed it before but that was with help and i want to dualboot it on my laptop with windows when i get to partitioning setup it tries to delete my windows partition and says “cannot resize due to inconsistent fs.” for my windows c drive and recovery drive i dont want to delete it becouse i have data on it and ive tried looking at other forums and stuff and nothing has workd so could anyone help me asap
try defragging & then running windows checkdisk utility.then try resizing
Andy
deltaflyer44 wrote:
> try defragging & then running windows checkdisk utility.then try
> resizing
Er… right. Well, there’s an order to it. Usually a clean shutdown
of windows is enough. Failing that, force a file system checks from
Windows (requires reboots). Defragmenting is not essential here.
Kind regards,
Andreas Stieger
> Defragmenting is not essential here.
essential? maybe, maybe not…
if fragmentation is such that file bits are spread end to end in the
partition, then the SUSE install disk’s partitioner won’t be able to
find enough contiguous space to carve out a new area for the SUSE
install…
–
solo
MultiplePersonality wrote:
>> Defragmenting is not essential here.
>
> essential? maybe, maybe not…
>
> if fragmentation is such that file bits are spread end to end in the
> partition, then the SUSE install disk’s partitioner won’t be able to
> find enough contiguous space to carve out a new area for the SUSE
> install…
Shrinking the file system will relocate any assigned blocks to unused
areas not affected. Obviously this can be done to the rather extreme
extend of shinking the file system until it’s 100% full. Usually such
relocation isn’t very effective in terms of preventing fragmentation,
but it works. Hence it’s not essential for resize operations, only
recommended for NTFS/vfat with significant fill grades.
Your statement about finding continuous free space is nonsense. Such
space is created by methods outlined above, not found.
Kind regards,
Andreas Stieger
MultiplePersonality wrote:
>> Defragmenting is not essential here.
>
> essential? maybe, maybe not…
>
> if fragmentation is such that file bits are spread end to end in the
> partition, then the SUSE install disk’s partitioner won’t be able to
> find enough contiguous space to carve out a new area for the SUSE
> install…
Shrinking the file system will relocate any assigned blocks to unused
areas not affected. Obviously this can be done to the rather extreme
extend of shinking the file system until it’s 100% full. Usually such
relocation isn’t very effective in terms of preventing fragmentation,
but it works. Hence it’s not essential for resize operations, only
recommended for NTFS/vfat with significant fill grades.
Your statement about finding continuous free space fails seems to
neglect that such space is created by methods outlined above, not found.
Kind regards,
Andreas Stieger
MultiplePersonality wrote:
>> Defragmenting is not essential here.
>
> essential? maybe, maybe not…
>
> if fragmentation is such that file bits are spread end to end in the
> partition, then the SUSE install disk’s partitioner won’t be able to
> find enough contiguous space to carve out a new area for the SUSE
> install…
Shrinking the file system will relocate any assigned blocks to unused
areas not affected. Obviously this can be done to the rather extreme
extend of shinking the file system until it’s 100% full. Usually such
relocation isn’t very effective in terms of preventing fragmentation,
but it works. Hence it’s not essential for resize operations, only
recommended for NTFS/vfat with significant fill grades.
Kind regards,
Andreas Stieger
I’m curious about this. I’ve only shrinked windows partitions (NTFS mostly), and prior defrag was always needed or else the partition editor (partition magic, parted, etc.) would show only a small area available, usually a few MB.
As I understand you can only resize a partition by reducing it’s size from it’s end, it’s starting point remains the same, so a partition with a sector written at the end couldn’t be resized, even if the rest of it is empty.
I’m not sure but I suppose that there’s no “resizing” at all, i.e., no sectors are moved inside the partition, only the partition table is changed. At least with NTFS/VFAT partitions.
Is it the same with ext3 partitions or you really can resize them without defragging (which doesn’t exist/is unecessary in linux)?
brunomcl wrote:
>
> AndreasStieger;1961690 Wrote:
>> MultiplePersonality wrote:
>> Shrinking the file system will relocate any assigned blocks to unused
>> areas not affected.
>
> I’m curious about this. I’ve only shrinked windows partitions (NTFS
> mostly), and prior defrag was always needed or else the partition editor
> (partition magic, parted, etc.) would show only a small area available,
> usually a few MB.
>
> As I understand you can only resize a partition by reducing it’s size
> from it’s end, it’s starting point remains the same, so a partition with
> a sector written at the end couldn’t be resized, even if the rest of it
> is empty.
>
> I’m not sure but I suppose that there’s no “resizing” at all, i.e., no
> sectors are moved inside the partition, only the partition table is
> changed. At least with NTFS/VFAT partitions.
>
> Is it the same with ext3 partitions or you really can resize them
> without defragging (which doesn’t exist/is unecessary in linux)?
Please note the difference between resizing a file system and resizing a
partition. The first is about changing on-disk data, the second merely
about manipulating the partition table. Also to prevent any data loss,
you really want the partition to be the same size (or larger) than the
file system contained within at any point in time.
Also I can’t quite follow your experience with other programs.
I may quote ‘man ntfsresize’:
“Defragmentation is NOT required prior to resizing because the program
can relocate any data if needed, without risking data integrity.”
However it will refuse shrinking a file system marked as dirty, as this
is a dangerous thing to do with any file system.
The tool for ext2/3, resize2fs, works pretty much the same way.
Kind regards,
Andreas Stieger
So the recommendations to defrag we see in every partitioning guide are unnecessary?
brunomcl wrote:
> So the recommendations to defrag we see in every partitioning guide are
> unnecessary?
It’s not essential. I think I have been very clear contraticting
MultiplePersonality’s point. Moreover it is simply irrelevant when the
filesystem is maked dirty, as any good program will refuse to touch the
on-disk structures until you checked the file system. This takes us
back to the original problem. Again, usually a clean shutdown of Windows
fixes that.
Whether using Windows’ own defragmentation tools is recommended for FAT
and NTFS is different matter. That also depends on the fill level you
expect after resize and your general fetish/esotheric thoughs on file
system fragmentation. As for all the guides you mention, such action is
of course not unnecessary per se.
Kind regards,
Andreas Stieger
brunomcl wrote:
> So the recommendations to defrag we see in every partitioning guide are
> unnecessary?
i’m not gonna fight over it…
–
solo
Hello everyone,
I would like to add something from me. The same thing happend to me. Installation impossible cos openSUSE 11.2 was ‘threatening with’ deleting Windows partition.
So I ran several times error checking tool on my hard drive and selected both options ‘Automaticlly fix file system errors’ ‘Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors’. But SUSE still refuse to shrink windows partition.
Is complete reinstallation the only one option to fix the problem?
No, you can also use a Gparted Live CD to resize the windu partitions.
@AndreasStieger: could you please explain, why this is happening? Problem of not being able to resize, boot into Windows, defrag, retry, works.
Is that mean that I must create new partition?
Hi
Normally I run a defrag on the drive, then check the drive twice before
running an openSUSE install to re-size.
–
Cheers Malcolm °¿° (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.27.39-0.3-default
up 6 days 11:11, 4 users, load average: 0.48, 0.30, 0.21
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - CUDA Driver Version: 190.18
Despite running defrag and doing full scan of my hard drive few times, openSUSE still refuse to install. An attempt of installing different distro failed (I supposed to remove windows partition to continue installation). Manual resizing finished with warning that there is bad sector on HDD and advise to backup my files or scan on windows and reboot twice.
So now I am not really sure is it safe to resize windows partition with GParted.
In general Gparted is safer in things like this than Windows itself.
But a warning about a bad sector is another thing. Replace the disk as soon as you can.
reboot into windows twice
Do a low level scan with a scan program from your disk manufacturer (I use Spinrite but it is not free)). It may be possible to recover a bad sector. The MS tools may not see it if it is not being used at the moment but resizing may not like it, At least you will know if ther is really a bad sector somewhere.