Partitioning problems for unallocated partition

[wallis2812]

Hi

I am having problems with partitioning my hard drive. It is a 75GB drive, which has a 2GB partition with pre-installed Windows files, a 15GB partition with Windows XP, (Shrunk from 35GB), a linux-swap partition and then 15GB for Kubuntu, and then a 40GB unallocated partition. I am not able to access this last 40GB unallocated section from either Windows or Linux. I cannot format it or change it in any way. I have tried using Partition Magic, the Kubuntu Installer and Windows disk management to change it but with no success, none of them will let me alter it. Fdisk does not pick it up this partition at all. The aim is to have this partition as a FAT32 partition for both Windows and Linux file storage. I am new to Linux, so may have missed something. Think the problem started when I installed Kubuntu and it wouldn't let me format or alter that last partition during installations so it was left as unallocated.

Have looked through the other help files, around on the net and in forums but nothings has helped yet.
Please help!
Kind regards

[penguin.ch]

Re: Partitioning problems for unallocated partition

If I have counted properly, on your hard disk at present four partitions are allready existing, all of them primary ones, as I assume - which would mean that you would have reached the limit of what is possible ... provided your Kubuntu system is operating, you may hack fdisk -l into a console and post the resulting output here to verify (or falsify) my assumption.

Birdy

[wallis2812]

Re: Partitioning problems for unallocated partition

Thanks for the quick reply.
Yes, I have 4 primary partitions.
I just tried using GParted-Live CD and it told me that I have reached my limit. Is there any way around this or do you have any suggestions?
Might try incorporate the 40GB into my windows partitions because Linux has no problems reading from it?

[Rog131]

Re: Partitioning problems for unallocated partition

wallis2812:

Yes, I have 4 primary partitions.

Partitioning with fdisk /1/ says:

Linux allows only 4 primary partitions. You can have a much larger number of logical partitions by sub-dividing one of the primary partitions. Only one of the primary partitions can be sub-divided.

and

GParted FAQ /2/ says:

4 : What is the maximum amount of logical partitions an extended partition can hold?
Well, in theory you could go on and create logical partitions infinitely, however all operation systems impose some limit. For Linux it is the device number allocation that limits support.

For IDE devices 64 minor numbers are reserved for each disk. For instance /dev/hda is major 3 minor 0, /dev/hda1 is major 3, minor 1, etc up till /dev/hda63.

For SCSI devices only 16 minor numbers are allocated for each disk, so there Linux only supports 15 partitions.

You could make logical partitions and incorporate the 40GB in there.


Good to Know:
The Linux System Administrators' Guide: Version 0.6.2 > Chapter 4. Using Disks and Other Storage Media > Partitions (http://www.linuxhq.com/guides/SAG/x885.html)


/1/ 5. Partitioning with fdisk
http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Partition/fdisk_partitioning.html


/2/ GParted FAQ
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/faq.php

[penguin.ch]

Re: Partitioning problems for unallocated partition

I just tried using GParted Live CD and it told me that I have reached my limit. Is there any way around this or do you have any suggestions?

Sure thing 8) for the sake of explanation (and in absence of the partition table I asked you to post), let us assume that you do have

- /dev/hda1 for the machine;
- /dev/hda2 for Windoze XP;
- /dev/hda3 for Linux Swap;
- /dev/hda4 for Kubuntu OS;
- "tbd" for unallocated space.

In this case, I would suggest to

- turn off swap usage (sudo swapoff -a)
- delete the swap, add the space to /dev/hda2
- create an logical partition "behind" /dev/hda4
- inside this logical partition,
-- create a new swap space (1 GB) => "hda5"
-- create a "shared partition" (vfat) => "hda6"
- turn on swap usage (sudo swapoff /dev/hda5)

This should result in a partition table similar to the following

- /dev/hda1 for the machine;
- /dev/hda2 for Windoze XP;
- /dev/hda3 for Kubuntu OS;
- /dev/hda4 => logical (!);
- /dev/hda5 new swap space;
- /dev/hda6 "shared partition"

(the latter being intended for common usage from the Windoze as well as the Linux side of digital life; the logical parition is merely a "container" of sorts and therefore must not be mentioned in the file system table, i.e. /etc/fstab).

HTH
Birdy

[wallis2812]

Re: Partitioning problems for unallocated partition

Thanks a lot for that! Will try sort everything out now. Us newbies need some help to get away from the troubles of Microsoft
Cheers

[penguin.ch]

Re: Partitioning problems for unallocated partition

Us newbies need some help to get away from the troubles of Microsoft

Keep calm - for as long as you are willing to use your brain, you stand a fair chance to get on with a Linux OS 8)

Birdy