Rearranging Partitions

cyberjoe · n00b Joined: 07 Apr 2004 Posts: 2

I just finished my first gentoo install yesterday on my thinkpad and am absolutely loving it. Loving it too much, infact. After I got xfce4 up and running yesterday, I was emerging like no other. When I started my install I only dedicated a 2gig partition to the install. I since have got my mind straight, but I'm left with a partitioning problem. What would be the best way to utilize my recently created free space:

old partition table:
/hda1 - 35gb //winxp - ntfs
/hda2 - 2gb //fileswap - fat32
/hda2 - 100mb // boot - ext2
/hda3 - 2gb // root - ext3

new parition table:
/hda1 - 25gb //winxp - ntfs
-- unallocated space (8gb) --
/hda2 - 2gb //fileswap - fat32
/hda2 - 100mb // boot - ext2
/hda3 - 2gb // root - ext3

I'm using partition magic in xp to resize the ntfs stuff. Any suggestions on how to rework the table? I have some questions below as well:

Q1. Is there a way to continue to use the same similar structure, or do I need to move everything around.

Q2. Whats the best tools to rework the partitions (fdisk, others?)

Q3. Is there a way to just format the empty space, and tell linux to put stuff from hda3 on it.

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 9:00 pm Post subject:

cyberjoe,

You have 4 primary partitions, so you have a bit more juggling to go yet. You must delete one and get the empty space in one block so you can create an extended partition using the whole unformatted space.

Now you can create more partitions inside the extended partition.
I suggest you delete swap get a single block of space.
create a new swap, a /home and a /usr and move the contents of /home and /usr onto the new partitions. Having a seperate /home stops you killing the system by filling the drive up. It also makes reinstalls easier, since it won't be touched.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.

cyberjoe · n00b Joined: 07 Apr 2004 Posts: 2

NeddySeagoon:

Thanks for the reply. As a reference, how big should the partitions for the /usr and /home be?

NeddySeagoon · Posted: Wed Apr 07, 2004 9:30 pm Post subject:

cyberjoe,

Well my /usr has 8Gb used but I'm sure a lot of that is junk.

/home/<username> is for your users own things. The system never puts anything there. Apps keep settings in hidden files there.
_________________
Regards,

NeddySeagoon

Computer users fall into two groups:-
those that do backups
those that have never had a hard drive fail.