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  • Xubuntu 12.10

  • XFCE with Greybird theme

Hello,

this is my GParted screenshot:

enter image description here

Could anyone please give my any advice on how to make changes to have more space available for use in Linux? Let's say I manage to take 10 GB out of the /dev/sda3 partition which is currently formatted in ntfs, how would I proceed then?

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The theme you are using is irrelevant to the question. But while we are on that note, you should try using the matching window decorations. :S – Martín Canaval Feb 2 at 3:51
@MartínCanaval How can I use those matching window decorations? :) Didn't find anything on it via Google. – henry Feb 2 at 21:03
On Xfce, go to Settings » Window Manager and on the first tab (called Style), select the one with the same name as your theme. – Martín Canaval Feb 2 at 21:06
@MartínCanaval Oh, I didn't know that, thanks a lot. – henry Feb 3 at 10:47

1 Answer

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To have more space for your Linux installation you need to expand sda6. Having freed up 10GB by shrinking sda3 you would then expand sda4 by 10GB and expand sda6 to fill up all of sda4.

However, resizing existing partions, especially NTFS ones, always bares the risk of loosing all data on that partition! I don't know anybody who ever experienced loss of data, but there is always that risk, so better prepare a backup first.

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For me resizing NTFS partitions has been hit and miss: After several rounds of defragmenting it worked sometimes, others it refused to work. The easiest way is to just getting rid of them (I had a machine dual-boot Windows and Linux, and after some two years of daily use I discovered that I'd only used Windows to install Office and CygWin, and occasionally update them... Next machine I just told the installer to delete everything.). – vonbrand Feb 1 at 11:51
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I suggest trying to resize the NTFS partitions from inside Windows first (right-click My Computer->Manage, or other places depending on Windows version—a question for Google or Superuser). Probably much lower risk of data loss that way. Also remove Windows swap from the volume before trying (you can re-add it later). It may be that you can't shrink it enough (because its in use), only then try the Linux tools. – derobert Feb 1 at 12:29
@derobert I'd like to do that. However, how can I boot into Windows? I don't have all the partitions displayed at startup anymore. Any I have been trying to do the approach from here: askubuntu.com/questions/18170/… but this didn't work either. – henry Feb 1 at 21:07
@user1129682 Thanks, I will try to do that once I can boot into Windows again. – henry Feb 1 at 21:20
@user1129682 So I got into Windows again and freed up 12 GB. But I can't format another primary partition as I have 4 already. Don't know what to do now. :/ – henry Feb 2 at 21:05

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