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This is how my hard drive (where I have Xubuntu 12.10) is formatted currently, based on a recent GParted screenshot:

GParted Screenshot

I want to expand sda6 (4) to take up the free 11.72 GiB unallocated space. But I can't do it. This is what I did and gathered so far:

  • I can't add another primary partition as I have 4 already. I didn't know that prior to starting up GParted and right-clicking the unallocated 11.72 GiB space. :/

  • /dev/sda5 is swap.

  • /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3 are Windows partitions and need to remain as they are.

I am a bit clueless on how to enhance /sda6 now, I have definitely not enough basic knowledge on how to proceed. :( I don't even know if I have to keep the swap partition but that thought is moot anyway as I can't create another primary partition. Help! I'd appreciate it a lot. :)

I'd even be willing a tutorial which could help me get forward via the terminal.

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1 Answer

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Your question doesn't explicitly say what you want to do, but I guess you want to use that spare 11GB of space to expand /dev/sda6. You won't be able to do this while you are running Linux from the sda6 partition - the usual solution is to use a LiveCD, perhaps SystemRescueCD, to run GParted.

The best way to do this is:

  • Resize/Move your extended partition, sda4, so that it includes that 11GB of space
  • Move sda5 so that it comes before the free space in the extended partition (i.e. by changing the "free space preceding" value in the Move window to 0)
  • Resize sda6 so that it uses up all the free space.

Alternatively:

  • Resize/Move your extended partition, sda4, so that it includes that 11GB of space
  • Create a new logical partition, sda7, using that 11GB of space, and mount that as the folder where you need most space (likely as /home).
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Your guess is right. Sorry I thought that was clear from my post but re-reading you are right. I can't do anything to neither sda4 nor sda6, every entry in the context menu is greyed out. Ok, technically speaking I could still click on "Manage Flags" and "Information" but I can't resize/move them. – henry Feb 3 at 11:45
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My best guess is that you're trying to do this from the Linux instance running on /dev/sda6, which won't work - you can't move these things around the disk while they're in use. I've updated my answer. – rkd91 Feb 3 at 11:57
Holy crap. The machine is now unbootable as it enter the grub rescue mode. What now? – henry Feb 3 at 14:25
That depends on exactly what you did in GParted and what the final disk layout was: help.ubuntu.com/community/Grub2/… may prove helpful. – rkd91 Feb 3 at 16:17
What a ridiculous turn of things this all was. I couldn't even move sda5 before the free space in live mode. Unless my GParted was bugged or right-click didn't work or I don't know. I couldn't resize sda6 to make it use up all the free space. If you are truly invested in helping people, maybe think things over before you put them down as (more or less solid) advice. – henry Feb 3 at 22:13

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