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I have a dual boot system with

  1. C: drive with windows 227 GB

  2. E: drive in windows 185 GB

  3. Ext4 Ubuntu - 38 GB

  4. Linux swap - 4 GB

I want to decrease the space from E: drive from 185 GB to say about 160 GB and assign the 25 GB achieved from the resizing to the ext4 partition so that my Ubuntu home has more space.

I was told that do a resize in gparted could cause some boot problems, plase tell me a safe way to achieve this resizing.

Eric Carvalho
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borax12
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    There is no such thing as a safe way other than a full backup of all the partitions involved. Gparted is as safe as it gets. I never had any trouble with it. – con-f-use Jul 01 '12 at 10:48
  • well i know gparted is very stable in terms of usability ,but there is this thing that i heard about moving boot partitions or sectors can cause grub 2 to not load

    so i basically want to know how to increase the ubuntu partition with the unallocated space without causing the grub2 boot failure

     – borax12 Jul 01 '12 at 10:56
  • Thats only the case if the Grub2 entry that's usually at the start of the MBR is compromised. That a) rarely happens and b) as you are resizing 2nd and 3rd primary partition you should be fine anyways. – con-f-use Jul 01 '12 at 10:58
  • @borax12 let us know the outcome.. – Mitch Jul 02 '12 at 18:29
  • Glad that it worked out :) – Mitch Jul 03 '12 at 13:13
  • possible duplicated: How to resize partitions? – Lucio Apr 11 '13 at 18:40

1 Answers1

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Familiarize yourself with HowtoPartition

  1. Boot your Ubuntu CD/USB
  2. Select «Try Ubuntu» to get to the live session
  3. Run gparted
    1. Right click the swap partition and select unmount (if it is mounted).
    2. Shrink 2
    3. Move 3 to the left
    4. Grow 3 to fill the void to the right.
    5. «Apply»

There is always a risk of data loss when resizing and moving partitions. I've never had issues myself, but if the process get aborted in the middle of a resize, due to a power failure for instance, you'll be left with a broken system.

So make sure you have backups (on another drive/media) of files you cannot afford to lose.

As for boot problems. Unless you've done some extensive changes to /etc/fstab or your grub configuration, you shouldn't encounter any problems with that. At any rate, it should be fixable via the live session.

geirha
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  • I think he knows how to do it with gparted. He just wants to know if there's a safer way. – con-f-use Jul 01 '12 at 11:01
  • @geirha- thanks for the steps,so that means you can MOVE them left and right too :) – borax12 Jul 01 '12 at 11:06
  • @con-f-use right, just thought I'd try to make it a bit verbose, for other viewers that may stumble upon this because they have a similar question. – geirha Jul 01 '12 at 11:06
  • @con-f-use -not exactly ,havent done it before ,so didnt know that one could move ,left and right too – borax12 Jul 01 '12 at 11:06
  • I cant see a boot from live cd option when i boot from the disc :( – borax12 Jul 01 '12 at 11:16
  • @borax12 Is it the same media you installed ubuntu from? You may need to enter the bios to adjust the boot order; putting the CD-drive above the harddrive. – geirha Jul 01 '12 at 11:18
  • I am able to boot into the dvd and i am shown with a menu that says ,test memory for defects,install ubuntu,boot from first hard disk but there isnt any option that says try ubuntu :( – borax12 Jul 01 '12 at 11:33
  • @borax12, sounds like you have the alternate or server CD. You need the desktop CD. – geirha Jul 01 '12 at 11:36
  • how is that possible,i download the amd64 Ubuntu only ,i will check – borax12 Jul 01 '12 at 11:39
  • @borax12, if you do select the "Install Ubuntu" option, do you get to a textual installer, or do you get to a graphical window that lets you select between "Try Ubuntu" and "Install Ubuntu"? – geirha Jul 01 '12 at 11:42
  • no its just a textual install,ohk so it that the case with alternate edition ,coz when i first installed 12.04 ,i thought maybe the its the 64 bit edition that doesnt have the graphic isntaller,but now that you are telling me that i downloaded the wrong edition ,it seems plausible – borax12 Jul 01 '12 at 11:45
  • @geirha- actually the ext4 that i have mentioned above in the question is my root partition(containing the /home) so i want to know is your method still applicable without corrupting my grub and causing any boot problems – borax12 Jul 02 '12 at 18:00