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I'm having trouble understanding my current GParted report.

I started out with two partitions so I could dual-boot Ubuntu with Windows 8. Later, I tried to adjust the settings of my computer so I could more easily access Ubuntu, and it messed up the boot so that I lost Ubuntu completely. I used rEFInd to enable booting to Ubuntu once again, and now my GParted looks like this. There seem to be three large partitions on my hard drive now, along with multiple smaller partitions. Several of the smaller partitions are labeled "unknown," and it's possible that the larger of the unintentional partitions contains my old version of Ubuntu.

Can someone please help me interpret my GParted screenshot?

Thanks!

John Lutz
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  • There is only one root partition, and one swap. We don't know what you've tried to adjust, and which are "unintentional partitions", but none of them can contain Ubuntu - they are either too small, or have ntfs file system. – mikewhatever Apr 04 '15 at 04:12
  • I'm pretty sure that /dev/sda4 is Windows 8 and that /dev/sda8 is Ubuntu 14; doesn't /dev/sda6 have enough room for an older version of Ubuntu? – John Lutz Apr 04 '15 at 04:16
  • I'm not very experienced with dual boot partition set-ups but your flags don't look right. Maybe if you include your include the contents of your /etc/fstab someone will recognize the problem. And here are some related questions: http://superuser.com/questions/310613/gparted-detects-two-partitions-of-unknown-file-system http://askubuntu.com/questions/371487/is-it-safe-to-format-msftres-msftdata-and-hidden-partitions – Brian Z Apr 04 '15 at 04:22
  • @JohnLutz it could, but it is an empty NTFS partition, so either you have formatted that partition, or you never used it. – muru Apr 04 '15 at 04:22

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I'm not 100% sure of what all of your partitions do, but I can identify most of them:

  • /dev/sda1 -- This is your EFI System Partition (ESP), which is required to boot an EFI-based computer.
  • /dev/sda2 -- Based on the filesystem (NTFS), label (Recovery), and size (900MiB), I'd say this is part of your OEM Windows installation. It's probably a stripped-down Windows installation used for emergency recovery, but I'm not positive of that.
  • /dev/sda3 -- This is the Microsoft Reserved partition, which exists mainly to have some "scratch space" for use by Microsoft partitioning tools.
  • /dev/sda4 -- Based on the filesystem (NTFS), label (OS), and size (223GiB), this looks like your main Windows partition.
  • /dev/sda5 -- I don't know what this partition holds. You might want to try mounting it and examining its files for clues.
  • /dev/sda6 -- Given its name (New Volume) and the fact that it's almost empty, this looks like something you created yourself, but I can't be sure of that.
  • /dev/sda7 -- This is a BIOS Boot Partition. It's used in BIOS/CSM/legacy-mode boots via GRUB. Since your computer boots Windows in EFI mode, it shouldn't be necessary, although if you installed Linux in BIOS/CSM/legacy mode, you might be using it. You mentioned rEFInd, though, and if you're booting Linux via rEFInd, you almost certainly don't need this partition. If you can positively identify your Linux boot mode as EFI/UEFI, you can safely delete this partition. OTOH, it's only 1MiB in size, so there's really very little advantage to be had from deleting it.
  • /dev/sda8 -- This is your main (root, /) Ubuntu partition. It's got the wrong type code, though (an "msftdata flag," in GParted terminology). I recommend removing that "flag," since it will cause the partition to show up as an empty disk in some Windows tools, which will then give you the option to format the partition. If you mistakenly accept, you'll end up trashing your Ubuntu installation. See here for more on this subject.
  • /dev/sda9 -- This is your Linux swap space.
  • /dev/sda10 -- Based on the filesystem (NTFS), label (Restore), and size (20GiB), this partition probably holds restore images for Windows -- that is, it's either a backup location or is used instead of an external restore disc (probably the latter).

In any event, partitions 1-4, 10, and possibly 5 and/or 6 are all part of your original from-factory state. (Partition 10 probably had a lower number originally, though; it was probably renumbered when you resized your partitions to make room for Ubuntu.) Partitions 7-9 were created by your Ubuntu installation.

Rod Smith
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