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I have 19.34gb unallocated space (sda7). I want this space to be added to my root partition sda11. How can I do that? I read few posts related to this but some of them suggest to use live usb and in some posts they asked only to add this command sudo resize2fs /dev/sda11. I don't know which procedure to follow. I tried to run the above command but I get this message The filesystem is already 5594368 blocks long. Nothing to do!.

Also some posts suggested to move up or down my sda11 and then run the command but I don't know how to move sda11 up or down.

So for now I have read and tried above things. And I still don't know ho to increase/merge my root(sda11) and 19.34gb space(sda7). Please help.

Note: I am using dual boot and gparted.

user1670773
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  • Without any sort of description as to what partitions you have and where they are, an answer is impossible. You will need to provide such information, or you could read the numerous other similar questions and come the conclusion that you need to get the free space to follow the partition you want to enlarge, and then enlarge the partition into that space using gparted. – psusi Mar 12 '16 at 03:40

1 Answers1

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First thing to do is back up any important information.

As explained in an answer HERE, you can't modify the systems's partitions (and parent extended partitons, like /dev/sda11) when the system is using them - so you need to modify the partitions from outside the system - the Ubuntu install disk should do for that. So first you need to boot from the disk, and open GParted.

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Note about Gparted: Once you initiate a task, you must click the green check mark to execute the task. You should only do one of these tasks at a time for this session.

Now that you are booted up in a LIVE USB and using Gparted, you can navigate to the (sda7) and delete this partition, making sure that you back up any data on that partition first. This will leave a grey area that says UNALLOCATED.

Net you will need make sure that this empty space is right next to your root partition (sda11) on the RIGHT of the home partition. If there is a small partition called SWAP in between (or any other partition in bewtween) it will need to be moved to the right of the grey unallocated space.

Note - Do not move your home partition, or you will need to fix your BOOT partition.

Now that the home partition and the unallocated space are contiguous, you should be able to resize the home partition (sda11) by clicking on on it, then clicking resize, then by dragging the right edge of the rectangle in the pop up menu. After you tell GParted you want those operations to be done, you have to tell it to apply them (click the green check mark). It may take a while, but it should work without problems.

enter image description here

After this reboot into your normal install of Ubuntu (not the live disk), and check the partitions again with Gparted to ensure everything went as planned.

NOTE: Normally things go smoothly i.e without any problem but sometime they don't and therefore it is important that you backup your data before making any changes to your hardisk. Its better to be safe than sorry!

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Kalamalka Kid
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  • Thanks for the nice explanation. I just have one question, how can I move the sda7 partition next to sda11. Can I just drag and drop sda7 next to sda11? – user1670773 Mar 12 '16 at 07:28
  • i dont think you can simply drag them around. like I said, you need to create empty space with the space that the sda7 partition is currently taking up. Once that space is freed, I think you can move some things around. – Kalamalka Kid Mar 12 '16 at 09:42