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I have four hdd in my pc. one of them is installed with windows7 and one of them is recently installed with ubuntu 16.06 and two of them are just for storage.

After ubuntu is installed, I clicked on files which brought me to home. Then I take a look to the left, I can't seem to understand why is there a 67GB column which can be unmounted.

There is

  1. 180GB volume - which is my windows7
  2. 1TB - WD - storage
  3. 2TB - WD - storage
  4. 67GB Volume - which I have no idea what this is
  5. Computer - which I suppose is the root structure for ubuntu

4 and 5 looks super similar though

This is what the 67GB Volume looks like which I have no idea what it is 67GB

This is what Computer looks like

enter image description here

Edit:

in df it looks like

Filesystem     1K-blocks    Used Available Use% Mounted on
udev             3999404       0   3999404   0% /dev
tmpfs             803744    9904    793840   2% /run
/dev/sdd1      472468752 4670968 443774644   2% /
tmpfs            4018712     232   4018480   1% /dev/shm
tmpfs               5120       4      5116   1% /run/lock
tmpfs            4018712       0   4018712   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
tmpfs             803744      44    803700   1% /run/user/1000

lsblk looks like

NAME   MAJ:MIN RM   SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT
sda      8:0    0 238.5G  0 disk 
├─sda1   8:1    0   100M  0 part 
├─sda2   8:2    0 168.1G  0 part 
├─sda3   8:3    0     1K  0 part 
├─sda5   8:5    0  62.4G  0 part 
└─sda6   8:6    0   7.9G  0 part 
sdb      8:16   0 931.5G  0 disk 
└─sdb1   8:17   0 931.5G  0 part 
sdc      8:32   0   1.8T  0 disk 
└─sdc1   8:33   0   1.8T  0 part 
sdd      8:48   0 465.8G  0 disk 
├─sdd1   8:49   0 457.9G  0 part /
├─sdd2   8:50   0     1K  0 part 
└─sdd5   8:53   0   7.9G  0 part [SWAP]
sr0     11:0    1  1024M  0 rom  

Adding image shown in GParted 465GB 238GB

Dora
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  • if you installing GParted please attach screen – Mohamed Slama Jun 11 '16 at 03:13
  • @MohamedSlama ? What do you mean? What's GParted ? sorry I am really new to ubuntu – Dora Jun 11 '16 at 03:59
  • check this answer to install http://askubuntu.com/questions/573791/where-is-gparted-in-ubuntu-14-10/573796#573796 – Mohamed Slama Jun 11 '16 at 04:09
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    Were you trying to install Ubuntu multiple times ? If so, it's quite possible you have two partitions for Ubuntu. It would give better understanding to us if you posted output of the df command in terminal. So click on the Ubuntu icon on the launcher and type in terminal, then select that app. Once it shows, type df and press enter. Also add lsblk output. Copy the text , don't post the screenshot ( the screenshots of just text is not very welcome here ) – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jun 11 '16 at 04:25
  • @Serg hah alright, I will do that so it's pretty much in the terminal type df lsblk right? (Because I don't really understand what meant add lsblk but I will do that after 13-14hrs haha at work now. Also, I wasn't sure if I installed ubuntu two times in the same hdd because there were some confusions earlier when trying to install ubuntu. But I thought when installing, I did use format the drive and using the max disk space. Anyways thanks I will try that command and see what's the output – Dora Jun 11 '16 at 04:29
  • @MohamedSlama ah alright, so it's a GUI for partitioning instead of seeing the output in terminal right? – Dora Jun 11 '16 at 04:30
  • @Dora yes or you can post the output of df and the output of lsblk as serg mention. – Mohamed Slama Jun 11 '16 at 04:36
  • lsblk and df are two separate commands. So first type df and it will spit out some text, then type lsblk and that will spit out different text. – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jun 11 '16 at 05:40
  • @Serg thanks thanks. I will try that later today – Dora Jun 11 '16 at 08:17
  • @Serg I pasted the command output as you mentioned – Dora Jun 11 '16 at 16:42
  • Seems like two Ubuntu installs. –  Jun 11 '16 at 17:16
  • @Dora yes, you have two Ubuntus there, I'll be writing an answer to explain in detail – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jun 11 '16 at 18:14

2 Answers2

2

What I see in the output of lsblk and df

The two key points are these two lines:

├─sdd1   8:49   0 457.9G  0 part /

└─sdd5   8:53   0   7.9G  0 part [SWAP]

/ tells us that 457.9 G disk partition contains your currently used Ubuntu - / designates root folder, much like C:\ on Windows. [SWAP] tells us it's the partition for your virtual memory ( which is usually serves to compensate for lack of RAM) and is typically allocated exactly the same amount of disk space as your RAM, and yes, any default installation of Ubuntu does this unless you choose manual approach .

Next, see the following two lines.

─sda5   8:5    0  62.4G  0 part 
└─sda6   8:6    0   7.9G  0 part 

There's your unknown 67 GB volume ( and yes, the size differs not by accident , Linux commands report size in Gibibytes , which is powers of 2 rather than convenient human-readable powers of 10 ). What's more important is the 7.9G , this is the same amount as above, indicating that's also a swap partition.

Solving the issue

We've mentioned in the comments GParted , which is a very very handy tool for resizing disk partitions. The full procedure is beyond the scope of this question, but I can point you to the canonical tutorial we have: How to resize partitions? . df output tells me that your mysterious 67 GB volume there isn't mounted ( i.e. not in use by the system , which is a good thing ) , so you could install gparted and proceed to resize that disk directly, deleting the two paritions first and then reallocating that space to be used by some other partition.

On a side note , you have 8 GB of swap. That much swap typically isn't needed for desktop with that much RAM. Consider deleting your /dev/sdd5 partition . Personally, I have SSD and plenty of RAM , so it would be a waste, and so I only have one root partition and that's it.

Finally, make sure to run sudo update-grub in terminal after everything is done. We want the bootloader to know that we've done changes to the system. Otherwise it will be a dum-dum and try to load everything as before which may brick the system.

If everything succeeds, have a beer and keep enjoying Ubuntu ( responsibly ) ; and if you have any other concerns - post another question and we will do our best to help

Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
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  • alright, I believe I basically understands. So GParted is my solution to this. Should I unplug my other 3 harddrives? (one ssd for windows7, two for storage) to be on the save side when deleting the 67GB volume and let it combine with the sdd1? – Dora Jun 13 '16 at 00:09
  • ah! I just realized it's partitioned in my ssd drive instead of the 500GB (the place I wanted to insatll ubuntu) I guess I can do this partition formatting right at windows since when I can see it in disk management. Right? So I just have to delete those two partitions and allocate them so they'll combine with my windows' partition. Is that the way to do it? – Dora Jun 13 '16 at 00:39
  • @Dora yes, i would be on the safe side and unplug those, although if you can recognize the drives by side, then it's ok to leave them in. – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jun 13 '16 at 00:41
  • You cam partition via Windows too, but i know nothing about Windows tools :) i – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jun 13 '16 at 00:42
  • umm...GParted seems can be run on startup after bios so no hdd will be occupied right? – Dora Jun 13 '16 at 00:47
  • But I do believe, I don't have to use GParted to start the computer since if I run ubuntu, my ssh which is the windows7 system will not be occupied anyways right? – Dora Jun 13 '16 at 00:48
  • @Dora GParted is a GUI application , so it needs to run within GUI environment , after proper boot, etc. If you run df and don't see other disks listed, that means they are in use. GParted should also issue a complain if it finds that a disk is in use – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jun 13 '16 at 01:00
  • I guess there's something new called GParted Live Boot :D wish me luck, I am going to do it now :D – Dora Jun 13 '16 at 01:04
  • Hell fast, it's done already and I am now back into my windows testing if my windows is working properly :D or it's because it's ssd :D Just wantt to thank you again for taking the patients to help me out – Dora Jun 13 '16 at 01:18
  • @Dora probably because it's ssd , resizing hard drive ( of about 250 GB ) took me 2 hours . Glad i could help and like i said - don't hesitate to ask if you have any other questions :) – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jun 13 '16 at 01:21
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In ubuntu (and in linux in general) Computer or MyComputer is a Windows-like designation for /. / is the root of your Ubuntu filesystem. Just like MyComputer is the root of your Windows PC. In linux everything is interpreted as a file or folder, even the hardware parts. Hardware is located in /dev. Harddisks looks like /dev/sda , dev/sdb , etc.

67GB Volume is the partition where your Ubuntu is located/installed. Then why 67GB Volume is not exactly the same as Computer? Because Computer shows EVERYTHING connected to your Ubuntu, like a cdrom device, interpreted as a cdrom folder. 67GB Volume shows only elements strictly located within it. But a cdrom is a separate filesystem, not located on 67GB volume, but on a separate drive.

You File Manager will always display only those partitions that can be mounted - editable from Ubuntu. Windows has some special partitions (microsoft reserved partition, recovery partition), Ubuntu has special partition (swap partition), and both Win and Ubu need a special EFI partition for UEFI computers. Special partitions cannot be edited by using usual tools, because editing them might render your operating systems unusable.

ipse lute
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  • Because Computer shows EVERYTHING connected to your Ubuntu, . . . 67GB Volume shows only elements strictly located within it. Em . . . not quite. By this very same logic, every Ubuntu would have Computer and XYZ GB volume links. In reality it isn't so. Computer links to / , which is like C:\\ on Win. Whatever XYZ Volume is , it's a separate partition on a disk connected to the system. – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jun 11 '16 at 18:49
  • @Serg: Somehow, i disagree. / is root, it is the ruler of everything on linux systems, C:\\ in not the ruler of everything. C: is equal to D:, equal to E:. Don't try to find exact equivalents, because such thing is not possible. Actually, / is much more than Computer from Windows. Computer is just a visual paradigm for the Windows users who are expecting something similar to Windows folder hierarchy. – ipse lute Jun 11 '16 at 19:09
  • Just out of curiosity , what do you mean when you say C: is equal to D:, equal to E: ? – Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy Jun 11 '16 at 19:22