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I was using a 320GB magnetic drive and recently upgraded to a 500GB SSD. The clone process worked but left me with an extra partition of 178GB unallocated space.

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When I click on Move/Resize under /dev/sda6 this appears, showing no available space:

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Is there a safe way to merge this available space into the existing partition /dev/sda2?

a coder
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    Just boot a live session, open GParted, resize the extended partition sda2 and then you can resize sda6 to use the remaining space. –  Apr 18 '17 at 21:38
  • The issue is that I am unable to resize the partition per other posts on AU. I saw and read the thread linked above and while interesting, it did not solve the problem I am having. – a coder Apr 19 '17 at 16:52
  • Can't grab a screenshot of the sda2 context menu showing the grayed out move/resize option. This appears whether using gparted as root on the same system, or booting from a Live CD and running gparted as root there. Both places will not allow me to select move/resize for /dev/sda2 - the option is grayed out. – a coder Apr 19 '17 at 16:55
  • Note the key icons in your screen shot. They indicate the partition is in use. IIRC, to resize an extended partition, all the partitions it contains must be unmounted. This includes swap (which isn't really mounted, but can be in use). Boot from a live CD and check to be sure all the partitions on the disk are unused. You should then be able to resize the partitions. – Rod Smith Apr 19 '17 at 17:46
  • I did use a Live CD, just didn't take screenshots. It would not allow me to increase the sda2 partition beyond what it's current max value is. – a coder Apr 19 '17 at 21:49

1 Answers1

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First, you need to be booting from a live DVD or USB so that nothing is mounted.

Open Gparted from the Live media, and right click sda2 to extend it and take all the remaining free space. This is your container for sda6.

After that, you can extend sda6 to take up the new free space within the extended partition.

Delorean
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  • Growing a partition at its end is possible with gparted while the partition is mounted. – ubfan1 Apr 18 '17 at 22:09
  • I tried both ways. The maximum available space is shown in the second image above. – a coder Apr 18 '17 at 22:10
  • You need to extend sda2 first. @acoder – Delorean Apr 19 '17 at 01:04
  • @Doarian, I've tried using gparted with the actual system and with a Live CD. Both yield the same result, which is I am not allowed to extend sda2 beyond its current limit. See second screenshot. I tried swapoff and removed the swap, no effect. – a coder Apr 19 '17 at 12:52
  • Can't grab a screenshot of the sda2 context menu showing the grayed out move/resize option. This appears whether using gparted as root on the same system, or booting from a Live CD and running gparted as root there. Both places will not allow me to select move/resize for /dev/sda2 - the option is grayed out. – a coder Apr 19 '17 at 16:55