Questions tagged [partitioning]

Disk partitioning is the act of dividing a hard disk drive into multiple logical storage units referred to as 'partitions'

What Questions Should Have This Tag?:

  • Questions on limitations of partitioning
  • Questions on process of partitioning
  • Questions on possible partitioning software

Some Basic Definitions:

Partition editor software - can be used to create, re-size, delete and manipulate partitions on the hard disk.

Partition - a portion of space set aside on a disk which is logically separated from other parts of the disk. (Think pieces of a pie, split into 4 slices)


Brief Introduction to the Subject:

Partitions are used to divide up space on a disk, in order to accomplish different tasks. This can be having different Operating Systems, File Systems, Permissions, and can be even be spread across separate physical disks (one partition over multiple disks).

When using a Unix/Linux based system (Ubuntu/Linux) there is almost always a swap partition which is used to "swap" memory between RAM, and the physical hard disk.


Important Links for Learning More:

For more information, see the following articles from the Community Wiki:

Possible Links to Look at:

13703 questions
146
votes
4 answers

How to resize partitions?

Previously, I have installed Windows 7 on my 320 GB laptop with three partitions 173, 84 and 63 GB each. The 63 GB partition was where the Windows was installed. The rest were for file containers. Now I changed my OS to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I installed…
Johannes
  • 1,479
  • 2
  • 10
  • 3
57
votes
2 answers

How to merge partitions?

I have two partitions, one of them has a file system and the other is unallocated. How to merge two partitions?
Ibrahim
  • 673
50
votes
4 answers

Fixing corrupt backup GPT table?

After successfully installing a dual boot environment, adding Ubuntu 13.10 to a preinstalled Windows 8 configuration I decided to increase the unallocated SSD disk space after reading about the benefits of over-provisioning. So, using miniTools…
tomoqv
  • 829
48
votes
4 answers

Trouble creating 3TB ext4 partition due to msdos-partition-table-imposed error

I just bought a 3TB WD green drive, but when I try to partition in in gparted I get an error like: ====================== libparted : 2.3 ====================== partition length of 5860530176 sectors exceeds the msdos-partition-table-imposed maximum…
wim
  • 12,738
42
votes
9 answers

What is the meaning of the default directories in the Linux filesystem hierachy?

Having installed various Linux distros for tinkering, I'm puzzled by the installers offering partition layouts - for an easy way out I just use the whole available disk space. Some of the partitions offered have cryptic names, including /var, swap,…
35
votes
3 answers

How to find out which partition is Ubuntu installed on?

# fdisk -l Disk /dev/sda: 500.1 GB, 500107862016 bytes 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 60801 cylinders, total 976773168 sectors Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes I/O size (minimum/optimal):…
Tool
  • 513
34
votes
5 answers

How can I detect whether my disk is using GPT or MBR from a terminal?

I am running Ubuntu 13.10. Some links shows that: If you use an MS-DOS partition table (or MBR), you can only have up to four primary/extended partitions. If you use a GUID partition table (GPT) with default settings, you can have up to 128 …
Avinash Raj
  • 78,556
29
votes
5 answers

How to move /usr to a new partition?

My /usr folder needs to get moved to a new partition. How can I do this without erasing the contents? Can this be done while Ubuntu is running, or do I need to use the LiveCD for this?
Nathan Osman
  • 32,155
22
votes
9 answers

How to wipe a hard disk completely so that no data recovery tools can retrieve anything?

How can I do a disk low level formatting in Ubuntu on an external hard disk so that any data recovery tools like test-disk or photorec cannot retrieve any data once formatted to ext4 or any file-system? As I was playing around with Test disk, I…
Mudit Kapil
  • 2,051
  • 7
  • 30
  • 47
22
votes
4 answers

Why can't I increase the size of sda1 using gParted?

I am trying to resize my /dev/sda1 as shown in the diagram using the gparted Live cd.However although I have unallocated space I am unable to expand it.I have tried expanding /dev/sda2(which works) and then decreasing its size from the…
16
votes
2 answers

Shrink a partition without losing data

I've got a Linux-based OS installed on a partition I want to shrink. Want to avoid reinstallation or losing/corrupting data, if possible.
Oxwivi
  • 17,849
15
votes
3 answers

How to put /opt and /home on the same partition but different from /?

I'd like to install Ubuntu on two drives, one with / and the other with /opt and /home. But I do not want /opt and /home to reside on separate partitions but on the same one. Is it possible to do during the installation?
Borsook
  • 2,043
14
votes
3 answers

How to move Ubuntu installation from one hdd to another?

I currently have Ubuntu 10.04 server running on a portable HDD. Want to move it to internal sata HDD. I've got 3 partitions /, /home and swap. On the new HDD I plan to have different partition sizes. What's the correct way of doing these two things…
Pablo
  • 2,537
12
votes
2 answers

How do I use my home directory on a separate partition?

My understanding of disc partitioning has always been that you partition a disc to install multiple operating systems so you can boot from multiple operating systems on a single disc. However I'm reading a ubuntu server book and it talks about…
JohnMerlino
  • 7,309
12
votes
7 answers

Is there any benefit to partitioning hdd data-only disk?

I have a newly formatted ext4 1TB HDD that I intend to use only for data. This is a single user machine though the drive or folders within it may be shared out via NFS . Is there any advantage to partitioning the drive?
1
2 3
47 48