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Hi there!
A few months back I have finally buckled down and installed Linux
(Debian Sarge) on my computer. As I was a Windows user for many years,
I've kept my Windows XP installation and used dual-booting.
My current hard-drive scheme looks like this (output from fdisk -l):
----------
Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 1 1770 14217493+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2 * 1835 3045 9727357+ 83 Linux
/dev/sda3 1771 1834 514080 82 Linux swap
/dev/sda4 3046 9729 53689230 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5 3046 9729 53689198+ 83 Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
----------
As you can see, Windows is on the first partition, Debian is on the
second (My bootloader is GRUB), the swap is the third and a general
data partition (ext2) is on the forth.

Ever since I've installed Linux, I haven't found one reason to boot
Windows and now I wish to delete it (Format its partition) and move the
free space thus created to the general data partition (Without losing
any data from my Linux and general data partitions of course).
Obviously(?) this requires moving partitions 2-5 down.

What are the steps that I need to follow in order to perform this task?

Thanks a lot,
Ido Perelmutter.

ido50 <idoperel@gmail.com> wrote:
> Disk /dev/sda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
> 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
>
> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sda1 1 1770 14217493+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/sda2 * 1835 3045 9727357+ 83 Linux
> /dev/sda3 1771 1834 514080 82 Linux swap
> /dev/sda4 3046 9729 53689230 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
> /dev/sda5 3046 9729 53689198+ 83 Linux
>
> Partition table entries are not in disk order
> ----------
> As you can see, Windows is on the first partition, Debian is on the
> second (My bootloader is GRUB), the swap is the third and a general
> data partition (ext2) is on the forth.
>
> Ever since I've installed Linux, I haven't found one reason to boot
> Windows and now I wish to delete it (Format its partition) and move the
> free space thus created to the general data partition (Without losing

What "general data partition"? One would probably goo for /, /var, /usr,
/home, and maybe /tmp and /usr/local, etc.

> any data from my Linux and general data partitions of course).
> Obviously(?) this requires moving partitions 2-5 down.

I don't see the point. You already have 9GB for what I presume is /,
which is plenty.
>
> What are the steps that I need to follow in order to perform this task?

Delete partition sda1. Boot from rescue disk, move partitions 2 3 4
and their file systems down using parted. Partition 3 you can just
delete and recreate with fdisk, and then run mkswap on it again. Expand
partition 4 upwards (you might as well just use fdisk to rewrite the
size alone, since it's only a container - there is no data invloved).
Expand partition 5 and its file system upwards inside 4 using parted.

Peter

Well, "general data partition" is a partition where I keep files like
Music files (mp3, ogg, etc.), Video files, etc. and its mount point is
/sda5...

I don't want to resize the root partition (The 9GB partition), only
sda5...

I understand the steps, thanks a lot. One question though, "rescue
disk", obviously Knoppix can do the job right?

Thanks,
Ido.

ido50 wrote:
> Well, "general data partition" is a partition where I keep files like
> Music files (mp3, ogg, etc.), Video files, etc. and its mount point is
> /sda5...
>
> I don't want to resize the root partition (The 9GB partition), only
> sda5...
>
> I understand the steps, thanks a lot. One question though, "rescue
> disk", obviously Knoppix can do the job right?
>
> Thanks,
> Ido.
>
Just a general advice. When i play with the partition, i get into some
trouble. i'm using debian/unstable. inside linux, i create a partition
or delete one, then when i reboot(partition number would have changed)
and if i'm unlucky i'll end up with the changed partition order. because
whatever changes you make inside fdisk won't take into effect until you
reboot.
i found myself in situations in which grub couldn't even locate the
grub.conf file and the end result is i can't go anywhere either windows
or linux. i can't even use the rescue disk, because the cd i have is a
debian/stable with 2.2 kernel and i run debian/unstable with 2.6 kernel,
so it won't be able to identify my os and mount(unlike redhat). my only
alternative is to install a dummy debian(in an unused partition with no
extras such as x, net), just to mount my original os partitions and
change the configuration files and reinstall grub. so be careful, when
you are playing with the partition.
jc

Obviously. That is also why I'm planning to create an entire system
backup on a few CDs with mkCDrec from http://mkcdrec.ota.be/.

ido50 wrote:
> Obviously. That is also why I'm planning to create an entire system
> backup on a few CDs with mkCDrec from http://mkcdrec.ota.be/.
>
never heard about it. but if it works for you, please let me know,
because i'm one of those people who never learn to safeguard and end up
scratching my head.
jc

jayachandran kamaraj wrote:
> ido50 wrote:
> > Obviously. That is also why I'm planning to create an entire system
> > backup on a few CDs with mkCDrec from http://mkcdrec.ota.be/.
> >
> never heard about it. but if it works for you, please let me know,
> because i'm one of those people who never learn to safeguard and end
up
> scratching my head.
> jc

Well I haven't tried it yet, but the basic idea is that it creates a
backup of the system as-is (Excluding empty areas of the hard-disk) to
several CD ROMs, and you can restore your system entirely from these
CDs.
For example, if you have a 80GB hard drive with 45GB of data and the
rest of the space free, you will have a 45GB backup......

ido50 wrote:
> jayachandran kamaraj wrote:
>
>>ido50 wrote:
>>
>>>Obviously. That is also why I'm planning to create an entire system
>>>backup on a few CDs with mkCDrec from http://mkcdrec.ota.be/.
>>>
>>
>>never heard about it. but if it works for you, please let me know,
>>because i'm one of those people who never learn to safeguard and end
>
> up
>
>>scratching my head.
>>jc
>
>
> Well I haven't tried it yet, but the basic idea is that it creates a
> backup of the system as-is (Excluding empty areas of the hard-disk) to
> several CD ROMs, and you can restore your system entirely from these
> CDs.
> For example, if you have a 80GB hard drive with 45GB of data and the
> rest of the space free, you will have a 45GB backup......
>
I don't think you need to backup your entire system. because at any time
you won't loose anything with linux. because all of the OS related files
are free and you can install it again. The data if you had in a separate
partition is safe for ever. what you might need is create a rescue disk
with the current kernel and the modules, so that you can boot from the
CD and mount your OS, right on it. There is an utility which i read
about somewhere, in which you create the above mentioned rescue CD, by
copying the vmlinuz and the modules.
jc

("ido50" <idoperel@gmail.com>) scribbled:

> Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
> /dev/sda1 1 1770 14217493+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
> /dev/sda2 * 1835 3045 9727357+ 83 Linux
> /dev/sda3 1771 1834 514080 82 Linux swap
> /dev/sda4 3046 9729 53689230 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
> /dev/sda5 3046 9729 53689198+ 83 Linux

.... so you have 9 gig for your Linux install and
you also have a 53 for "general data". not sure
what else you would need. maybe you could install
a second distro on sda1 ?!?!? or just format sda1
and and lay down a Linux filesystem on sda1 and
use it for another "data partition" ?

--
<< http://michaeljtobler.homelinux.com () >>
PIZZA!!

ido50 <idoperel@gmail.com> wrote:
> Well, "general data partition" is a partition where I keep files like
> Music files (mp3, ogg, etc.), Video files, etc. and its mount point is
> /sda5...
>
> I don't want to resize the root partition (The 9GB partition), only
> sda5...

Instead of moving around and merging partitions, you could also use LVM.
You can leave the partition table as it is, backup the data in your sda5
file system, mark both partitions as 'Linux LVM', create a volume group
that contains sda5 and the Windows partition, create one big logical
volume out of that, create a file system on it and mount it in the place
where your sda5 used to be.
Then restore the data onto that file system.

Yours,
Laurenz Albe