trying to resize system partiton with gparted

poloine

4/30/24, 5:26 PM

I've been searching this one for 2 hours now and I can't find anything I haven't tried ;

I have dualboot Windows and Ubuntu. I messed up setuping Ubuntu (EDIT : not used automatic partitioning, wrong setup) which resulted in a 50 GB ext4 partition (too low), alongside 4 windows related partitions (unrelated for this problem), a 5 GB swap partition, and a 100 GB unallocated space (the one to be used).

I've booted from a USB running Ubuntu latest recommended, and I'm using gparted. The order of the partitions displayed in gparted is : Windows related partitions (4 of them) - 100 GB free space, swap partition, Ubuntu partition.

It won't let me add more space on the 50 GB partiton. I can only reduce it, I can't ""move"" the partition (dragging with the mouse does nothing)

Any help ?

0 + 8

partitioning

gparted

Nmath

4/30/24, 5:33 PM

Does this answer your question? [How to resize partitions?](https://askubuntu.com/questions/126153/how-to-resize-partitions) The short answer is that you cannot *move* partitions. The only thing you can do with ease is to extend a partition to the right to unpartitioned free space. Anything else is more complicated, or possibly impossible depending on your system configuration. Partitions are rigid and inflexible especially once you start putting stuff in them. It's really important to get it right from the start. You may need to reinstall one or both OS's. Planning is paramount.

Nmath

4/30/24, 5:39 PM

Add a screenshot of your partitions in the Disks application in Ubuntu. Perhaps there's some path to expand your Ubuntu partition. However you are incorrect that the Windows partitions are irrelevant. All other partitions are relevant if they are in the way. Also, there's something wrong with the details in your question. If you had used the guided installation, you would not have a swap partition. Swap partitions are not required and don't exist on modern Ubuntu installations unless you added it manually.

David

4/30/24, 6:25 PM

There is not such version of Ubuntu called latest. There are at least 2 versions right now that could be called that. What about 6 months from now when someone reads this question, it may be a different version then. Any help is only as good as the info in the question.

poloine

4/30/24, 7:37 PM

@Nmath This answer unfortunately didn't help, for some reason my 100 GB unallocated free space is on the left of the ubuntu and swap partitions. I suppose that is the consequence of my problem. To be safe I made a image copy of my current system, but if I have to save my data, would saving my /home directory be enough ?

Nmath

4/30/24, 7:40 PM

"You can't" is still an answer even if it's not the answer you were hoping for. Back up whatever you don't want to lose.

mpboden

4/30/24, 11:51 PM

Can you update your original question with the output of `lsblk`?

mpboden

4/30/24, 11:56 PM

If your current partition scheme is formatted as LVM, here's one option: Boot into a Live CD. Create another partition where you have available space at 100GB with either gParted or fdisk, add it as a physical volume to your volume group, then move the old Logical Volume from your 50GB volume to the new 100GB volume, increase the new Logical Volume to 100GB to match the physical volume, resize the filesystem, and finally delete the 50GB physical volume from the Volume Group. Of course...backup your system first! And I highly recommend practicing this on a virtual machine.

mpboden

5/1/24, 12:02 AM

If your current partition scheme is NOT formatted as LVM, here's another option. Boot into a Live CD. Create new 100GB partition where you have available space with either gParted or fdisk. Clone old 50GB partition to new 100GB partition with `dd` or Clonezilla. Resize filesystem in new 100GB partition. Delete old 50GB partition. You may have to update `/etc/fstab`, but I think the UUID will remain the same in the cloning process. Check to be sure; update if necessary. Finally, `sudo update-grub`. Of course...backup your system first! And I highly recommend practicing on a virtual machine.

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