Enabling Unpartitioned Space

[d34n]

This is my first hello at linux-noob as i have just recently joined but i had to sooner or later as linux is not an easy operating system for someone who hasnt used it before.

 

My latest problem, although i have to face is because of my own error, is that i cant use my unpartitioned space and so have ran out of space in the partition i have fedora 6 installed on. I set aside 10Gb for Fedora and was going to use the other 90Gb for two other partitions, a windows boot partition and a partition for all my data. The problem is my windows cd will no longer boot, funnily enough after i installed fedora so i have the 90Gb of unpartitioned space left and no more space on my fedora partition to install anything. At one point i couldnt even log on because it said i had 0bytes of free space left.

 

So to my question, how can i enable the unpartitioned space without reinstalling fedora? I really need the laptop for work right now and am quickly running out of space so i cant afford the time to format and install again.

 

Thanks to any answers in advance!

[xDamox]

Hi,

 

To fix this you will be require boot into "single user mode" just to let you know that the 90GB you had for windows will still have all your windows

data on, if you decide to use this for Linux space you will be require to format the 90GB which will causes all your data to be lost, do you want that to happen?

[d34n]

Yeap, theres no data i need on the un-partitioned part of the HD. The 90Gb is not a seperate HD though. I have one 100Gb hd that i partitioned 10Gb for linux and left the other 90Gb to partition further when i was to install windows but i never could. So i want to know how to partition the remaining 90Gb of the HD.

 

Thanks

[xDamox]

Hi,

 

If you boot into "single user mode" this can be done by pressing e at the grub menu and appending the keyword "single" to the kernel boot parameters

once you are in single user mode you can either use fdisk or parted just issue:

 

Code:

parted /dev/sdX

 

or

 

Code:

fdisk /dev/sdX

[d34n]

So by typing any of those in it will partition the remaining space on my HD.

 

Now this may seem as a noobish question but i dont know where to press 'e' as i dont know where the grub menu is. Sorry! :P Im gonna need a more detailed explanation if you could. And just a few questions. :)

 

After I do this where will my partition show up and will I have to do any other commands to mount it, LVM it etc. or will this be enough?

 

Also will this command intefere with my current partition for Fedora or will it leave it unchanged?

 

Thanks very much for the advice, I just want to know exactly what will happen as I cant risk losing my current install of Fedora, as I dont have the Fedora CD if i mess something up and need to do a format.

[xDamox]

Hi,

 

When your system boots are you presented with the GRUB menu, it allows you to pick which kernel you want to boot.

[d34n]

No, it just boots straight into linux, Fedora 6.

 

I never installed windows so its not a dual boot system.

[anyweb]

grub will always load first whether or not you have windows installed, you can identify grub in fedora as it's blue in color and usually has a timer of 5 seconds or so before booting into the graphical boot up, it may also list one or more kernels for you to choose from (especially if you have updated them)

 

so the booting of the computer is this way

 

power on, you see the systems bios screen, followed by grub, grub in turn loads the kernel and then the operating system

 

cheers

anyweb

[d34n]

Oh right, I get what you mean now, thanks for the clarification. I'll give it a go and asnwer back but before I do, do you know if doing what xDamox suggested will leave my linux install unharmed or will this modify the whole disk?

 

Code:

parted /dev/sdX

 

or

 

Code:

fdisk /dev/sdX

 

Another noobish question as well :P. When you write sdX do you mean X as in the number i want to designate or is it actually X. And also is it sd or hd because my HD appears as hda?

 

Thanks.

[anyweb]

i think you'd be better off with qtparted (a gui version of parted, similar to partition magic)

 

to install it login as root

 

Code:

su -

 

then do this

 

Code:

yum install qtparted

 

answer yes when prompted.

 

Once it is installed you can start it up via Applications/System tools/qtparted,

 

if it fails to run, then parted is your only hope, and.... to explain how hard discs are partitioned in linux look at how your own hdd's is partiitoned first,

 

still as root try this

 

Code:

fdisk -l

 

that will list your hard disc like so (example)

 

[root@localhost ~]# fdisk -l 

Disk /dev/sda: 40.0 GB, 40007761920 bytes

255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 4864 cylinders

Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

 

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System

/dev/sda1 * 1 13 104391 83 Linux

/dev/sda2 14 4864 38965657+ 8e Linux LVM

 

the /dev/sda1 is the first partition, and /dev/sda2 is the second (main) partition. If your hdd is appearing as /dev/hda1 and /dev/hda2 then you'll need to resize /dev/hda2,

 

sdaX=scsi or sata hard disc

hdaX=IDE or ATA harddisc, the X refers to the partition number (eg 1,2,3,4)

 

ok i hope that clears things up a little.

 

ps. parted can really screw up your partitions so be careful and read about how to use it via the man pages and online.

 

cheers

anyweb