installation - Linux live-CD Distribution with partition resizing

08
2013-08
  • rubo77

    I would like to install Linux besides my Windows 98 partition on an old laptop, but unfortunately the laptop is formatted with only one large partition. win98 doesen't offer to resize the partition with the system on it, so the easiest way would be to start a live-CD and resize the partition.

    Ubuntu doesen't offer to resize partitions with data on it. Which distro would offer that option during install?

    • Answers
  • Alex

    You can resize partitions with data on it from Ubuntu live CD as far as I know, since it uses GParted to do the resizing. What you cannot do is resize mounted partitions, so make sure you don't open anything on the Windows partition when on the Live CD. To be sure you can issue

    sudo fdisk -l

    To list all your partitions. Find the Windows 98 one and then

    sudo umount -f /Volumes/Partition_Name

    For instance, if Windows 98 (FAT32 or NTFS probably) is at /dev/sda5 you should use that instead of /Volumes/Partition_name

    After that just open GParted on the Ubuntu live CD or download GParted live CD and boot it up. There are a lot of guides online on how to resize partitions with GParted. Here's a quick one.

    But be careful. Before resizing the partition you should make a backup of any important data you might have on the Windows 98 partition, as well as have an installation CD in case Windows doesn't boot up after the resize - it'll probably just do a check on the filesystem and boot up normally, but better safe than sorry. Doing a defrag might be a good idea since it's an old OS but it might not be necessary.

  • Don Juan dePython

    First of all, create backups of all your usefull files from Windows to an external storage medium.

    Then make sure you have enough free space to install ubuntu. Ubuntu recommends 5 GB but i would suggest you have 10 GB. You will need the extra space to install additinal software.

    The third step will be to defrag your Windows system (Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> System tools, if i remember correctly). This will put all your data at the beginning of the windows partition.

    Now you can download Puppy linux, burn it to CD and boot your pc from it. Use gparted to resize your windows partition.

    After that, you can install any distro you can on that old pc of yours! :)


    • Related Question

    linux - resizing partitions with gparted
  • hasen j

    When I installed linux, there was a program that ran during installation which allowed me to allocate space from my hard disk to create a new partition. I think this was the GNOME Partition Editor; gparted.

    Essentially it resized the (one and only) partition on the disk (which happened to be NTFS), it moved files around to create a continuous free space for the creation of a new partition.

    I want now to resize my partitions again using the same program, that is, gparted.

    If I run this program normally from linux, I can't resize any partition; the resize buttons are disabled. What can I do about this? I've thought of the following:

    • Unmount all paritions first. This might enable resizing them, but could be dangerous, I don't want to try it without knowing the consequences first.
    • Run gparted from a live CD. This is the obvious solution, but a bit of a hassle, and you'd think there could be a better way.

    What should I do?


    • Related Answers
  • zappan

    run gparted from a live CD. it's not that much of a hassle, and it works with NTFS.

    you shouldn't resize partitions on-the-fly from the running OS, even when unmounted, it's just asking for trouble

  • jweede

    Running from the LiveCD is the best bet.

    One of the problems I used to run into was the swap partition. Since you have Linux installed, it should have a swap partition that the LiveCD will start using as well. Make sure to right click and select 'Swapoff' on the swap partition, this will allow you to manipulate all of the drives partitions

  • Tim Lytle

    I believe the NTFS support is not install by default, while it is on the LiveCD. To install NTFS support, use the ntfsprogs package.

    sudo apt-get install ntfsprogs

    Then restart gparted and you should be able to resize the partition.

    Note that if the NTFS partition was not powered down correctly, gparted will still give you issues. The solution in that case is to put the drive in a Windows computer, boot it, run:

    chkdsk /f

    Shutdown and boot it cleanly a few times in Windows. Then put it into you Ubuntu machine, and try gparted again.