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Posted Jul 21, 2008 at 3:32:56 PM
Subject: Partitioning Problem - The limit of 4....
Hello
I'm up against the 4 primary partition limit on a SATA drive, but I want to install an additional distro. Now, I have a dual boot system: XP, Ubuntu. I've used EasyBCD to create the boot menu. This is my layout:
C:\
--Primary Partition 1: XP
--Primary Partition 2: Ubuntu root
--Primary Partition 3: Ubuntu swap
--Primary Partition 4: Ubuntu home
I'd like to install another distro to the C:\ drive, but I already have 4 primary partitions, which is the limit. I have plenty of unallocated space on C: which I reserved for another installation, but now I realize that I'm up against this partition limit.
I want to preserve the Ubuntu installation. So, is there a way to convert one of these primary partitions to an extended partition into which I can add more logical partitions? How? Is there a simpler alternative? Partitions 2 - 4 were originally created with gparted during the Ubuntu installation. Windows sees the drive with 4 primary partitions and unallocated space, but Windows will not allow me to create any more partitions.
Any hints would be appreciated. Oh, and I'm a newbie, as if one couldn't tell.
Thank you
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Khabi
Joined Apr 21, 2008
Posts: 121
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Posted:
Jul 21, 2008 8:08:04 PM
I had to do this recently too.
The best way I came up with was to.
1) copy your /home to a different dirrectory in / (I put mine in /tmp/)
2) login to your computer as root (make sure there is no other users on) and umount /home
3) use fdisk while the system is running to delete the 4th partition, and create an extended partition + others you need (a new /home/ blah blah)
4) make the filesystem, mount the new /home, copy files back.
You should be able to do all of that without rebooting the system if you're lucky. You might have to restart it for the os to re-read the partition table tho.
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