Disk partitioning is the act of dividing a hard disk drive into multiple logical storage units referred to as partitions, to treat one physical disk drive as if it were multiple disks.
40
votes
1answer
1k views
Why are there so many different ways to measure disk usage?
When I sum up the sizes of my files, I get one figure. If I run du, I get another figure. If I run du on all the files on my partition, it doesn't match what df claims is used. Why are there so many ...
22
votes
2answers
5k views
What mount points exist on a typical Linux system?
I have 2 questions.
During Linux installation we specify memory space for 2 mount points - root and swap. Are there any other mount points created without the users notice?
Is this statement ...
11
votes
4answers
3k views
The merits of a partitionless filesystem
I ran into something a couple of weeks ago that I'd never seen before: A filesystem (ext3 I believe) installed to a storage device without a partition. In essence /dev/sdb was the entire filesystem. I ...
4
votes
1answer
1k views
Reading a filesystem from a whole disk image
I ran these commands:
VBoxManage clonehd d6b9f0a5-98df-48ca-83c8-91a0809ec349 --format RAW Debian.raw
sudo dd if=~/.VirtualBox/HardDisks/Debian.raw of=/dev/sda5
When I try to mount the partition, I ...
36
votes
6answers
15k views
Different linux distros sharing the same /home folder?
What is the best way to share the same /home directories between different linux distribution?
I mean, I want to have both, say, Fedora and Arch, and I want to find my files at home no matter which ...
9
votes
2answers
36k views
Can I resize the root partition without uninstalling and reinstalling Linux (or losing data)?
I have started using a machine that has both Debian and Windows 7 installed. However, after installing some programs I started getting a message that there is not enough space. I knew that the system ...
23
votes
3answers
6k views
Are there any side effects when two distros share a swap partition?
In order to save disk space, I want to have two OS installations share a single swap partition (a dual-boot). Is this a good idea?
20
votes
1answer
17k views
How can I increase the number of inodes in an ext4 filesystem?
I had a problem (new to me) last week. I have a ext4 (Fedora 15) filesystem. The application that runs on the server suddenly stopped. I couldn't find the problem at first look.
df showed 50% ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
How to clone a NTFS partition (WinXP) from a damaged disk to a new one?
I'm an Italian Windows programmer. I know almost nothing of Linux, so please be patient if the question is dumb and pardon my bad english.
I need to clone a NTFS partition from a damaged, near to die ...
3
votes
2answers
317 views
Change main partition size to install another distribution
I have CentOS 5.5 installed, I have no un-partitioned space and the only ext3 partition I have is huge with lots of free space.
Can I change that partition size in order to allocate another one? I ...
14
votes
3answers
17k views
How to copy the partition layout of a whole disk using standard tools
I want to take a backup of the whole partition layout of a hard drive, including logical drives, so that I can restore that layout to another disk. I do not want to copy the contents of the ...
22
votes
7answers
4k views
How can I use DD to migrate data from an old drive to a new drive?
I am upgrading the internal SATA hard drive on my laptop from a 40G drive to a 160G drive. I have a Linux/Ubuntu desktop which has a SATA card. I would actually like to do the same thing for a couple ...
14
votes
4answers
9k views
Clear unused space with zeros (ext3,ext4)
How to clear unused space with zeros ? (ext3,ext4)
I'm looking for something smarter than
cat /dev/zero > /mnt/X/big_zero ; sync; rm /mnt/X/big_zero
Like FSArchiver is looking for "used space" ...
3
votes
1answer
6k views
How can I shrink a LUKS partition, what does `cryptsetup resize` do?
I am in progress of resizing a LUKS encrypted partition that contains a single ext4 filesystem (no LVM or something). The cryptsetup FAQ recommends to remove the old partition and recreate it, but ...
2
votes
2answers
2k views
How to mount ext3,ext4 sitting on VDI VirtualBox HDD?
How to mount ext3, ext4 partition sitting on "Fixed-Size VDI" VirtualBox HardDisk ?
To be more specific, I ma interested in case when VM is not running.
28
votes
9answers
9k views
Why put things other than /home to a separate partition?
So recently a Debian 5.0.5 installer offered me to have separate /usr, /home, /var and /tmp partitions (on one physical disk).
What is the practical reason for this? I understand that /home can be ...
9
votes
1answer
10k views
How to (safely) move /tmp to a different volume?
Today the /tmp directory filled up on a machine at work. The problem was, it was on the root partition which wasn't very big. In order to fix this, a co-worker created a /new/tmp directory elsewhere, ...
8
votes
2answers
8k views
How to reduce Volume Group size in LVM?
[root@localhost ~] vgdisplay
--- Volume group ---
VG Name vg_root
System ID
Format lvm2
Metadata Areas 1
Metadata Sequence No 7
VG ...
6
votes
3answers
1k views
Primary vs Logical partition
I know that you can only have 4 primary partitions on a hard drive. But if you're using less than 4, is there a benefit/penalty for using logical partitions?
3
votes
1answer
1k views
LVM2 partition alignment
How to do the following with Linux tools :
LVM partition alignment and alignment of partition on LVM ?
What in case where I want to setup LVM partition (for "pv") and then partitions ?
To be more ...
2
votes
5answers
4k views
How do I resize a partition in Ubuntu linux without losing data?
I ran out of space in my on the drive only to find that there was another unformatted partition in the system that is available. I now want to resize the current partition to take in the empty ...
5
votes
2answers
783 views
How can I diagnose and repair missing drive space?
I have a small ext3 / partition on a 2T drive which appears to have a discrepancy in its free space. How can I determine what is causing it and how it can be fixed.
After trying everything I could ...
3
votes
3answers
102 views
Figuring out what OS is on which partition?
So I have both Ubuntu and Crunchbang installed on my laptop, and I'm trying to figure out which one is on which partition.
I'm going to install another OS (probably BT) and need to know what ...
1
vote
1answer
134 views
Resize an extended partition to the whole drive
I previously had the following partitions on my sda:
- - /home
- /var
- /tmp
- swap
Now I deleted /var, /tmp and the swap partition of that drive. This leaves me with around 35G of empty space. ...
13
votes
6answers
5k views
What's the best way to partition your drive?
I usually install Linux on a single partition since I only use it as a personal desktop.
However every now and then I reinstall the box and what I simply do is to move my files around with an ...
3
votes
1answer
8k views
How do I determine the new size for resize2fs?
I want to shrink an ext4 filesystem to make room for a new partition and came across the resize2fs program. The command looks like this:
resize2fs -p /dev/mapper/ExistingExt4 $size
How should I ...
8
votes
3answers
15k views
How do I partition a USB drive so that it's bootable and has a Windows-compatible data storage partition?
split from here
I have a 16gb flash drive, which I want a live ISO to boot from (via unetbootin or something similar). It'll be some 32bit distro that I can plug-in and boot on whatever computer I ...
4
votes
4answers
5k views
Partition manager that can handle LVM?
I have been looking but neither Gparted nor KDE Partition Manager can handle LVM. Working with the command line is probably fine but it would be clearer to have a GUI tool here. Does such thing exist?
...
11
votes
1answer
811 views
What is the difference between “extended” partition and “logical” partition
What is the difference between "extended" partitions and "logical" partitions on my hard disk? What's the need for each? I am using Linux
3
votes
3answers
680 views
When and why do block devices need to be partitioned? [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
The merits of a partitionless filesystem
So I've got a block device, say /dev/sda or /dev/loop0. Clearly if I want to boot from the former, or I want to subdivide it ...
3
votes
4answers
5k views
Backup of LVM2 logical volume
I'd like to make backup on external drive of LVM2 logical volume in dd manner.
Approach I consider is to
make lv on extranl drive with identical size
copy with dd
(Please let me know if you see ...
2
votes
1answer
6k views
Installing debian 7 besides windows 8
I ask this question in superuser but no one can answer my question, I hope any one can help me:
I bought a VAIO laptop which Windows 8 preinstalled on it in UEFI mode. Now I want to install Debian 7 ...
8
votes
1answer
462 views
Can I convert an ext3 partition into ext4 without formatting?
my home directory is on a separate partition which still uses ext3. Is there a way to convert this partition into ext4 in a non-destructive way?
6
votes
3answers
2k views
How to read the in-memory (kernel) partition table of /dev/sda?
I accidentally overwrote my /dev/sda partition table with GParted (full story on AskUbuntu). Since I haven't rebooted yet and my filesystem is still perfectly usable, I was told I might be able to ...
5
votes
2answers
5k views
Finding the sector size of a partition
I answered this question, assuming that the *.img file had a sector size of 512.
How do I query a device, or the image of a device, to find the correct sector size?
4
votes
2answers
1k views
Can I split /boot to a different partition on a single partition system?
I have set up my system, configured it and everything, using only one partition for / (ext4).
So no separate home, boot, swap etc.
So the question is:
Is there a way to go from this configuration ...
3
votes
1answer
362 views
Problems moving home partition
I was running low in disk space on my Linux box, Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop, (specifically on my /home partition) so I added another disk to it and I am trying to move the home partition into it.
I am ...
12
votes
3answers
6k views
How can I move the home directory to a separate partition?
I would like to install another distribution but keep my home directory. Is there a way to move the home directory to a separate partition? I don't have an external hard drive available to back up my ...
7
votes
4answers
4k views
Convert image of a partition into image of a disk with partition table
I have an image of an existing partition generated with dd if=/dev/sdXN of=image.bin. Now I want to use this image as the basis for a virtual machine. I know how to convert the image into a format ...
5
votes
2answers
2k views
Unpack files and directories from an image created by dd?
I created an image of an NTFS partition using dd.
I wonder if I can unload/unpack the files and directories in the image to any partition whose size is larger than the image size, so that I can ...
4
votes
2answers
93 views
Fully seperate two accounts without installing seperate operating systems?
Our class is finally installing Mint Linux on our machines. The problem is our teacher is scared that we'll play war games against the two classes that use the computers. His solution is to install ...
4
votes
3answers
4k views
Hard drive/device partition naming convention in Linux
What is the hard disk drive/device partition naming convention in Linux? For example, [hd0,0], sd0, etc. What does it actually mean?
What is the significance of this when i need to install multiple ...
3
votes
1answer
4k views
how to find the type of img file and mount it
I have to mount a .img file but I don't know what type of .img it is. How can I figure out what type of .img file it is?
# mount -t auto -o ro,loop gmapsupp.img /mnt/iso/
mount: you must specify the ...
2
votes
4answers
315 views
Manually cloning a Live USB Arch distro to a VMware virtual disk
I installed Arch Linux on a pen drive with yumi, based on syslinux. I would like to test the USB distro in VMware.
To speed up things I would like to clone the UFD as a VMware virtual disk (vmdk).
...
1
vote
2answers
166 views
Cloning USB drive in VMware with partclone
I created a virtual machine in VMware as follows:
SCSI HDD 1 GB (Main for short)
SCSI HDD 0.8 GB (UClone for short)
SCSI HDD 4 GB as a physically plugged UFD (Uphys for short)
Arch Linux ISO as ...
1
vote
1answer
134 views
Shared partition permission management
I am willing to try a dual boot arch/lmde setup on my laptop next week, but I've ran into a problem: I want to have a shared data storage where my downloads, documents etc would reside and could be ...
7
votes
1answer
3k views
How can I quickly copy a GPT partition scheme from one hard drive to another?
On a non GPT partition table I can do
sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdb
But sfdisk doesn't support GPT partition tables. What can I use instead?
I'm looking for a one or two command solution, ...
5
votes
2answers
707 views
Linux/GParted can see partition table but dd bs=512 count=1 can't
I have an MBR formatted sd card and when connect to a Linux machine (xubuntu 12.04) it can mount a partition and parse the file system (as can GParted). However, when I try to read the MBR from the ...
4
votes
4answers
410 views
If I have an SSD and a hard disk in a system, can the SSD act as cache for the hard disk?
Say I have some partitions; one on a SATA drive and one on an SSD. I want to create a "virtual" hybrid disk. Is this possible?
4
votes
1answer
738 views
What happens to partition labels after removing a partition?
What will happen to all the remaining partition labels if I remove a single partition? For example if I have a layout that looks like this:
/dev/sda1
/dev/sda2
/dev/sda3
/dev/sda4
/dev/sda5
and if ...
