Shrinking win7 drive and assigning the unallocated space to already installed Ubuntu 11.04

6 Answers

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   finid on Sep 20, 2011

   As they say, “there is good news, and there is bad news.”

   You already know what the good news is, and that is, you can shrink Windows’ C partition.

   And the bad news? The space you free up by shrinking “C” will be unusable. Why?

   From what you posted, you have 4 primary partitions (sda1, sda2, sda3 and sda4), and because the MBR partition table does not allow for more than 4 primary partitions, any space outside of the partitions will be unusable. The latest article published on the main site explains this concept with screenshots. You may read it at http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2011/09/18/guide-to-disks-and-disk-partitions-in-linux/

   So, your best option, unless you can figure out a method of growing the extended partition, which afaik, is not possible, is to go ahead and shrink Windows, then reinstall Ubuntu using the existing space and the newly recovered space from Windows.

   If you follow this suggestion, I will recommend using the Alternate Installer edition of Ubuntu. It supports LVM, which makes managing disks, especially with the type of situation you are in, very easy.

   The link below gives step-by-step instructions on how to do it.

   http://www.linuxbsdos.com/2011/05/10/how-to-install-ubuntu-11-04-on-an-encrypted-lvm-file-system/

   It was written for Ubuntu 11.04, but the steps are the same for other editions, too.

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     Rahul Jain on Sep 21, 2011

     I have 4 primaries so I cannot create another primary (i know)… but There must be a way to use the free space and include in any one primary.

     See, with windows, if u have some unallocated space, then u can extend the volume of ur existing drive.
     Hence, there must be a way I can use that space in Ubuntu as well.

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       finid on Sep 21, 2011

       If you were using LVM, then you could extend the Volume Group using the reclaimed space from Windows. Without LVM, you could try http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php or http://partedmagic.com/doku.php

       Both claim to be able to expand existing partitions, but you will have to download and burn your choice to a CD/USB, and use it to work on the partitions. I work mostly with LVM systems, so I’ve never had to resize a non-LVM disk or partition.

       If you succeed with any one, share you experience with us.

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   finid on Sep 20, 2011

   How many partitions do you currently have on the Ubuntu side? Was Ubuntu installed using LVM, or the traditional method?

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     Rahul Jain on Sep 20, 2011

     I have a swap of 3.1 GB and / around 102 GB. / is somehow the extended(logical) partition. its installed below windows.
     dev/sda1 : 105MB NTFS (bootable files for windows)
     dev/sda2 : 395 GB NTFS
     dev/sda3 : 3.1 GB swap
     dev/sda4 : extended 102GB
     dev/sda5 : 102GB ext4 (logical)

     for partitioning the disk I used a GRUB like OS (bootable CD) which shrank my windows on the top and left unallocated space on the bottom.

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     Rahul Jain on Sep 20, 2011

     i installed it using the traditional method.. Ubuntu 10.10 cd

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