Hard Drive Partitions


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Thread: Hard Drive Partitions

  1. #1
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    Hard Drive Partitions

    I have a 1 terabyte Sata II hard drive in my machine. Somewhere along the line between installing different Distros I discovered that I only have the use o 232 gigabytes..

    Is there a way that I can get the Hard drive back to 1 terabyte? I don't care if I lose the OS, I just want my HD back.

  2. #2
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    If you boot up any Linux distro CD or DVD, go into a terminal and type
    Code:
    sudo fdisk -l
    that should confirm the size of your hard disk.

    If you have inadventently partitioned the hard disk to a small size you can always "re-seze" it using software like "Gparted". In order for it to work seamlessly you need to have unallocated space immediately after the partition.
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  3. #3
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    Hey, Thank you, I've tried to resize using Gparted, that didn't work.

    I'll try using the Sudo command and see what that does.

  4. #4
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    If you work on the hard disk partition that is a privileged activity and the Admin right is needed. In Linux this is equivalent to be root user instead of an ordinary user. Old Linux allows a root user created during installation and a user can activate it at any time by command "su". Modern wants higher security and does away with it. To access commands with root privilege you need to prefix the command with "sudo" and the root privilege is granted temporary.

    If you use privileged command but do not supply sudo in front you will see zero reponse.

    I would advise you to post the output of "fdisk -l" here before committing to the resizing operation. Depending on the partition layout a resized hard disk may not boot again if you move its starting point. Remember in "fdisk -l" the last character is little "L".
    Last edited by saikee; 11-02-2014 at 05:46 PM.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  5. #5
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    Please Note: I tried the Sudo fdis -l command and the results showed only 232 GB on a one terabyte drive. Also when the drive had Windows8.1 on it, it still only showed 232 GB. I know here is a way to get the other 768 GB's back, I just can't remember how to do it.

    Thanks for all of your help.

    zandak
    Quote Originally Posted by saikee View Post
    If you work on the hard disk partition that is a privileged activity and the Admin right is needed. In Linux this is equivalent to be root user instead of an ordinary user. Old Linux allows a root user created during installation and a user can activate it at any time by command "su". Modern wants higher security and does away with it. To access commands with root privilege you need to prefix the command with "sudo" and the root privilege is granted temporary.

    If you use privileged command but do not supply sudo in front you will see zero reponse.

    I would advise you to post the output of "fdisk -l" here before committing to the resizing operation. Depending on the partition layout a resized hard disk may not boot again if you move its starting point. Remember in "fdisk -l" the last character is little "L".

  6. #6
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    Computer does not lie. Let me show you the output of my "fdisk -l"
    Code:
    saikee@Mint15 ~ $ sudo fdisk -l
    [sudo] password for saikee: 
    
    WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
    
    
    Disk /dev/sda: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364801 cylinders, total 5860533168 sectors
    Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x00000000
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sda1               1  4294967295  2147483647+  ee  GPT
    Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
    
    WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.
    
    
    Disk /dev/sdb: 3000.6 GB, 3000592982016 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 364801 cylinders, total 5860533168 sectors
    Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 4096 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 4096 bytes / 4096 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x00000000
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sdb1               1  4294967295  2147483647+  ee  GPT
    Partition 1 does not start on physical sector boundary.
    
    Disk /dev/sdc: 240.1 GB, 240057409536 bytes
    255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 29185 cylinders, total 468862128 sectors
    Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
    Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
    Disk identifier: 0x000d52f7
    
       Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
    /dev/sdc1              63   225279359   112639648+  83  Linux
    /dev/sdc2   *   225280000   225484799      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
    /dev/sdc3       225484800   443701247   109108224    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
    /dev/sdc4       443703294   468860927    12578817    5  Extended
    /dev/sdc5       443703296   468860927    12578816   82  Linux swap / Solaris
    saikee@Mint15 ~ $
    I have two 3TB hard disks sda and sdb which have been partitioned into GPT partition table (because the traditional DOS partition cannot cope with size > 2TB).

    My 3rd hard disk is 240Gb SSD which have been partitioned into 3 primaries of sdc1, sdc2 and sdc3 plus an extended partition sdc4. The last sector of sdc4 is 468860927 which is within the size of the total 468862128 sectors of the hard disk. AN extended partition can have any number of logical partitions inside but in this case it is just sdc5 which used up all the space as a swap.

    Therefore if you post your "fdisk -l" we would be able to tell you what is wrong. You have partitioned your hard disk with 232Gb and so every operating system can only report this size. What is left inside should be the "unllocated space" which which you can use to resize the existing partition to absorb the free space.

    You should be able to see the unallocated space (not formatted) with disk management in Windows. In Linux Gaprted should show it up and fdisk should report it also.

    There is an off chance that your disk is corrupted after extended usage resulting part of the disk unusable. In such a case fdisk would still report the problem.

    If you are not already aware of the partition table is just an indix page of your hard disk. It is only 64 bytes large, in the first sector of the hard disk and has nothing to do with the content of your partitions (except telling us the start and stop sector numbers, partition type, filing system type etc...)

    LIke I said if you have the problem still post the output of "fdisk -l" here.
    Last edited by saikee; 11-02-2014 at 08:30 PM.
    Linux user started Jun 2004 - No. 361921
    Using a Linux live CD to clone XP
    To install Linux and keep Windows MBR untouched
    Adding extra Linux & Doing it in a lazy way
    A Grub menu booting 100+ systems & A "Howto" to install and boot 145 systems
    Just cloning tips Just booting tips A collection of booting tips

    Judge asked Linux "You are being charged murdering Windoze by stabbing its heart with a weapon, what was it?" Replied Linux "A Live CD"

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jul 2013
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    31
    Damn, you are good, I don't use any pic sites on the net so can't show you the result of fdisk -l. The command worked, then i used Gparted to resize the drive, thank you, thank you very much. With you help, I restored the drive.

    Now I hope I can install Makulu on it.

    Thanks again.

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