Use gparted and acronis For lossless adjustment of Linux partitions and NTFS partitions

In the process of using Linux, with the installation of software and the expansion of data, it is sometimes found that the partition for Linux needs to be adjusted. If you directly use the partition command fdisk to adjust the partition size, it usually means that the partition data is lost. LVM technology can avoid partition data loss, but there are many restrictions in use. This article introduces a method for LINUX partition adjustment using gparted, which is suitable for hard disk partition adjustment in personal computers and can avoid data loss.

Gparted is a free and open-source LINUX partition software with graphic user interfaces. Gparted supports the following Partition formats and operations in each format:


In ubuntu, run the following command:
Java code

1. Sudo apt-Get install gparted

Note: gparted in Ubuntu does not support NTFS partition by default. You must use the following command to install ntfsprogs:
Java code

1. Sudo apt-Get install ntfsprogs

Then you can run the following command to start gparted:
Java code

1. Sudo gparted

Is the running screen after gparted is started:


This installation method can only be used for adjustment of non-system partitions and unmounted partitions. Therefore, when you select a Ubuntu installation partition/dev/sda3, click the "partition" menu, the menu items related to partition adjustment are disabled, and a "locked" icon is displayed after the partition name, indicating that the partition cannot be adjusted. It is recommended to download its live directly in the http://gparted.sourceforge.net of gparted's official website
The ISO image file of the CD, and then it is recorded as a CD. Gparted's live CD comes with a lite version of Debian. After starting a computer with this CD, you can create, delete, or resize any supported partition on the hard disk.

In my own ThinkPad x61, there are currently two systems, one with a random Windows Vista and the other with ubuntu8.10. When ubuntu was initially installed, an 18 GB ext3 partition was used. In this case, the partition of the hard disk is arranged in the order of order. The basic information is as follows:
Lenovo's Vista system restores partitions 4 GB
Vista system partition 122 GB (NTFs format)
18 GB Ubuntu partition (ext3 format)
Linux switch partition 4G

Now we need to adjust the Ubuntu partition from 18 GB to 20 GB. We need to take out 2 GB space from the partition where Vista is located, which involves the adjustment of NTFS partition. You can use gparted to adjust the size of the NTFS partition where Vista is located. However, it is not good to use gparted to adjust the NTFS partition, this is mainly because the adjustment function of ntfsprogs called by gparted is limited, and it is quite different from some lossless partition software in windows.

The most famous partition software in Windows is the partition magician pqmagic, but pqmagic has not released a version for Vista. This article introduces how to adjust the system partition size through acronis Disk Director suit partition software in Vista, and then introduces how to start a computer using gparted live CD, the process of adjusting the system partition where Ubuntu is located.

Acronis disk ctor suit is not a free open-source software, but it can download its 30th-day release at http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/download/diskdirector. After installation in Vista, double-click acronis on the desktop
Disk ctor suit icon. the startup screen is shown in:
 

After selecting the partition to change the size, click the change size icon in the toolbar. The resize dialog box is displayed:
 

After adjusting the partition size in the dialog box, click OK. acronis displays the operations to be completed, as shown in:
 

After clicking the "proceed" button, acronis prompts you to restart the computer for system partition adjustment:
 

After the restart, acronis will display the adjustment process and progress before Vista enters the GUI. After the completion, the system will guide to the login interface of Vista normally. After the adjustment, my x61 hard drive displays the partition information in acronis:
 

We can see that there is a free zone of about 2 GB after the original system partition, which indicates that the partition task in Vista has been completed. Note that acronis does not support the adjustment of partitions in ext format. The following describes how to adjust the partition size of the Ubuntu System by Using gparted live CD.

Insert gparted live CD into the optical drive, restart the computer, and ensure that the live CD is used to guide the system. During the startup process, live CD has some options to choose from. For most computers, you can press enter to select the default project. Finally, go to the gparted running interface:


Select the partition to be adjusted, ratio:/dev/sda3, you can see that the current lock icon is not displayed on the right of the partition, which means you can adjust it. Click the "resize/move" button on the toolbar. In the displayed dialog box, drag the slider boundary to directly adjust the partition size:


After the size is adjusted, click the "resize/move" button to close the dialog box. gparted displays the operations to be completed in the prompt area below:


Click the "Apply" button in the toolbar, and gparted prompts you to confirm the corresponding operation:


Click "Apply", and gparted starts to adjust the partition size. Note that gparted may take a long time to complete the operation, depending on the size of your hard disk. In my x61, it may take about 30 minutes, so be patient :)
Finally, gparted prompts that the operation has been completed:


This is the display of the final adjusted hard disk partition in gparted:


Summary:
(1) gparted is an easy-to-use and stable partitioning software, similar to pqmagic in windows, and supports most common partition formats. For Ubuntu, ntfsprogs must be installed before gpared supports NTFS partitions. Of course, if there are other partition formats, install the corresponding disk tool as shown in the first figure in the article. However, to adjust the NTFS partition, it is best to use acronis in windows.
Disk Director suit or pqmagic.

(2) gparted cannot operate on the current operating system partition, which is still different from pqmagic and acronis Disk Director suit.

(3) If you use gparted to operate on the non-system installation partition in use, You Need To uninstall it first. You can select the partition directly in gparted, and then use "unmount" in the "partition" menu to complete the operation.

(4) If you need to adjust the partition size of the current operating system, use the live CD provided on the gparted official website. This CD includes a partition support tool in most formats, after you start the system with the live CD, you can adjust the division of labor of all supported formats on the hard disk. Live CD makes up for the shortcomings that gparted cannot directly adjust system partitions in the system.

(5) gparted: it takes a long time to adjust the partition if the partition is large. Therefore, we recommend that you perform this operation before going to bed at night and complete the preliminary operation, after gparted prompts that the partition operation is in progress, please sleep in time to avoid wasting your time.

(6) Adjusting Hard Disk Partitions In any case is a risky task. Please back up important data before using any partition software to avoid unexpected data loss.