error in partition table leaves some space inaccessible
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From: Allan on 31 Mar 2008 07:32 My partition table has gotten damaged. Specifically, the extended partition has an incorrect ending cylinder, which leaves some unused disk space inaccessible. My disk started out with a Vista partition at the beginning and a recovery partition at the end, so as fdisk says, "Partition table entries are not in disk order". I have added a Grub boot partition and the extended partition. The extended partition contains three Linux partitions, a swap partition, and a VFAT partition. According to fdisk (and Vista disk management agrees), the extended partition ends at cylinder 11278 and the recovery partition begins at cylinder 13638. I didn't notice this until I tried to create another partition, so I don't know how long this error has been there. There's 19G unused on my disk. I already have four primary partitions, and the extended partition says it doesn't include the unused area. Is there a way to correct the end point on the extended partition in my partition table so that this area can be used to create additional partitions? Thanks, Allan
From: Michael Black on 31 Mar 2008 20:55 On Mon, 31 Mar 2008, allanoppel(a)gmail.com wrote: > On Mar 31, 3:34 pm, "philo" <ph...(a)privacy.net> wrote: >> As soon as you know all your data are safe, you can try to edit the >> partition table > But how do you edit the partition table to correct the end address of > the extended partition? I don't remember anything in fdisk like that. > I started out using fdisk, and saw various warnings about how cfdisk was better, I can't remember the specific warnings. I tried cfdisk, and found it was better, though I can no longer remember fdisk to know why I like cfdisk better. The comments made me try it, but there was definitely something I found that made me decide to stick with it. Michael
From: Daniel James on 1 Apr 2008 05:41 In article news:<47f0cc0e$0$90270$14726298(a)news.sunsite.dk>, Allan wrote: > My partition table has gotten damaged. Specifically, the extended partition > has an incorrect ending cylinder, which leaves some unused disk space > inaccessible. It's not an error for there to be unused space on a disk. It may be undesirable -- because the space isn't immediately accessible -- but it's not an error, and the partition layout isn't "broken". Whether the partition table is "damaged" depends on whether the tools that wrote it meant to write it that way ... > My disk started out with a Vista partition at the beginning and a recovery > partition at the end, so as fdisk says, "Partition table entries are not in > disk order". FDisk can say what it likes, but partition entries are not required to be in disk order. One *usually* fills the disk with partitions from the beginning, which means that the partitions will be in disk order, but it's not required and there are cases in which that's not what happens. > I have added a Grub boot partition and the extended partition. > The extended partition contains three Linux partitions, a swap partition, > and a VFAT partition. How did you add them? Did you do it correctly? > Is there a way to correct the end point on the extended partition in my > partition table so that this area can be used to create additional > partitions? Use a partition manager -- such as the parted tools (fdisk will NOT do this) -- and see what it says. If the unused space is contiguous with the extend partition it should be possible to enlarge the extend partition so that it includes the unused space. Otherwise you'll have to move partitions around. Be aware that repartitioning in this way is not risk free -- in particular, you will probably end up with an unusable partition if the power fails while you are moving or resizing it. Back up first! Use a UPS if you have one, but a UPS may not be able to keep your system live for long enough to complete a partition move ... so the backup is essential. (Merely changing the size of an extend partition is quick, moving or resizing data partitions takes much longer.) Cheers, Daniel.
From: allanoppel on 1 Apr 2008 08:28 > > I have added a Grub boot partition and the extended partition. > How did you add them? > Did you do it correctly? I used disk management in Vista > Use a partition manager -- such as the parted tools (fdisk will NOT do this) -- Thanks, I'll try parted.
From: Nico Kadel-Garcia on 2 Apr 2008 10:57
On 1 Apr, 10:41, Daniel James <wastebas...(a)nospam.aaisp.org> wrote: > In article <news:47f0cc0e$0$90270$14726298(a)news.sunsite.dk>, Allan wrote: > > > My partition table has gotten damaged. Specifically, the extended partition > > has an incorrect ending cylinder, which leaves some unused disk space > > inaccessible. > > It's not an error for there to be unused space on a disk. It may be undesirable > -- because the space isn't immediately accessible -- but it's not an error, and > the partition layout isn't "broken". > > Whether the partition table is "damaged" depends on whether the tools that > wrote it meant to write it that way ... > > > My disk started out with a Vista partition at the beginning and a recovery > > partition at the end, so as fdisk says, "Partition table entries are not in > > disk order". > > FDisk can say what it likes, but partition entries are not required to be in > disk order. One *usually* fills the disk with partitions from the beginning, > which means that the partitions will be in disk order, but it's not required > and there are cases in which that's not what happens. > > > I have added a Grub boot partition and the extended partition. > > The extended partition contains three Linux partitions, a swap partition, > > and a VFAT partition. > > How did you add them? > > Did you do it correctly? > > > Is there a way to correct the end point on the extended partition in my > > partition table so that this area can be used to create additional > > partitions? > > Use a partition manager -- such as the parted tools (fdisk will NOT do this) -- > and see what it says. If the unused space is contiguous with the extend > partition it should be possible to enlarge the extend partition so that it > includes the unused space. Otherwise you'll have to move partitions around.. > > Be aware that repartitioning in this way is not risk free -- in particular, you > will probably end up with an unusable partition if the power fails while you > are moving or resizing it. Back up first! Use a UPS if you have one, but a UPS > may not be able to keep your system live for long enough to complete a > partition move ... so the backup is essential. (Merely changing the size of an > extend partition is quick, moving or resizing data partitions takes much > longer.) > > Cheers, > Daniel. Required or not, numberous disk management and installation tools will throw a wobbly if you don't have them in order. This certainly includes anaconda. |