Help activating available disk space, please.

[Nat Gross]

On 12/13/05, Mike McCarty <mike.mccarty at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> Nat Gross wrote:
> > On 12/13/05, Mike McCarty <mike.mccarty at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> >
> >>Nat Gross wrote:
> >>
> >>>Hi;
> >>>When I think of disk partions, I shiverrrrrrrr. BUT, I need to make
> >>>use of disk space I know I have but need to make this safely. Please
> >>>adivse.
> >>>Following, is the result of fdisk -l:
> >>>=======================
> >>>Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
> >>>255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
> >>>Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
> >>>
> >>>   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks        Id       System
> >>>/dev/hda1   *           1          13         104391        83       Linux
> >>>/dev/hda2              14        3837    30716280     83    Linux
> >>>/dev/hda3            9473        9726     2040255     82   Linux swap / Solaris
> >>>/dev/hda4            3838        9472    45263137+   5  Extended
> >>>/dev/hda5            3838        8102    34258581    83   Linux
> >>>
>
> 9729 cylinders * 8225280 bytes/cylinder = 80G
>
> Start   End     partition
>     1     13    hda1
>    14   3837    hda2
> 3838    8102    hda5
> 8103    9472    (unallocated)
> 9473    9726    hda3
> 9727    9729    (unallocated)
>
> You have a total of (9473-8103)+(9730-9727) = 1370+3 = 1373
> out of 9729 cylinders allocated. So you should have 11G or
> so unallocated. Perhaps I miscalculated.
>
> You only have 4 entries in the PT, so you can't create another
> partition without major effort, but you can create another
> logical disc (or volume if you prefer) out of the remainder
> of the extended partition (hda4). That's 1370 cylinders
> (8103 through 9472 inclusive).
>
> So (1370/9729)*80G ~ 11G. And that's all the unallocated you
> can get w/o complete repartitioning. This should not be difficult.
> Read the man page on fdisk.
>
> The VERY FIRST THING you should do, is a complete backup, with
> verification that it can recover your data.
>
> Also, I'd save a copy of the MBR onto a floppy.
> I'd also make me a GRUB boot floppy (or LILO, or whatever
> you use) and verify that it can boot your current system.
>
Thanks for the input. (And for the homework!)
-nat