Comments on: Messing with hard drives http://www.moshblog.me.uk/2009/05/11/messing-with-hard-drives/ --**-- The Blog Without A Bloody Annoying Tagline --**-- Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:04:14 +0000 hourly 1 By: Mosh http://www.moshblog.me.uk/2009/05/11/messing-with-hard-drives/comment-page-1/#comment-6093 Mosh Thu, 14 May 2009 08:17:57 +0000 http://www.moshblog.me.uk/?p=1738#comment-6093 Hey Dale. Dragging was the first thing I looked at, but the space on the disc was all at the end and I wanted to resize a partition in the middle. Unless I could have dragged other partitions into the free space, thus "moving" the unformatted section nearer the partition I wanted to extend. This is probably what Partition Manager does "behind the scenes". LiveUSB is no use on a laptop which won't boot from USB devices! My BIOS simply doesn't allow it, even after flashing to the most recent version. I noticed on some forums this seems to be an issue with a lot of Acers. So I'm stuck with LiveCD in the meantime. Still, it does the job for me as I only really need to use it as an emergency repair tool. Got the router going with a driver update under Windows for the Broadcom wifi card. I was still running the driver that came with the PC three years ago and I guess it just didn't understand WPA2 that well. Popped the new one on and it worked first time. Hey Dale. Dragging was the first thing I looked at, but the space on the disc was all at the end and I wanted to resize a partition in the middle. Unless I could have dragged other partitions into the free space, thus “moving” the unformatted section nearer the partition I wanted to extend. This is probably what Partition Manager does “behind the scenes”.

LiveUSB is no use on a laptop which won’t boot from USB devices! My BIOS simply doesn’t allow it, even after flashing to the most recent version. I noticed on some forums this seems to be an issue with a lot of Acers. So I’m stuck with LiveCD in the meantime. Still, it does the job for me as I only really need to use it as an emergency repair tool.

Got the router going with a driver update under Windows for the Broadcom wifi card. I was still running the driver that came with the PC three years ago and I guess it just didn’t understand WPA2 that well. Popped the new one on and it worked first time.

]]> By: Dale http://www.moshblog.me.uk/2009/05/11/messing-with-hard-drives/comment-page-1/#comment-6092 Dale Thu, 14 May 2009 07:39:07 +0000 http://www.moshblog.me.uk/?p=1738#comment-6092 To resize a partition using GParted (assuming there is a gap) you simply grab the edge of the patrition on the diagram, and drag. You don't use the menus. Easy when you know, but not what I first thought of! Instead of booting Live USB, you could just boot liveCD. I just happen to have a LiveUSB of Ubuntu that I always keep with me so I can have Linux wherever I go. Also it is persistant so changes are kept, unlike the Live CD. As for your router, I got mine working, and I've left wireless networking at that. Always hated networking. To resize a partition using GParted (assuming there is a gap) you simply grab the edge of the patrition on the diagram, and drag. You don’t use the menus. Easy when you know, but not what I first thought of! Instead of booting Live USB, you could just boot liveCD. I just happen to have a LiveUSB of Ubuntu that I always keep with me so I can have Linux wherever I go. Also it is persistant so changes are kept, unlike the Live CD.

As for your router, I got mine working, and I’ve left wireless networking at that. Always hated networking.

]]> By: Mosh http://www.moshblog.me.uk/2009/05/11/messing-with-hard-drives/comment-page-1/#comment-6074 Mosh Tue, 12 May 2009 09:44:18 +0000 http://www.moshblog.me.uk/?p=1738#comment-6074 I couldn't suss how to get GParted to extend the size of a partition that already existed. Copying wouldn't have been a problem. Also, my laptop won't boot from USB devices - hence my need for CDs. Hmm. Wonder if there's a BIOS update that would rectify that? Another task for today! My other issue is that I can't seem to get XP to connect to the wifi from our new router. At all. Ubuntu is fine with is - unencrypted, WEP or WPA2. No worries. XP just isn't having it. Most annoying. I couldn’t suss how to get GParted to extend the size of a partition that already existed. Copying wouldn’t have been a problem.

Also, my laptop won’t boot from USB devices – hence my need for CDs. Hmm. Wonder if there’s a BIOS update that would rectify that? Another task for today!

My other issue is that I can’t seem to get XP to connect to the wifi from our new router. At all. Ubuntu is fine with is – unencrypted, WEP or WPA2. No worries. XP just isn’t having it. Most annoying.

]]> By: Dale http://www.moshblog.me.uk/2009/05/11/messing-with-hard-drives/comment-page-1/#comment-6072 Dale Tue, 12 May 2009 08:22:18 +0000 http://www.moshblog.me.uk/?p=1738#comment-6072 Hi Iain, Not 2 days ago, I did a very similar thing. My laptop has a 60GB Drive with 3 partitions, and I was replacing it with a 120GB Drive, whilst increasing the 2nd partition to cover the full space. (I could have easily left it for an extra partition). Here is what I did: 1. Install Jaunty to a USB Stick (See www.pendrivelinux.com) 2. Boot using the USB stick, you have a full Ubuntu distro running. 3. Plug the 120GB Drive via a caddy into USB 4. Start Gparted. 5. Using Gparted, Use the copy and paste functions, moving between devices (The paste function is brilliant, it allows you to say how much space to leave before AND after each partition. I.E. Where on the physical drive you want the partition!): A) Copy /dev/sda1, paste it onto /dev/sdc (sdb was the pen drive!) B) Copy /dev/sda2, paste it onto /dev/sdc C) Copy /dev/sda3 (An NTFS partition which worked fine!). This time I pasted it to the END of the 120GB Drive (0 MB AFTER the end) D) Resize /dev/sdc2 to fill up the gap left. E) Start About 2 hours later it was done. BUT I had 2 easy problems to fix. The copy and paste had NOT copied the partition flags. So I had to set /dev/sdc2 to BOOT and LBA as they are on the original drive. Finally install "install-mbr". Then replace the mbr so that it boots of the BOOT partition (This laptop is not duel boot), but I could have easily installed GRUB instaed. Switch drives, boot. Ran a disk check. absolutely no problems. The copy is perfect!!! Hi Iain,

Not 2 days ago, I did a very similar thing. My laptop has a 60GB Drive with 3 partitions, and I was replacing it with a 120GB Drive, whilst increasing the 2nd partition to cover the full space. (I could have easily left it for an extra partition). Here is what I did:

1. Install Jaunty to a USB Stick (See http://www.pendrivelinux.com)
2. Boot using the USB stick, you have a full Ubuntu distro running.
3. Plug the 120GB Drive via a caddy into USB
4. Start Gparted.
5. Using Gparted, Use the copy and paste functions, moving between devices (The paste function is brilliant, it allows you to say how much space to leave before AND after each partition. I.E. Where on the physical drive you want the partition!):
A) Copy /dev/sda1, paste it onto /dev/sdc (sdb was the pen drive!)
B) Copy /dev/sda2, paste it onto /dev/sdc
C) Copy /dev/sda3 (An NTFS partition which worked fine!). This time I pasted it to the END of the 120GB Drive (0 MB AFTER the end)
D) Resize /dev/sdc2 to fill up the gap left.
E) Start

About 2 hours later it was done. BUT I had 2 easy problems to fix.
The copy and paste had NOT copied the partition flags. So I had to set /dev/sdc2 to BOOT and LBA as they are on the original drive.
Finally install “install-mbr”. Then replace the mbr so that it boots of the BOOT partition (This laptop is not duel boot), but I could have easily installed GRUB instaed.

Switch drives, boot. Ran a disk check. absolutely no problems. The copy is perfect!!!

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