gParted failure

[Henk Koster]

On Sun, 28 May 2006 11:48:59 -0700, K7AAY john at 503bartley.com wrote:

> Original post, subject: gParted failure, on Sat, 27 May 2006 06:47:57
> +0, I wrote:
>> > gParted 0.1
>> > 190 GB HD with 125GB of content
>> > NTFS from XP
>> > dismount the partition
>> > launch gParted
>> > Tell it to resize, just the one operation
>> > Tell it to proceed; it looks as if it will
> 
> (Yes, shows the change as I wished it, for a moment.)
> 
>> > and then the screen blinks and I'm right back where I was.
>> > Your kind advice would be appreciated.
> 
> 
>> Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 14:53:20 +0200
>> From: Henk Koster <H.A.J.Koster at xs4all.nl>
>> Subject: Re: gParted failure
>> Message-ID: <pan.2006.05.28.12.53.19.825899 at xs4all.nl>
>> Brevity is a virtue, but now you're giving too little info to be of
>> much use.
> 
> Apologies for my ignorance. Thank you kindly, Heer Koster, for indulging me.
> 
>> How are you running GParted, from the liveCD installer, perhaps?
> 
> Yes, spot on!
> 
>> What does your partition table look like before starting GParted?
> 
> 190GB, entire disc, of NTFS partition from an expired install of XP.
> 
>> And, in words, what is it that you try to accomplish?
> 
> Make room on the hard drive for the partitions required to install Ubuntu.
> Would prefer not to wipe everything, as the reload of all the media
> and other data files would take a lot of time to restore everything
> from the CD-R backups.
> 
> --

Well, it's been a while since I made room on a disk entirely occupied by
XP, I used PartitionMagic to do it. You could also try and use GParted
*directly* (not as part of the installer) while booted with the Dapper
liveCD (or with Knoppix). There have been problems with the way GParted is
run inside the installer when the partition table and/or the required FS
(other than the default Ext3) is in any way unusual.

So that's my advice: try and make unallocated room outside the installer
with GParted. While you're at it, you might as well make the required
partitions: at the minimum one large / partition plus a swap partition;
or, depending on your needs, separate partitions for one or more of /boot,
/home, and /var.

Then, after a reboot and once again in the installer: choose Manual
editing of the partition table (but accept what you've done earlier),
assign the mount points, AND check the reformat boxes (omitting this last
step will likely stop the installer cold -- it did in my case). From then
on the install should be OK.

Good luck!