I have only 9.54 GB root , I don't have space anymore. So I freed 15 GB disk in order to extend my root partition with it. But now unable to extend

Question

I want to allocate 15 gb free space to /dev/sda6. Can it be done without moving or any damage to system/data?

Answer 1

Yes, it's possible if you use a live USB/CD system.

Step by step guide:

1. Find an USB drive with ~1.5 GiB of free space
   • I highly recommend that you back up any important data from that USB drive before continuing
2. Download any recent Ubuntu image from the Download page (if you don't have one lying around already).
3. Launch the Startup Disk Creator application
   1. Add the downloaded Ubuntu image using the Other… button of the first section
   2. Select your USB drive from the second list
   3. Start installation by clicking on Make Startup Disk

Now reboot and boot from the USB-Stick. Once you see the desktop on the USB system:

1. Connect to the Internet as usual
2. Launch the Ubuntu Software Center
3. Install GParted as usual
4. Launch GParted

Now start with the first NTFS partition (/dev/sda3):

1. Right-click on it's entry in GParted's partition list
2. Select Resize/Move from the menu
3. In the dialog: Drag the partition from the right all the way to the left:
4. Confirm with the Resize/Move button in the bottom right

Next you have to make the extended partition (/dev/sda4) larger:

1. Again, right-click on it's entry and select Resize/Move from the menu
2. This time, in the dialog: Increase the size of the partition by dragging it's left handle all the way to the left:

Now repeat everything you have done with the first NTFS partition (/dev/sda3) with the second NTFS partition (/dev/sda5).

Finally repeat what you have done for the extended partition (/dev/sda4) for your root partition (/dev/sda6).

The final list of pending operation should look similar to this:

Once you're confident that you have done everything correctly, click on the Apply button, confirm the warning, and get a coffee. It'll take a while for the all operations to complete…

Answer 2

You could use parted or gparted to do this from a live CD since the partitions must not be in use while this is done for extending this should be done before resizing the filesystem, when shrinking a partition you should first resize the filesystem then the physical partition.

Resizing the filesystem is done by resize2fs command if it is an ext[2-4] filesystem.

Usually this is safe but there is always the risk that you could lose your data if external events cause the process to be interrupted such as a power failure so always back up critical data first.