Questions tagged [partitioning]

Disk partitioning is the act of dividing a hard disk drive into multiple logical storage units referred to as 'partitions'

What Questions Should Have This Tag?:

  • Questions on limitations of partitioning
  • Questions on process of partitioning
  • Questions on possible partitioning software

Some Basic Definitions:

Partition editor software - can be used to create, re-size, delete and manipulate partitions on the hard disk.

Partition - a portion of space set aside on a disk which is logically separated from other parts of the disk. (Think pieces of a pie, split into 4 slices)


Brief Introduction to the Subject:

Partitions are used to divide up space on a disk, in order to accomplish different tasks. This can be having different Operating Systems, File Systems, Permissions, and can be even be spread across separate physical disks (one partition over multiple disks).

When using a Unix/Linux based system (Ubuntu/Linux) there is almost always a swap partition which is used to "swap" memory between RAM, and the physical hard disk.


Important Links for Learning More:

For more information, see the following articles from the Community Wiki:

Possible Links to Look at:

14027 questions
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votes
10 answers

How can I resize an ext root partition at runtime?

How can I increase the size of the root partition of a system at runtime? I have a partition that is not allocated after the root partition (which is also ext4), how can I add that unallocated space to the space allocated to the root partition…
BonboBingo
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326
votes
6 answers

How to use manual partitioning during installation?

I'd like to see the full How-To on how to use manual partitioning during Ubuntu installation. The existing guides (at least those I found here) cover only automatic part and leave untouched the manual part (or extremely short and contain no…
Danatela
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298
votes
5 answers

What is LVM and what is it used for?

As a Linux/Ubuntu newbie, what is LVM and what is it used for? In terms of a web server installation, what benefits does it provide? Would you recommend using it?
231
votes
6 answers

Detect and mount devices

I upgraded Ubuntu today and everything works smooth except that Ubuntu doesn't detect any other storage devices. My / and /home partitions work fine, but my other partitions are just not detected. I wouldn't mind, except the same problem goes with…
Calixte
  • 3,503
168
votes
18 answers

My /boot partition hit 100% and now I can't upgrade. Can't remove old kernels to make room

My first issue was when I tried to apt-get update or apt-get upgrade. On upgrade I get the following error: You might want to run 'apt-get -f install' to correct these. The following packages have unmet dependencies: linux-image-server : Depends:…
Strifey
  • 1,779
153
votes
4 answers

How to resize partitions?

Previously, I have installed Windows 7 on my 320 GB laptop with three partitions 173, 84 and 63 GB each. The 63 GB partition was where the Windows was installed. The rest were for file containers. Now I changed my OS to Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I installed…
Johannes
  • 1,549
152
votes
7 answers

Unable to delete USB Drive partitions (Block size error)

I have been unable to format/delete the partitions on my Sandisk Cruzer Force 32 GB USB Drive. I get the following error when deleting any of the partitions on it. `Error deleting partition /dev/sdd2: Command-line `parted --script "/dev/sdd" "rm 2"'…
Nectar
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134
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5 answers

How to enable exFAT in Ubuntu 14.04

I just installed Ubuntu 14.04 and I can't mount my exFAT HDD. I get the following error: Unable to access “SeagateHDD” Error mounting /dev/sdb1 at /media/me/SeagateHDD: Command-line `mount -t "exfat" -o…
Iuliu
  • 1,473
133
votes
4 answers

Ubuntu Server 18.04 LVM out of space with improper default partitioning

I installed Ubuntu Server 18.04 with the LVM option and left the default partition setup. Now my main drive only has 4GB in a 1TB hard drive. How can I fix this without starting from scratch? Results of df -h : Filesystem …
CyborgDroid
  • 1,443
130
votes
12 answers

Fix corrupt NTFS partition without Windows

MY NTFS Partition has gotten corrupt somehow (it's a relic from the days when I had Windows installed). I'm putting the debug output of fdisk and blkid here. At the same time, any OS is unable to mount my root partition, which is located next to…
Nemo
  • 9,610
118
votes
8 answers

How can I resize an LVM partition? (i.e: physical volume)

I want to shrink my second (LVM) partition, in order to create a new partition in the newly freed space. I am using the Live CD to do so, because I know I can't resize/move this partition while it is in use. When I opened GParted in the Live CD, I…
Idan Yadgar
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116
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2 answers

How do I mount a folder from another partition?

Is there a command to mount a folder from one partition to my main partition? Example of what I'd like to do, which obviously doesn't work: mount /media/tc1/folder /home/dvad/home If not by using a command, is there another way I can do this?
user100541
  • 1,263
105
votes
4 answers

What are the pros and cons of having a separate home partition?

This is not a question about how to create a home partition, just as a caveat. :) What are the pros and cons to having a separate home partition? How do I know if having one is right for me? Will it increase or decrease speed of file retrieval? Are…
Ryan McClure
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104
votes
11 answers

"physical block size is 2048 bytes, but Linux says it is 512" when formatting USB - How to create a bootable USB without this error

I was using: dd if=/path/to/my/ubuntuiso/ubuntu.iso of=/dev/sdb1 bs=4M && sync In order to create bootable Ubuntu USB drives on older Ubuntu versions. It was working perfectly. Sometimes I used the Startup Disk Creator program, which worked…
Severus Tux
  • 10,126
100
votes
5 answers

How can I quickly copy a GPT partition scheme from one hard drive to another?

On a non GPT partition table I can do sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdb. But sfdisk doesn't support GPT partition tables. What can I use instead? I'm looking for a one or two command solution, not just using GNU parted to output the partition…
Kris Harper
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