Arch Linux

japtar10101

Member

Registered: 2009-08-08

Posts: 57

Partitioning a linux partition

Alright, I'm getting sick of Gentoo's slow compiling.  I'm ready to install Arch Linux for the fourth time.

That said, I'm in a bit of a dilemma.  I need to partition the hard drive retaining Gentoo so I can make some space to Arch Linux.  Is there a way to "defrag" a linux partition, at least to minimize data corruption problems? 

From what I understand, serious corruption could occur if I resize any linux partition smaller.

tobiasquinn

Member

Registered: 2010-12-26

Posts: 12

Re: Partitioning a linux partition

I suppose it depends on what kind of partition you are using - it's always good to have a backup. I've had success resizing ext4 partitions in the past. This post talks about defragging ext4 filesystems although I've never seen the need: http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=232773

gParted seemed to be able to everything as long as the partition was offline. If you have space to backup the filesystem, fsarchiver is a nice tool to do this or just use rsync to some other place with the right options (-aXx I think). Beware that fsarchiver will restore the UUID to a filesystem it restores to so what is mounted at boot may not be what you expect if you are using UUIDs and 2 partitions have the same UUID.

Always read the man pages

ploub

Member

Registered: 2007-05-16

Posts: 132

Re: Partitioning a linux partition

You could try this Con Kolivas defrag script