Arch Linux

venky80

Member

Registered: 2007-05-13

Posts: 1,002

merging Vista partition into linux ext3 partition

Hello I currently have dual boot laptop with vista and arch linux..
i want to get rid of Vista and merge its partition with the linux root partition, is there a simple way to do it without the need to reinstall arch.
Here is how my partitions look

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xfd221d55

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        5837    46885671    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            5838       11231    43327305    b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda3           11232       19330    65055217+  83  Linux
/dev/sda4           19331       19457     1020127+  82  Linux swap / Solaris

---

Acer Aspire V5-573P Antergos KDE

pressh

Developer/TU

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2005-08-14

Posts: 1,719

Re: merging Vista partition into linux ext3 partition

I'm not sure about actually merging partitions. What would happen if both partitions contain the same file ? You should not need it here anyways...

Use a livecd with gparted (or something similar), remove sda1 and sda2 partitions, and resize your linux root partition to fill up the empty space.

Wilson Phillips

Member

From: Vicksburg, MS, USA

Registered: 2007-09-24

Posts: 70

Re: merging Vista partition into linux ext3 partition

You just have to take it a step at a time and you can do it. I also recommend the GParted Live CD for this task.

Delete the partitions for sda1 and sda2
At this point, I am not sure if it will change the order of the partitions, so I would exit and reboot so that the partition tables are reloaded.
Resize sda3 to use all the available space. (it may be sda1 now)
Reboot and let it reload the partition table.
Resize sda3 to take up just the amount of space you need.
Reboot and let it reload the partition table again.
Resize sda4 to take up all the remaining space. (it may be sda2 now)
Reboot.
You will need to edit your /boot/grub/menu.lst to point to the new location. Change sda3 to sda1.
You should be finished.

I hope I did not leave out any steps on a saturday night.

I did leave something out. Back up your data

Last edited by Wilson Phillips (2008-01-06 01:47:16)

---

Guarantee does not cover shark bite, bear attack, or children under 5.

sinister99

Member

Registered: 2007-04-10

Posts: 136

Re: merging Vista partition into linux ext3 partition

Can you resize an ext3 partition that is mounted?

I would do it with a live cd instead.

Are you using grub for your bootloader?

Last edited by sinister99 (2008-01-06 03:03:20)

beissemj

Member

Registered: 2007-05-11

Posts: 43

Re: merging Vista partition into linux ext3 partition

You cannot resize a partition that is mounted. Well you *CAN* but it's a really bad idea.

---

Professor: This isn't right...It isn't even wrong...

venky80

Member

Registered: 2007-05-13

Posts: 1,002

Re: merging Vista partition into linux ext3 partition

hi yes I am using GRUB can someone verify if Wilson Phillips's steps are all that is needed, i was reading somewhere about regenerating the kernel etc etc

---

Acer Aspire V5-573P Antergos KDE

Wilson Phillips

Member

From: Vicksburg, MS, USA

Registered: 2007-09-24

Posts: 70

Re: merging Vista partition into linux ext3 partition

Looking back at this today, instead of a Saturday night, I am not sure if it will work or not. Theoretically, once the partitions are moved and resized, everything should still work, because the mount points won't change. Not sure just what other things will not point to the mount points, but point to the drive partitions instead (sda1, etc). I just can't guarantee that you can make this work. Make sure you back up your data before attempting this.

---

Guarantee does not cover shark bite, bear attack, or children under 5.

pressh

Developer/TU

From: Netherlands

Registered: 2005-08-14

Posts: 1,719

Re: merging Vista partition into linux ext3 partition

All you need to remember is that you first need to delete the vista partitions, and after that resize the other partition to take up the newly created space. I don't think you should need to reboot that often in between. Do these steps from a livecd because the partitions should NOT be mounted.
All that can go wrong is you selecting wrong partitions, or the partition tool destroying your data.
You may need to edit your grub config in /boot/grub/menu.lst, you may even have to reinstall grub, but all this can be easily fixed afterwards from a livecd (or the arch install cd).