How to partition your HD (using GParted)

WARNING: for disk naming Please refer to UUID, Partition Labelling and fstab, as by default Joatha now uses UUID

Partitioning tools may request a root password. As none is set just press 'enter', See: Live Mode

Basics

A partition must have a filesystem. Linux knows different filesystems to use. There is ReiserFs, Ext3, and for experienced users XFS and JFS. Ext2 is handy as a storage format since a windows driver is available for data-swapping.

For normal use we recommend the ext3 file system, it is the default file system for Joatha and well maintained.

This version of GParted is 0.3.1.1. The following information has been taken from the GParted Official documentation and been modified to be a guide to using GParted within Joatha, and should not be seen to be or used as a definitive guide. E&OE

For full documentation see GParted

Using GParted

Creating and managing partitions is not something that is typically done every day. Therefore, a good idea is to read this guide once, to get comfortable with the concepts and some of the panels that will appear.

• General Information

  When GPARTED runs , a window is opened, and drives are scanned.

  If you click the menu keyword (at the top left), a pop down is presented. You can select to refresh the display of the drives on your system. As well, a keyboard shortcut is available to easily refresh the screen information. With the second choice, you can choose the hard drive whose partitions you want to modify. This is useful if you have more than one hard drive. The third option under Gparted menu keyword is used to obtain more information.

  

• Edit

  It opens a new window from which you can see the supported file types and some partition editing options.

  The menu is second from the left. It shows two grayed out functions which are quite useful: Undo, and Apply and also allows you to access/view other areas. These options may also be seen:

• View

  • Device Information

    The Harddisk Information panel displays details about the hard disk, such as Model, Size etc. This panel is most useful in a multi harddisk system, where the information is used to confirm that the hard disk being examined is the one that is wanted.

  • Pending Operations

    At the footing window is a list of pending operations. The information is useful as it provides a indication of the number of pending operations.

    

• Device

  Device allows you to Set a Disk label if the current disk label is inappropriate, you may change it using this option.

• Partition Menu

  The menu is of utmost importance. It allows you to do many operations, some of which are dangerous.

  Delete is selected if you want to delete a partition. To perform the delete, you must first select the partition.

  Resize/Move is a useful function.

  

• Creating a new partition

  On the toolbar, the New button allows you to create a new partition, if you have already selected an unallocated area. A new window appears and lets you chose the size you want, whether it be a Primary, Extended or Logical partition and the file system.

  

• If you make a mistake

  If you have made a mistake you can use the Delete button to delete the chosen partition or if you haven't applied your decision to go ahead you can use the undo button.

  

• Resizing/Move

  When you want to resize a partition you have selected, click Resize/Move button: a new window pops up. Use the mouse to reduce (or grow) the partition or if you prefer, use the arrows.

  

  After the Resize command has been given, click on Apply as no operations are given to the hard disk until you click Apply

  The duration of the operations depends on the new size of the Partition.

  After manipulating the partition table please log out of Joatha and reboot your system into Joatha to reread the new partition table.

NTFS partition Resizing

Resizing the NTFS partition will require you to reboot the system! DON'T DO any other operations on this partition before the reboot, otherwise you will get errors.

• After the boot-up on M$ Windows, the system will show a special screen, and a message asking about drive consistency : Checking file system on c :
• Let the AUTOCHK run : NT needs to check its file system after the resize operation.
• At the end of the process, the computer will automatically restart for the second time. This ensures that things run perfectly.
• After restart, Windows XP will be okay, but you must let the system finish the boot and wait for the login screen!

Full GParted documentation:To read the full documentation including, How-To copy partitions please go to GParted