Re: [Linux-NTFS-Dev] fdisk can't directly resize partitions

[Jeremy J. <je...@co...>]

I'd like to mention that EVMS combines the FS resize and partition
resize, and has CLI, text, and GUI user interface.  It would be nice to
have an NTFS module (and an FAT/FAT32 one) as this would make a real
nice swiss army knife for installers to use, since it already supports
ext2/3, reiser, swap, xfs.

http://evms.sourceforge.net

It might accomodate LDM disk stuff easier than fdisk as well.

Jeremy

On Sat, 2003-03-22 at 08:00, Szakacsits Szabolcs wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Andries, there is a frequently mentioned/reported usability problem
> with fdisk that could be solved by adding direct partition resizing
> functionality to fdisk.
> 
> Based on downloads and other factors I estimate well over 10,000
> ntfsresize+fdisk "users" so far and since XP becomes more commodity by
> every day, it grows fast. Of course this is also not only an NTFS
> resize issue.
> 
> ntfsresize detected directly or indirectly such problems so far as bad
> ram, bad IDE cable, corrupted NTFS, kernel bug and no confirmed lost
> data using it so far.
> 
> However all failure I tracked done was due to users making mistakes
> during the unneededly complex and error-prone repartitioning phase
> even if there are warnings all over in the documentation and program
> exit how to avoid them.
> 
> The following problems, causing unbootable OS/system or lost data,
> could be avoided by adding direct partition resizing to fdisk:
> 
>   1) starting disk cylinder was incorrectly set
>   2) partition type was incorrectly or forgotten to set
>   3) bootable flag was forgotten to set again
>   4) partition order changed
> 
> Another benefit, partition resizing would be _much_ simpler and _much_
> less confusing.
> 
> Of course there is DiskDrake, also part of Mandrake 9.1 install, that
> takes care about aboves moreover Vanni Brutto is working on ntfsresize
> integration into the also user-friendly qtparted (and me _very_ slowly
> with parted due to lack of free time and other priorities).
> 
> But I think adding this feature to fdisk could be a valuable one in
> general in the future, especially considering it doesn't look to be
> very difficult. But on the other hand, if you think this would cause
> more trouble than adding value, I understand it also (e.g. users might
> think fdisk is capable also to resize underlying fs due to e.g. lack
> of well visible warnings, missing documentation, etc).
> 
> On Thu, 20 Mar 2003, Isaiah Salinas wrote:
> 
> > Thanks for you help i deleted and recreated the partiton and it worked.
> > One Question i used fdisk and deleted the Ntfs partition i though all my
> > data would be gone when i deleted but when i recreated the partition it
> > was all there does fdisk usally work this way.  How then do you trully
> > delete a partition with the delete command for fdisk?  Thanks!
> 
> fdisk doesn't have partition resize functionality so the partition
> table maupulation is done a tricky way: delete + add it back with
> different parameters. The drawback of this approach is that the
> partition looses all its attributes (type, bootable flag, etc) thus
> users end up doing more work than they should.
> 
> These operations are in-memory ones. They are committed to disk when
> you use the 'w', write command. So if you want to delete the partition
> just 'd' (delete) then 'w' (write) it to disk.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> 	Szaka
> 
> 
> 
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