Date: Sat, 31 Aug 2002 08:35:52 -0400 (EDT) From: Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: crispin@crisweb.webcentral.com.au (Crispin Bennett) Cc: jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu (Jerry McAllister), FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Resizing BSD slices & partitions? Message-ID: <200208311235.g7VCZqE08975@clunix.cl.msu.edu> In-Reply-To: <1030796022.55584.28.camel@jupiter.mshome.net> from "Crispin Bennett" at Aug 31, 2002 10:13:42 PM
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> > > Could anyone tell me if 1) It is possible to resize (make larger) the > > > BSD slice without causing FreeBSD to panic, and then if so 2) what > > > happens to the extra space created inside that slice? Can I resize a BSD > > > partition within that, or would I have to make another partition and > > > mount that? 3) If a BSD-partition resize is possible,what utilities are > > > there that can do this? > > > > Partition Magic will work fine to resize the slices. I am guessing that > > you have XP in slice #1. Probably you will first need to shrink the XP > > slice and then create a new slice in the empty space. Then, the easiest > > thing is to just label the new slice and move some of the stuff - maybe > > /usr/ports, /var/spool, /usr/local (however much seems appropriate) in to > > the new partition, rather than trying to move the boot stuff. > > This looks like the most straightforward way to go. Thanks. > > > If you really want it all one slice, I would recommend shrinking XP and > > insert a new slice and then merging the FreeBSD and new slices and then > > completely reinstalling FreeBSD in the new merged slice - though you > > might get away with merging the FreeBSD and new slices, it doesn't > > like to do things that way. > > Is there a serious disadvantage to using just one slice? As I understand > it, FreeBSD still segments the slice into partitions. Is this > segmentation not as robust as slices (ie.what the rest of the world > calls partitions)? > > > > > Now, if FreeBSD is in the first slice and XP is somewhere above it, you > > can grow the FreeBSD slice and just get rid of XP - seems like the > > best method... > > > > Unfortunately XP occupies the first 2 slices. It looks like I *will* > eventually get rid of XP (FreeBSD is looking that good from my brief > acquaintance), but I need a small XP installation for the time being. Well, that gives you 1 slice left to work with - there are 4 and you have 2 tied up with XP and one currently in FreeBSD, leaving 1. If you can shrink the XP slices, you can squeeze one in between. You will have to make sure your boot mangler knows about the change in slice number. You may have to shrink both XP partitions (slices) and move #2 down using the space slice designator temporarily for scratch before you can get that new slice neatly inserted for FreeBSDD. > What I'd like to know is what happens inside the FreeBSD slice if I > increase it's size (with pqmagic or whatever). Does FreeBSD just see > this as free space within the slice that can then be used to make new > 'partitions'? Or does the partition at whichever end of the slice was > 'stretched' acquire the extra space? You can increase the size of the FreeBSD slice at the top end, but I don't think it is so happy about growing at the low end of the slice. There is a utility, I think it is called 'growfs' or something like that which can take care of making sure it uses the extra space. I think that is a port. I am not where I can check the name or anything right now. I believe that once you stretch the slice, you would have to either stretch a partition to fill it or format a new partition. Check in documentation with that growfs utility. ////jerry > > Cris Bennett. > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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