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Date:      Sat, 31 Aug 2002 07:50:45 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Jerry McAllister <jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu>
To:        crispin@crisweb.webcentral.com.au (Crispin Bennett)
Cc:        FreeBSD-questions@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Resizing BSD slices & partitions?
Message-ID:  <200208311150.g7VBoku08858@clunix.cl.msu.edu>
In-Reply-To: <1030790609.55584.13.camel@jupiter.mshome.net> from "Crispin Bennett" at Aug 31, 2002 08:43:29 PM

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> 
> Hi,
> 
> I installed FreeBSD (4.6.2 stable) on my notebook less than a week ago,
> and am so impressed I'm already using it more than the Win XP
> installation I have on the same machine. 
> 
> However, I installed FreeBSD on too small a partition (thinking at the
> time it was just an experiment). If I have to I'll shrink the Win XP
> partition, and re-install FreeBSD, but I'd really rather avoid having to
> compile Gnome2 again! 
> 
> If this was a Linux partition I'd just use Partition Magic to resize --
> but I don't know enough about the BSD slicing/partitioning scheme to
> know if this is possible. Partition Magic does recognise the BSD slice,
> and offers the option to resize it.
> 
> 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.   

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.

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...

////jerry
> 
> Thanks in advance.
> 
> Cris Bennett.
> 
> 
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