Ubuntu

Want to reduce the number of partitions

Asked by Captain VDL

Hi there !

I recently installed Ubuntu version 10.04 lts, "the lucid lynx", 64 bits on a Sony vaio vgn-nr160e with a 320 gb HD. Actually, I messed up with the partitions and I would like to fix them properly.
1. 1 month ago, I switched from vista to 7, on a brand new 320 gb hd (WD) and made 3 partitions : 1 for 7, 1 for my documents, and 1 for Ubuntu I wanted to install later. What I didn't know is that Ubuntu creates its own partition automatically (yeah, I know, I'm not very aware of computer stuffs)
2. I installed Ubuntu this week and realized my mistake. On the top of that, I had a bug with a white screen console which appeared at startup, after the updates. And... I accidentally deleted a partition, the one who contained Ubuntu. Therefore, I started with the cd again, and installed everything one more time (like the dummy I am).
3. And now everything seems to work but... I have no less than 7 partitions on my HD ! Well, I think some partitions are useless, so I would like to "merge" them in those that are already healthy and active !

Information about the disk :

/dev/sda1 is a NTFS file system partition flagged "system reserved", capacity 105 MB and seems to belong to windows 7
/dev/sda2 is a NTFS bootable partition flagged "system reserved", capacity 109 GB, and seems to belong to windows 7 as well
/dev/sda3 is an extended partition, capacity 161 GB, containing 3 logical partitions :
 - /dev/sda 6, linux type partition, capacity 69 GB, usage "filesystem"
 - /dev/sda 7, linux swap partition, usage "swap space", capacity 3 GB
 - /dev/sda5, NTFS partition, usage "filesystem", capacity 89 GB, labelled "new volume" which contains my documents.
/dev/sda is an unallocated space of 50 GB.

As you see, this is a big mess.

My questions are :
- what are the "swap space" and can it be merge in another partition ?
- can I merge the unallocated space also.
- how to do all this ?

I would really appreciate your help ! ;-)

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

Swap space is used to swap items from RAM when the RAM becomes too full with apps. It's why you will hear your drive thrashing when you run too many apps. Windows calls this virtual memory and is synonymous with swap space. If you have more than 2Gb RAM and run medium to light apps then you can get away with no swap.

You should be able to make as many partitions in the extended partition so I suggest you resize the extended partition to give it more space.

If you have freshly installed then you could simply start the partitioning again with 2 primary partitions for the bootable OS partitions and swap (if you want it) then put the others on the extended partitions. Should be fine.

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Captain VDL (captain-van-der-leen) said : 		#2

Thanks for the quick answer.
Which protocol should I follow to "put the others on the extended partitions" ? I don't want to loose any data during this new partitioning. Should I use one of the commands of the system / administration / disk utility software ?

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

If you dont want to lose data you should have a regular backup already in place. You should also run a final backup before any sort of partition manipulation

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