Ubuntu low in space. Made new volume but it wont use it.

Asked by Pete Jones

Have a 30Gb HDD. Ubuntu is on 4Gb of it . It has been on for three days and now says it is short of space. I have formatted a new volume in the rest of the space , but Ubuntu still says it is low in space. Why ?

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Manfred Hampl
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#1

Did you mount it so that you can use it?

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Thomas Krüger (thkrueger) said :
#2

Your problem is partitioning.
If you have created an initial partition of 4GB, which is quit few for Ubuntu, then Ubuntu has been install on this and will stay there.
If you now create an other partition Ubuntu will stay where it is an make no use of the new space. You might be able to move some personal files over, but it won't make a large change.

You can solve the problem by removing the new empty volume and extending the Ubuntu partition. You will need a Ubuntu boot CD or stick. This article might give a guide:
http://www.howtogeek.com/114503/how-to-resize-your-ubuntu-partitions/

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Pete Jones (pete6671) said :
#3

I mounted it for the purpose. It has to be said that I have only used Linux for four days , though it is beginning to feel like too long.

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Pete Jones (pete6671) said :
#4

I looked at the guide. The new volume is upfront of the Ubuntu one. If I resize it tells me it will not boot,and to get "grub 2". Since I have no experience with this stuff I thought I might redo the system. However I have not got the latest Ubuntu and I cannot download it because of "lack of space". Oh my head.

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#5

Where did you mount the new space to?

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Pete Jones (pete6671) said :
#6

I had a windows disk with only XP on. (32Gb). Shovelled a live ubuntu disc in and blithely installed without much thought. It side by sided the two installations, with Ubuntu second. Ubuntu is in 4Gb.

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#7

Please open a terminal and issue the commands
sudo fdisk -l
mount
Then copy/paste all output into this question document that we can see the partitioning of your hard disk(s).

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Pete Jones (pete6671) said :
#8

Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x3f2e3f2d

   Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/sda1 * 2 3891 31246425 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda2 3892 38913 281314215 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda5 2 3276 26306406 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6 3277 3857 4666851 83 Linux
/dev/sda7 3858 3891 273073+ 82 Linux swap / Solaris
pete@GODSOWN-desktop:~$

On Thu, Jul 25, 2013 at 12:16 PM, Manfred Hampl <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #232921 on yelp in Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/yelp/+question/232921
>
> Status: Open => Needs information
>
> Manfred Hampl requested more information:
> Please open a terminal and issue the commands
> sudo fdisk -l
> mount
> Then copy/paste all output into this question document that we can see the
> partitioning of your hard disk(s).
>
> --
> To answer this request for more information, you can either reply to
> this email or enter your reply at the following page:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/yelp/+question/232921
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#9

I see one 320GB disk which (if I read it correctly) has:

1. an extended partition of 30GiB (sda1)
 consisting of
 a. 25GiB Windows partition (sda5) (probably Windows system disk C:\)
 b. 4GiB Linux partition (sda6)
 c. 0,3GiB Linux swap (sda7)
2. 268GiB Windows partition (sda2) (probably data D:\)

From your previous messages I can not clearly read if you want to keep a running installation of Windows on that computer as dual boot with Ubuntu, or if you want to have Ubuntu as only operating system.

When you want to keep Windows with its two partitions, there is not enough space left for a reasonable Ubuntu system. You would have to make more unpartitioned space available for Ubuntu by shrinking one of the Windows partitions.

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Pete Jones (pete6671) said :
#10

I had windows in a partition of its own.
I put Ubuntu on (side by side apparently)
I cleaned out the windows install, and formatted it for linux.
And here I am . No space in Ubuntu and an irritating 29Gb nothing new volume in front of it.
If I could download a newer Ubuntu (this is 10-04 I think) I would redo the whole thing. But the no space thing wont let me.
I may look out for a magazine disk at the weekend (in a store)

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#11

I still do not know what your target is: Dual boot with Windows, or Ubuntu as only operating system.

That 268 GiB windows partition, are there data on it that you want to keep?

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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said :
#12

What is the output of:

df -h

Thanks

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Pete Jones (pete6671) said :
#13

My target is an Ubuntu system alone.
The files on the 268Gb are years of media and wanted on the voyage.
The fascinating result of whatever is : -
Filesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda6 4.4G 4.1G 113M 98% /
none 1002M 296K 1002M 1% /dev
none 1006M 204K 1006M 1% /dev/shm
none 1006M 192K 1006M 1% /var/run
none 1006M 0 1006M 0% /var/lock
none 1006M 0 1006M 0% /lib/init/rw
/dev/sr0 614M 614M 0 100% /media/cdrom0
pete@GODSOWN-desktop:~$
Thanks too.

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Best Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#14

Ok, now it seems that I understand what you want - get rid of the old Windows system partition and install Ubuntu in its space, but keep the 268 Gib data partition as it is.

As far as I know the Ubuntu installer does not have an option to do that automatically, it can be done only manually.

What I propose:
Use a partitioning tool to delete the 25GiB Windows partition (sda5), the 4GiB Linux partition (sda6) and the 0,3GiB Linux swap (sda7) partition, but leave the 286 GiB Windows partition untouched.

Then boot from an Ubuntu installation medium and choose to install Ubuntu in the unallocated space. (You will lose your current Ubuntu installation, so backup all data that you want to keep to another medium).

Warning: re-partitioning a hard disk is always a dangerous task that might lead to data loss if you press the wrong button. So it might be a very good idea to invest in an external hard disk to create a backup of your data partition.

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Pete Jones (pete6671) said :
#15

That is more or less what I figured, sigh. Thank you for the help.

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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said :
#16

No need for sighing. the is rather straightforward, it is just required to use extreme caution to avoid data loss (or to have a backup available, then you need not care that much).

When you boot from a live DVD or USB medium and select 'Install Ubuntu', during the partitioning step you have to select 'something else' (not 'use whole disk', or 'install alongside current'). That selection should then offer you a partitioning tool ('specify partitions manually') where you can delete the selected partitions as proposed in my previous post.

Creating a backup of your data files is not essential, but it is the best precaution against data loss in case that you press the wrong button, and also in the event of hardware failure of your disk.

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Pete Jones (pete6671) said :
#17

I thought I would update you as to what happened next. I put on Ubuntu 9.30
which I had hanging about. I then downloaded mint and put it on. I wiped
the whole system but I had an identical disk (a RAID mirror) so all is well.
Thank you very much for your circumspect aid.

On Fri, Jul 26, 2013 at 8:01 AM, Manfred Hampl <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #232921 on yelp in Ubuntu changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/yelp/+question/232921
>
> Manfred Hampl posted a new comment:
> No need for sighing. the is rather straightforward, it is just required
> to use extreme caution to avoid data loss (or to have a backup
> available, then you need not care that much).
>
> When you boot from a live DVD or USB medium and select 'Install Ubuntu',
> during the partitioning step you have to select 'something else' (not
> 'use whole disk', or 'install alongside current'). That selection should
> then offer you a partitioning tool ('specify partitions manually') where
> you can delete the selected partitions as proposed in my previous post.
>
> Creating a backup of your data files is not essential, but it is the
> best precaution against data loss in case that you press the wrong
> button, and also in the event of hardware failure of your disk.
>
> --
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>