Can't create partition larger than 2GB?

[Zephik]

How do I make a larger partition? It only gives me 2GB maximum and I have at least 40GB available. Hmmm...

[Oneslowz28]

have you tried to partition it in Ubuntu?

[XcOM]

first:
This should be in the computer help forum,

Second:
What OS are you using? and what format are you trying to make it, some formats and OS's limit the size,

Or if theres a partition on there already, that windows can't see, you will only be able to use what free space is left.

[Luke122]

Fat16 maxes out at 2gb anyways, so you may have to change your filesystem type.

[Kayin]

/reformat in NTFS. Done.

[Zephik]

I'm using Windows 7 RC. I'm not sure which format I selected. Maybe I shouldn't have even selected one? It said I needed to format to use it, so... I want to install Ubuntu onto it. Am I even doing this right so far? lol

My main disk has 50GB free. You would think I'd be able to use more than 2GB... hmmm.

[Zephik]

/reformat in NTFS. Done.

I checked both "drives" and they both are NTFS.

[Zephik]

Is it because of certain unmovable files maybe? I think it mentioned something along those lines. Hmm. This is so confusing.

[slaveofconvention]

When you say you have 40gb available, do you mean 40gb of unallocated space or 40gb free on an existing partition????

[Zephik]

Uhm... I don't know? lol

I'm a total newb at this kind of thing, OBVIOUSLY. Let me guess, I have to reformat the entire drive and reinstall everything?

I wonder if I could fit Ubuntu on that 2GB... lol

[x88x]

Oooh, I think I see what happened. I'm guessing there's already a partition on the drive you're trying to use? It's probably looking at the drive and either seeing 2GB that it can work with (ie, unpartitioned), or looking at the partition, deciding that it can only shrink it 2GB, and telling you that. If you're wanting to wipe the drive, you'll have to select the partition, tell it to delete it, then select the new empty space, and tell it to make a new partition. If you want to shrink the partition, it's obviously not reading it correctly; I'd recommend the GPartEd Live-CD (http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php) to shrink the partition, then boot back into the 7 install and have it use the empty space.

[Zephik]

Awersome! So I just downloaded Ubuntu and opened it up via Daemon Tools and it let me install Ubuntu inside of Windows and it let me choose how large of an install I wanted as well. Now whenever I boot I get to pick either Windows 7 or Ubuntu. Sweet.

The new Ubuntu is pretty nice too. Much speedier than Windows 7 on this rig.

[billygoat333]

going to install xubuntu on one of my junk computers to set up a testing server for websites. :) hopefully I dont run into any issues like you did! lol

[Commando]

/reformat in NTFS. Done.
Gotta love the simple answer.... FTW


Awersome! So I just downloaded Ubuntu and opened it up via Daemon Tools and it let me install Ubuntu inside of Windows and it let me choose how large of an install I wanted as well. Now whenever I boot I get to pick either Windows 7 or Ubuntu. Sweet.

The new Ubuntu is pretty nice too. Much speedier than Windows 7 on this rig.

Something tells me you just snuck Umbuntu into some tiny space at the end of a partition. So when it has no space don't be surprised.

Also, I'm sure you didn't defrag either? did you?

Simple answer:

Hard Drive 1
- Partition
Windows (xp or whatever)
- New Partition on HD1 (this is where Umbuntu is now)
Hard Drive
- This is where it should be(but it's not)
- Partition (NTFS)

[Zephik]

Something tells me you just snuck Ubuntu into some tiny space at the end of a partition. So when it has no space don't be surprised.

Also, I'm sure you didn't defrag either? did you?

Simple answer:

Hard Drive 1
- Partition
Windows (xp or whatever)
- New Partition on HD1 (this is where Umbuntu is now)
Hard Drive
- This is where it should be(but it's not)
- Partition (NTFS)

Hmm, I'm not sure what I did or what it did. But it works and that's all I care about.

I did a defrag a few times as suggested by the Windows help mahjigger. However, defrags don't move unmovable files, so maybe that's what it was.

It's reporting disk space as I set it as, so idk. I guess we'll find out eventually. lol

[x88x]

If you installed Ubuntu from Windows (ie, using the Wubi installer) it actually installs it to the Windows root partition; that's kinda the whole point of it, that it doesn't mess with your partition table.

[Kayin]

BTW, defragging as a general rule is a thing of the past, Vista and later use indexing to move frequently used files where they want them so they can be accessed quicker. Also, defrag a SSD and watch what happens. Tears, I tell you.

[billygoat333]

just out of curiousity, what DOES happen when you defrag a SSD? do you have a big flaming pile of ashes on your hands or what? or just a brick of metal and circuit boards and such? lol

[x88x]

The problem with defraging an SSD is that all SSDs have a limited number of write cycles (well, to be fair, so do platter HDDs...they're just in the hundreds of millions or something). The process of defraging a volume involves moving files that were split up into multiple segements back into one piece, in order to reduce seek times. This is accomplished by moving files around, constantly writing and re-writing various locations on the volume. Since the seek time to access data anywhere on an SSD is the same, it doesn't matter if a file is split up in different parts of the drive, so all that defraging an SSD accomplishes is to burn through your write cycles. Under normal use, modern SSDs won't die for something like 5-35 years (depending on the model and use), but with something like Vista's constant defraging running, you would burn through them a lot faster than that. There were reports of early SSDs dying overnight because of Vista's auto-defrag.

[billygoat333]

ahh good to know. shoulda thought about the limited write cycles. good info :up: +rep