[ubuntu-uk] ubuntu-uk Digest, Vol 61, Issue 71

[Daniel Drummond]

On Tue, 2010-05-25 at 14:43 +0100, Liam Proven wrote:
> On Tue, May 25, 2010 at 1:34 PM, Rowan Berkeley
> <rowan.berkeley at googlemail.com> wrote:
> > On Tue, 2010-05-25 at 13:06 +0100, Colin Law <clanlaw at googlemail.com>
> > wrote:
> >> On 25 May 2010 12:29, Rowan Berkeley <rowan.berkeley at googlemail.com>
> >> wrote:
> >> > On Tue, 2010-05-25 at 12:00 +0100, Colin Law
> >> <clanlaw at googlemail.com>
> >> > wrote:
> >> >> Just to clarify to the OP, when a partition is moved using gparted
> >> >> the data in the partition is moved with it, so this can be done
> >> >> without affecting an existing system. ?It is always wise to ensure
> >> >> backups are up to date before embarking on this sort of operation
> >> >> however. One never knows when one is going to hit the wrong key or
> >> >> click the wrong partition. Also I imagine that granny tripping over
> >> >> the power lead in the middle of moving a partition might be
> >> >> unfortunate for the data integrity as well as granny. Colin
> >> > But that wouldn't work with the swap partition, would it? I can't
> >> > just unmount that, move it down the disk, and mount it again?
> >> It won't be mounted, when you boot off the live CD nothing on your
> >> hard disk will be mounted.  It will not be using the swap there.  You
> >> can boot off the live CD with no disk at all, or even one with Windows
> >> on it! Colin
> > Quite so, but I meant, not using a Live CD, just working from the
> > computer's own resident OS, which is all in sda1, the boot volume. My
> > idea was that while, necessarily, leaving that volume mounted, I can
> > unmount and delete, recreate -- or, as I thought you were suggesting,
> > move -- the other volumes without any difficulties.
> >
> > It does occur to me though that if I were to rename the new partitions,
> > there might be files other than fstab and resume that would need
> > altering accordingly. There might be other files that assume that the
> > swap partition is sda3, and that the Home folder is in sda5, and would
> > not be able to find them. So I would need a complete list of files that
> > point to either the partition names or the UUIDs of the swap partition,
> > and the Home folder, and its menu contents such as Documents, Music,
> > Pictures, Video, etc.
> 
> Rowan, you are being very ungracious and ungrateful. Stop trying to
> second-guess the free support and advice that much more experienced
> and knowledgeable people are giving you. Do as you're told. Use the
> live CD and stop asking silly questions. We are telling you that it is
> the best way for a reason.
> 
> If you want free help, don't look the gift-horse in the mouth and
> interrogate those offering it.
> 
> -- 
> Liam Proven • Profile: http://www.linkedin.com/in/liamproven
> Email: lproven at cix.co.uk • GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com
> Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 • Cell: +44 7939-087884 • Fax: + 44 870-9151419
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> MSN: lproven at hotmail.com • ICQ: 73187508
> 

Actually Rowan, ask all the questions you want.  You are learning here.
The livecd offers no benefits to the process, in fact using an up to
date system, rather than an out-of-date livecd may be a better idea, if
purely for any bugfixes that may be present in the up to date system.

Just back up your data before you do it.  Worst case scenario then is a
reinstall, which with Ubuntu takes about 20 mins, during which you can
choose your partitions to be laid out exactly how you want.  Then of
course you have to configure the system, but if you have backed up your
home directory (which will store much of the configuration), then it's
just installing programs and updates.

Daniel