gParted failure

[K7AAY john@503bartley.com]

Original post, subject: gParted failure, on Sat, 27 May 2006 06:47 Zulu I wrote:
>> > gParted 0.1
>> > 190 GB HD with 125GB of content
>> > NTFS from XP
>> > dismount the partition
>> > launch gParted
>> > Tell it to resize, just the one operation
>> > Tell it to proceed; it looks as if it will
>
> (Yes, shows the change as I wished it, for a moment.)
>
>> > and then the screen blinks and I'm right back where I was.
>> > Your kind advice would be appreciated.

Henk Koster <H.A.J.Koster at xs4all.nl> kindly replied,  Sun, 28 May 2006 14:53 +2
(with my response in line)
>> Message-ID: <pan.2006.05.28.12.53.19.825899 at xs4all.nl>
>> Brevity is a virtue, but now you're giving too little info to be of
>> much use.
>
> Apologies for my ignorance. Thank you kindly, Heer Koster, for indulging me.
>
>> How are you running GParted, from the liveCD installer, perhaps?
>
> Yes, spot on!
>
>> What does your partition table look like before starting GParted?
>
> 190GB, entire disc, of NTFS partition from an expired install of XP.
>
>> And, in words, what is it that you try to accomplish?
>
> Make room on the hard drive for the partitions required to install Ubuntu.
> Would prefer not to wipe everything, as the reload of all the media
> and other data files would take a lot of time to restore everything
> from the CD-R backups.


And, then he replied again:

Well, it's been a while since I made room on a disk entirely occupied by
XP, I used PartitionMagic to do it.

My version of PM is too old; it tells me it was designed for 2K, not for XP.

> You could also try and use GParted *directly* (not as part of the installer)
> while booted with the Dapper liveCD (or with Knoppix).

That, too, fails, both with Dapper's liveCD as with the partitioning
tool in PClinuxOS 0.92.

>  There have been problems with the way GParted is run inside the installer
> when the partition table and/or the required FS
> (other than the default Ext3) is in any way unusual.

> So that's my advice: try and make unallocated room outside the installer
> with GParted. While you're at it, you might as well make the required
> partitions: at the minimum one large / partition plus a swap partition;
> or, depending on your needs, separate partitions for one or more of /boot,
> /home, and /var.

Yep. Gotta get the space made first, though.

> Then, after a reboot and once again in the installer: choose Manual
> editing of the partition table (but accept what you've done earlier),
> assign the mount points, AND check the reformat boxes (omitting this last
> step will likely stop the installer cold -- it did in my case). From then
> on the install should be OK.
>
> Good luck!