Can't Format Partition

[MR ZenWiz]

On Wed, Feb 23, 2011 at 2:33 PM, Nathan Bahn <nathan.bahn at gmail.com> wrote:
> I get the below:
>
:
>
> I'm using Gparted (G.U.I.) on a 10.10 GNOME O.S.  I'm attempting to format a
> part of an unformatted partition (3 of 4) as a swap.  I want to do this
> because I want to enlarge the first partition, which is where the O.S. is
> located.  As I understand it, a formatted partition must be located next to
> an unformatted partition in order to expand into it.  Because the second
> partition partition is a swap, I am attempting to format a part of the
> unformatted third partition as a swap so that I can unformat the second
> partition and then expand the first (O.S.) partition into it.  If my
> information/understanding is incorrect, then where can I find information on
> how partitions work?
>
You should be able to designate the unformatted partition (or some
fraction of it) as swap, remove the swap designation of the existing
swap partition, set that (tell gparted to execute that change, which
might require a reboot), then re-run gparted to expand your system
partition into the old swap area.

There shouldn't be any actual reformatting required - swap is just
open disk space that belongs to the OS.