From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Mar 30 04:40:36 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AABB516A406 for ; Fri, 30 Mar 2007 04:40:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from youshi10@u.washington.edu) Received: from mxout3.cac.washington.edu (mxout3.cac.washington.edu [140.142.32.166]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 89FB813C46C for ; Fri, 30 Mar 2007 04:40:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from youshi10@u.washington.edu) Received: from smtp.washington.edu (smtp.washington.edu [140.142.32.141] (may be forged)) by mxout3.cac.washington.edu (8.13.7+UW06.06/8.13.7+UW07.03) with ESMTP id l2U4eZo6020169 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK) for ; Thu, 29 Mar 2007 21:40:36 -0700 X-Auth-Received: from [192.168.10.45] (c-67-187-172-183.hsd1.ca.comcast.net [67.187.172.183]) (authenticated authid=youshi10) by smtp.washington.edu (8.13.7+UW06.06/8.13.7+UW07.03) with ESMTP id l2U4eZ3i022691 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=NOT) for ; Thu, 29 Mar 2007 21:40:35 -0700 Message-ID: <460C9489.7030307@u.washington.edu> Date: Thu, 29 Mar 2007 21:39:37 -0700 From: Garrett Cooper User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 (X11/20070325) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <20070330025031.73483.qmail@simone.iecc.com> In-Reply-To: <20070330025031.73483.qmail@simone.iecc.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-PMX-Version: 5.3.0.289146, Antispam-Engine: 2.5.0.283055, Antispam-Data: 2007.3.29.212635 X-Uwash-Spam: Gauge=IIIIIII, Probability=7%, Report='__CT 0, __CTE 0, __CT_TEXT_PLAIN 0, __HAS_MSGID 0, __MIME_TEXT_ONLY 0, __MIME_VERSION 0, __SANE_MSGID 0, __USER_AGENT 0' Subject: Re: Moving paritions around X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 30 Mar 2007 04:40:36 -0000 John Levine wrote: > I set up my laptop to dual boot between W1nd@ws and FreeBSD. When I > first set it up I made the partitions the same size, but since then I > found I do a lot more with FreeBSD so I'd rather give it more space. > > So the last time I had to reinstall Windows from scratch, I made its > partition smaller. Now there's a big chunk of free space between > the two partitions. Should I expect the following to work? > > (back everything up, duh) > > Boot from a CD, change the partition table to make the FreeBSD partition > start right after the Windows partition > > Use dd to move down the existing FreeBSD partition data so it starts > at the beginning of the new partition > > Use growfs to give the extra space to my /usr filesystem, which is at > the end of the existing partition > > Or should I just back it all up to a USB disk, reformat, and restore it, > which will take considerably longer? > > R's, > John It's like a sorting programming problem. In order to move objects of similar sizes between 2 locations, you need 3 locations total : 1 destination, 1 target, and 1 temporary. Similar ideologies apply here. You need to a) dump(3) the data from your FreeBSD disk into a safe spot, and b) copy over all of your Windows files into (another?) safe spot, then, c) install XP over from scratch with the new scheme, and d) boot using a freebsd snapshot iso, copy all of your files over again by "un-dump(3)'ing" them, and modify /etc/fstab accordingly. Cheers, -Garrett