How to rename partitions?

Question

I'm new at Ubuntu; I installed Ubuntu 12.10 and the partitions appear like 30 GB volume and like 78EF-2C5E in task bar. I tried to rename it but rename and remove buttons are deactivated so I tried by using disks but it gives me error:

(Error setting label: Command-line `mlabel -i "/dev/sdb8" ::"windows"' exited with non-zero exit status 1: Total number of sectors (18550784) not a multiple of sectors per track (63)!
Add mtools_skip_check=1 to your .mtoolsrc file to skip this test
 (udisks-error-quark, 0))

and this happen also to any attached usb to my laptop.

Answer 1

From the graphical desktop ( >= 12.10)

There is no need to run gparted only to give a partition a label. Just open Disks from the Dash:

Select the drive on the left panel and choose the partition to label in the volumes section. Then click on the highlighted area with the cogwheels for "More Actions" to reveal the menu shown above. This will let you "Edit Filesystem Label..." for the selected partition.

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From the graphical desktop ( <= 12.04 LTS)

For release 12.04 LTS and earlier the application Disk Utility can be used for editing partition labels:

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Note: after we had changed a label we may have to edit our fstab with the new label in case we mount disks by label.

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From the command line

Replace /dev/sdxN with your partition (e.g. /dev/sdc1).

• for FAT32:

  sudo mlabel -i /dev/sdxN ::"my_label"
  

  or:

  sudo fatlabel /dev/sdxN my_label
  

• for NTFS:

  sudo ntfslabel /dev/sdxN my_label
  

• for exFAT:

  sudo exfatlabel /dev/sdxN my_label
  

• for ext2/3/4:

  sudo e2label /dev/sdxN my_label
  

• for BTRFS:

  sudo btrfs filesystem label /dev/sdxN my_label
  

Answer 2

The easiest way to rename a partition is to install GParted.

sudo apt-get install gparted

Once you have installed this, just launch the program (you will need to enter your sudo password to use the program), find the drive you want to rename, unmount it, click label followed by renaming your partition. You can then just mount your partition again and all should be sorted.

You may find it easier/safer to use a Live CD rather than just via the program itself. As with anything, please remember to back up your data first as you never know, you may run into a bug which causes you to lose data! Thankfully, GParted is a recognised and fairly safe way to deal with partitions.

For more information on what to do, please see this website.

Answer 3

I have recently confronted with the same problem as yours. I am using Zorin, an Ubuntu-based distro, and, every time when I have some problem to solve I turn to the Ubuntu or Linux Mint community in order to find the answer.

For me, the solution was easier than using gparted. I have used Disk Utility, which is pre-installed.

Start - All Applications - Accessories - Disk Utilities

Once opened, you click on the hard drive listed in the left side of the window, and you can see the partitions in the right side of the window. Click on every partition in order to select it (it will turn blue) then, in order to change the name click on the button named "Edit Filesystem Label", and thus you will be able to rename the partition. Do this operation with every of them.

Note that, if you are running Windows on your computer along with Linux, you will notice that the new label will show in windows too.

I hope this helps. (If not for you, then to other users of ubuntu-based distros.)

Answer 4

In my Kubuntu 16.04, first 'unmount the partition' in KDE Partition Manager then right click->Property, then change label name.

Answer 5

Seeing an error like this while renaming ntfs partitions?

Volume is scheduled for check. Please boot into Windows TWICE, or use the 'force' option. NOTE: If you had not scheduled check and last time accessed this volume using ntfsmount and shutdown system properly, then init scripts in your distribution are broken. Please report to your distribution developers (NOT to us!) that init scripts kill ntfsmount or mount.ntfs-fuse during shutdown instead of proper umount.

Try this sudo ntfslabel --force /dev/sdxN new_label

Note: sdxN refers to your corresponding ntfs drive.