5th partition without format

Question

I have a 500gb hdd with 4 primary partitions: sda1: ubuntu, sda2: swap (2gb), sda3: win8.1, sda4: logical (sda5 & sda6) storage.

while creating all these partitions, i inadvertently left 7gb unallocated (adjacent to sda3) now i want to create a backup partition (probably bootable,don't know) to use with the dell backup utility but can't since i already have 4 primary partitions :/

i thought about removing the swap partition as i have 4gb of ram, but i read thousands of threads and i'm still lost.

is there a way that i can create such a partition without loosing any data? btw, if someone could tell me how, it would be very kind.

Answer 1

Since you've stated that your extended partition has 2 logical data only partitions on it, you could always move that partition to the left, and then extend it to eat up the 6gb of space. You will then be able to create a 6gb logical partition.

Steps:

1. In terminal type "sudo apt-get install gparted".
2. Go to the Unity Dash, and search "gparted". Click the Gparted result to run Gparted.
3. Right click on the extended partition, and choose "Resize/Move".
4. Change the "Free space preceding" entry to "0", and click "Resize/Move". [To make the button clickable you may need to click into one of the other boxes first, but don't edit them.]
5. Click the checkmark at the top of Gparted, and then click "Apply" in the prompt to apply the changes.
6. When it finishes you can click "Close". Gparted will re-scan your devices, and you should now see the free space listed in your extended partition.
7. Right click on the free space, and choose "New".
8. Enter you desired partition paramiters, and click "Add". Click the checkmark, and then click "Apply" to apply the changes.
9. Click "close". You now have another partition! :)

Notes:

• Never move partitions that have an OS on them, or are being used by a program that will expect them to be in specific place unless you know what you're doing as this can have dire concequences like inability to boot and operating system.

• Always backup your entire hard drive (or at least data on the partitions you're modifying) before engaging in any kind of disk management activities, because it only takes one error to change your life forever.

Additional Resources:

• Gparted Manual: http://gparted.org/display-doc.php?name=help-manual

• What disk partitioning is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning

• What Are The Risks Of Partitioning Drives: https://superuser.com/questions/402569/what-are-the-risks-of-partitioning-drives

• Disks, Partitions, Partition-tables, and Filesystems: http://paste.ubuntu.com/7682570/

Answer 2

You could extend your logical partition to include that free space, then create a new partition there, if the space is between sda3 and sda4. If not, then just move sda3 so the free space is adjacent to sda4. Moving partitions can take a lot of time, up to several hours.

It's a relatively easy operation if you use a live DVD (or USB disk as I prefer) and gparted.

Note: Removing your swap partition is not recommended, it can ruin your day to run out of memory at some point. The recommended size for swap is at least the same as your RAM, but preferably, twice the size. See the Community Wiki for more details.