Questions regarding partitioning
 

I have a dual boot system with Ubuntu 9.10 and Windows XP Pro. I have an older Dell D600 laptop and recently upgraded the hard drive to ~230GB. The BIOS did not recognize that size hard drive so I had to partition it to a 75GB partition for Windows, another 50GB for Windows, 40GB for Linux, and that left me with about 75GB that I was going to eventually use for Linux.

I just used gparted and tried to allocate that unallocated 75GB into to additional partitions but got the following message:
I am attaching a screenshot of what gparted is showing. I would really like to just have the new sda4 partition another Linux partition and then create another Linux partition with the remaining unallocated space. What would be the easiest way of doing this?

Thanks!

Well that's a mess. You need to get that unallocated space contiguous (beside) the extended so it can grow. Then you can allocate another logical within that. You might be able to move sda3 and sda4 up to the end to achieve that - NTFS can be a pain sometimes, but you might be o.k.

Why...

Looking at your screenshot of GParted, I wonder why you did not place the two Windows primary partitions as the first and second primaries, then format the rest as an extended partition with however many logical partitions for linux you would like.

Is it because of the BIOS limitations? If not, you might make another try by deleting everything after your Windows installation on the first primary and starting again.

To me, the best way to set up a disk like that is something like:

Note that some partitioners will expand the extended partition as new logicals are created---others will allow you to set the size of the extended. In either case, keep the unallocated area in or after the extended partition.

OK, I see that I kinda blew it when I set up my original partitions. From what I am seeing, I am allowed three primary partitions and 63 logical partitions on an IDE drive. I take it that all of the logical partitions have to be set up in one extended partition. Am I correct in this assumption?

My limitation is that I am only allowed a partition of up to ~75GB (BIOS limitation for my Dell D600), not sure what the actual number was, it's been a while since I originally partitioned this drive.

I could set up a primary partition of 70GB for Windows (NTFS), and then another primary partition of 40GB for Windows data (NTFS). Now I could set up an extended partition with the rest of the 240GB drive, which would be 130GB. This could be used for Linux and be divided into, theoretically, up to 63 logical partitions.

If all of this sounds correct I am more than happy to blow this away and start over (would rather fix what I have but am not really seeing any way of doing that). Am I on the right track here?

Thanks for all of the advice so far...

NTFS needs a (one) primary partition, and it can be quite small - the other can be a logical. The choice is yours. I find logicals for most more flexible.
Don't plan on more than 15 partitions total - this was introduced with the libata updates a while back. Haven't checked it the limit has been relieved since.

I see no reason for more than five partitions (much less 15). So perhaps one primary partition of 70GB for Windows and then the rest (170GB) as an extended drive. In the extended partition I can then put a 40GB logical partition for Windows data and then configure however many Linux partitions that I need (maybe three, Linux, swap, data). Sorry for the continual asking, I only wish to do this one more time...

Correct---an "extended partition" entry in the main partition table is simply the beginning of a linked list to all the logical partitions.

I seem to still be doing something wrong. I blew everything away and then reinstalled both Windows and Linux. I created a 50GB partition (sda1) and installed XP on that. I never got the option to create an extended partition so I proceeded to create my Linux partitions as logical, the three of them total about 76GB. That leaves me with 107GB as unallocated. When I try to create a partition within that, I only have the option of primary.

Can you tell me what I am doing wrong?

You've filled the extended. From gparted highlight the extended, use the partition menu option to resize it, and drag the right edge all the way to the end of the disk. Then hit resize/move to confirm, and then "Apply" to actually do it. After that you should be fine - may need a reboot.

I'm not exactly sure where the 'partition menu option' is. I assume that you are referring to the graphical partition display at the top. It is not allowing me to drag anything. When I highlight the extended, any reference to resize/move is greyed out and inaccessible.

7002 posts? Wow...

Appreciate any insight :)

Up the top - between "device" and "Help". You running as root ?. From a terminal run "sudo gparted" instead.

I have been running as root, at least it always asks for the root password whenever I start gparted. I started it from the command line as you suggested but as you can see from the screenshot, I still do not have access to resize/move.

Hmmm - I always do it from a liveCD; try that maybe.

I will try that. Is gparted on the standard Ubuntu Live CD or do I need to download it elsewhere and burn a CD? I would imagine that that is the case as I had to install it separately after my Ubuntu installation. I appreciate all of the help tonight. If you ever get to Annapolis, I'm buying you a beer :)