Overlapping Partitions (resolved)

[johnmart]

After I updated my MimiMe2010 to the 2.6.32.11-pclos2.bfs kernel, I received an error message that I have overlapping partitions.

Here's the result of fdisk -l


Disk /dev/sda: 320.1 GB, 320072933376 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 38913 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Disk identifier: 0xaaf6aaf6

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        3191    25631676    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            3211       10136    55633095   83  Linux
/dev/sda3            3192       38913   286936965    5  Extended
/dev/sda4           10137       19748    77208390   83  Linux
/dev/sda5            3192        3210      152586   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6           19749       21316    12594928+  83  Linux
/dev/sda7           21317       21825     4088511   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda8           21826       38913   137259328+  83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order
++++++++++++
sda1 is an empty ntfs part
sda2 is my old pclosupdated 2010 /
sda4 is my old pclosupdated 2010 /home
sda5 = old swap
sda6 = current /
sda7 = current swap
sda8 = current /home

I searched the forum & found a good bit of related info, but each situation was very different from mine & I wanted to post my specifics. Actually I don't completely understand the problem & the fdisk -l report!

I created everything with harddrake during pclos installs, using custom partitioning.
And everything runs great, so I don't want to bust what is working fine.   (I have done that)
My plan had been to remove the old linux partitions-sda2, 4, 5 and move them in front of the empty space.
Will that set things right?
Appreciate any insight!
John

[Old-Polack]

johnmart:

You can't move the partitions as you suggest. They are where they are. Your problem is you have what are currently called sda2 and sda4 set as primary partitions when in fact they are logical partitions. The partition numbers 1-4 are reserved for primary partitions. Logical partitions always start counting at 5. If you delete the two partitions, one at a time, then recreate them as logical partitions, using the same start and end cylinders, then run the f command from fdisk, the partitions will be properly ordered. If your installations all use UUID numbers, or labels, the worst that would happen is you'd need to edit some of the (hd0,n) entries in your master /boot/grub/menu.lst. Doing this with fdisk will not lose any of your data, as long as you reuse the same start and end cylinders of each respective partition.

I just did this yesterday, not to reorder the partitions, but to increase the size of the extended partition to cover the whole of the drive not covered by true primary partitions, which for some reason was being reported short. This entailed deleting 11 partitions, recreating the extended partition, then recreating all the rest. It took about three minutes, and everything is working fine.

Fdisk is a very simple application to use, with a menu of commands, and all the commands are single letters. You are prompted for what to enter, and given choices, only one or two at a time. Nothing is actually written to disk until you tell it to, and you can back out at any time, without actually touching anything on the drive, if you become unsure of yourself and want to check your information before proceeding.

[johnmart]

old-polock thanks for your reply.
Your explanation was very clear. You could teach partitioning to a 7th grader! 
But understanding & applying are 2 different things. I'll dig in now & see if I can fix it.
Thank again,
John