<html>
<head>
<meta content="text/html; charset=windows-1252"
http-equiv="Content-Type">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<br>
<br>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 7/12/2015 5:50 AM, Richard Shaw
wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAN3TeO11spnByO-hK-YQLuc7Fm58L1g=X_iVFBeV5-gxZco5pw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">
<div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_extra">
<div class="gmail_quote">On Sat, Jul 11, 2015 at 12:49 PM,
Simon Hobson <span dir="ltr"><<a moz-do-not-send="true"
href="mailto:linux@thehobsons.co.uk" target="_blank">linux@thehobsons.co.uk</a>></span>
wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0
.8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><span
class=""><br>
</span>There is a slight problem ...<br>
1 is OK, 2 is OK, 3 is OK, as is 4<br>
But, after these 4 steps you are left with your EXT4
partition at the beginning of the disk, with the XFS
partition following it. When you shrink the EXT4 partition
the second time, you have a gap which is *before* the XFS
partition - and to extend it, (AFAIK) you'll need the
space after it. That means you have to physically move the
XFS partition each time - and that's a critical operation
which could easily lose your data if it gets interrupted.</blockquote>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I wonder if I can shrink the front of the ext4
partition then?</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks,</div>
<div>Richard </div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<br>
</blockquote>
Any partition operation has a risk that is greater than zero. <br>
<br>
There is always a chance that a pre-existing pysical issue with the
drive or file system issue that has gone<br>
unnoticed will become a noticeable issue when you try to change
things.<br>
<br>
Changing the trailing end of the partition to make it bigger.<br>
Quick, no file have to be move, pretty safe.<br>
<br>
Changing the trailing end to make the partition smaller.<br>
Odd are a least some data will have to be moved to fit withing the
new partition boundaries.<br>
More changes more risk for error during to operation, more time,
bigger window for something to happen<br>
that would cause an interuption. Still usually not that long of an
operation and fairly safe.<br>
<br>
Any change that moves the beginning of the parition, no matter how
"small" is a major undertaking that will<br>
cause the entire partition to be re-written. <br>
Long operation, much more risk that something could be done
incorrectly or that something might happen<br>
that will interrupt the process.<br>
<br>
My personal tactic would be to free up enough space so the newly
resized partition will be some gigabytes<br>
less than %50 of the drive, but still leaving some gigabytes of free
space within the shrunken partition, moving<br>
the trailing end of the partition to the desired size.<br>
<br>
Then copy the resulting partition to the end of the free space.<br>
<br>
When satisfied that everything looks good, delete the partition at
the beginning of the drive, create the new<br>
one, copy the data.<br>
<br>
When satisfied that everything looks good, delete the extra
partition, expand the other one to fill the free space.<br>
<br>
For myself, I wouldn't consider the reward to be worth the effort,
so would wait until I was ready to get <br>
another drive anyway, set up the new drive the way I want, keep the
old drive unchanged for a few months.<br>
But that's just a personal preference.<br>
<br>
Later, Seeker <br>
</body>
</html>