Solved Making free space usable

[Erik Groothuijzen]

Me again. I have managed to clone my existing Linux Mint system on mu 240G SSD onto a 1TB usb hard drive. The disks app shows the whole drive with 260G being free space that the OS does not see. I have installed the Gnome disk utility, but cannot see the external drive to make the free space usable. Any pointers?

 

[GatorsFan]

With you external drive plugged in reboot your machine
What is the output of

lsblk

does it list your device

 

[Erik Groothuijzen]

I can see it in the disks app, but cannot get to it to alter the free space.

 

[GatorsFan]

I can see it in the disks app, but cannot get to it to alter the free space.

Have you tried GParted ?

 

[Erik Groothuijzen]

Yes. Can't see the USB disk.

 

[GatorsFan]

Yes. Can't see the USB disk.

what format is the USB disk , Exfat, ntfs, ext4 ?

use

df -T

if you do not know it should show the file format

 

[Erik Groothuijzen]

In disks it looks like this

 

[osprey]

There is 760G of free space, not the 260G mentioned in post #1. Maybe a typo there.

With @GatorsFan command, there should be a space between the df and the -T. That should get a result. The font on the forum can be a bit confusing.

What do you wish to do with the 760G of free space?

The free space can be added to the 240G partition to enlarge that partition by 760G.
Or the 760G can be made into a single partition itself which could be mounted into the filesystem of the installation on the 240G partition to become usable by that installation.
Or the 750G could be divided into smaller partitions for some other uses you may wish to implement.

The Gparted program mentioned by @GatorsFan in post #4 is able to execute any of those preferences.

In the case of the "df -T" command, it won't see a usb disk unless the usb has been mounted and provided with a device name by the kernel. You can try the "df -T" command with the usb mounted and unmounted to check that.

 

[GatorsFan]

But the free space should be formatted to the same file extension you are wanting to add to first - so the 760GB of Free Space needs to be formatted to the ext4 format before you can add it to the 240GB partition - from your photo it does not look like the Free Space of 760GB is formatted to anything, from what I can see and that is why you can't do anything with it

 

[Erik Groothuijzen]

There is 760G of free space, not the 260G mentioned in post #1. Maybe a typo there.

With @GatorsFan command, there should be a space between the df and the -T. That should get a result. The font on the forum can be a bit confusing.

What do you wish to do with the 760G of free space?

The free space can be added to the 240G partition to enlarge that partition by 760G.
Or the 760G can be made into a single partition itself which could be mounted into the filesystem of the installation on the 240G partition to become usable by that installation.
Or the 750G could be divided into smaller partitions for some other uses you may wish to implement.

The Gparted program mentioned by @GatorsFan in post #4 is able to execute any of those preferences.

In the case of the "df -T" command, it won't see a usb disk unless the usb has been mounted and provided with a device name by the kernel. You can try the "df -T" command with the usb mounted and unmounted to check that.

Mounted or unmounted makes no difference to df -T. When I run Linux from my internal SSD, it sees the usb drive as a 240G drive as cloned from the SSD. I would like to use the 760G just like any other disk, and when I run Linux from the usb disk if required, that 760G must be visible as well as usable space. The only time I see the whole usb disk is with the disks utility, and then I cannot change that portion to make it usable..

 

[Erik Groothuijzen]

But the free space should be formatted to the same file extension you are wanting to add to first - so the 760GB of Free Space needs to be formatted to the ext4 format before you can add it to the 240GB partition - from your photo it does not look like the Free Space of 760GB is formatted to anything, from what I can see and that is why you can't do anything with it

The usb drive was cleared and formatted by the cloning action. There was no option to do anything else with it.

 

[GatorsFan]

The usb drive was cleared and formatted by the cloning action. There was no option to do anything else with it.

there is not going to be any options for cloning restoration - that is what Gparted is for or in Gnome Disk click on the Free Space and go to the + the create Partition then select ext4 once created you should be able to add it to the 260GB

 

[Shail Murtaza]

Yes. Can't see the USB disk.

What is the output of

lsblk -f

Also are you referring to 240GB drive as USB?
And you have 760GB free space your 1TB drive. If you want to make it usable then you gotta format it.
You can choose any file system. ext4 for linux.
After formatting, you will be able to use that free space however you like using your file manager.

 

[Erik Groothuijzen]

I have found it and can now use the free space on my 1TB external usb drive as well. Thank you all for your assistance.

 

[wizardfromoz]

Erik, when you are sure this is solved, you can mark it as such by going to your first post, and at top right click the 3 dots to the right of Watch and do as follows

Only when you are sure

Wizard