Working with disk partitions

[KraskoA]

Hello everyone,
I am running a double boot Windows 10/Linux Mint machine.
At first, when I wanted to just test Linux I have installed it on a 40GiB partition, but now it has turned to be way too small. I have already created two new partitions of around 120GiB in size with ext4 format.
Is there any way that I could make these partitions "workable"(they would show in File Manager for me to write files/create folders etc.)? I mean to make them work the way disk partitions work in Windows.
Thank you for any help.

 

[osprey]

To make the new partitions "workable" one needs to mount them into the filesystem. The 40G partition is likely quite adequate sizewise as a root partition. That root partition will have created a home partition. If you mount another one of your newly created partitions on that home partition, it will become usable, and then you can find another convenient mount point for the second newly created partition. They can all be mounted at boot time if they are configured in the /etc/fstab file.

As for your comment:

I mean to make them work the way disk partitions work in Windows.

you probably would be best to see linux as being different to MS, and with a new set of learnings to be undertaken because the way the two operating systems work is quite different at the level of your inquiry in relation to partitions.

 

[KraskoA]

To make the new partitions "workable" one needs to mount them into the filesystem. The 40G partition is likely quite adequate sizewise as a root partition. That root partition will have created a home partition. If you mount another one of your newly created partitions on that home partition, it will become usable, and then you can find another convenient mount point for the second newly created partition. They can all be mounted at boot time if they are configured in the /etc/fstab file.

As for your comment:

you probably would be best to see linux as being different to MS, and with a new set of learnings to be undertaken because the way the two operating systems work is quite different at the level of your inquiry in relation to partitions.

Thank you, I will surely try to look into the fstab file. Will that also allow me to mount the partitions into the filesystem or should that be done another way?

 

[osprey]

When you configure the mounts in the /etc/fstab file, you add the configuration options that tell the kernel to mount the various partitions automatically, or not. It's possible to mount them manually as well, but that's probably less convenient. There's lots of info on this process but it will likely take a bit of reading and then perhaps a bit of testing. One beauty of linux is that you can test out lots of options and nearly always return to the original position from where you started without messing anything up.

If you set up your system and present some configurations here, I think you'll get the assistance you need. It's not too hard.

 

[KraskoA]

I have managed to add the partition to /etc/fstab file and it seems to be working, however I don't know how may I use the disk space that is now mounted

 

[KraskoA]

Should I use LVM to "expand" the / filesystem?

 

[ML_113]

I dual boot Easy & MX, and manage my 256G this way

1- sda1 200M for limine bootloader (a bit generous)
2- sda2 30G for Easy
3- sda3 50G for MX
4- sda4 - leftover for data

I mount sda4 only when copying data from Easy or MX, for security's sake.
I also copy sda4 to an external USB hard drive for safe keep (the USB drive is plugged into a power bar, which is switched off when not in use.)

To avoid errors I wrote small scripts like this to do the copying

#bin bash
cp -rpn $HOME/* /media/user/datax4/
cp -rpu $HOME/* /media/user/datax4/

NEVER care about the OS/distros - I prefer an install from scratch when things go wrong - for example a messed up update.
Also made a spreadsheet for what I need to do in case of re-install.

 

[dos2unix]

What is output of

df -h

.. and...

fdisk -l

 

[osprey]

I have managed to add the partition to /etc/fstab file and it seems to be working, however I don't know how may I use the disk space that is now mounted

The partitions need to have a filesystem type applied to them, usually using the command: mkfs. Perhaps have a look at the man page. A common filesystem is ext4, so the command would look like:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1

where /dev/sda1 is the partition, and /dev/sda is the disk.

If you've installed LVM, then you'll need to learn how to do it on that. I can't help with that since I don't run it. I believe you could combine your two extra separated partitions into a single "logical volume" partition, but you need to look all that up.

Once the partitions have a filesystem on them, you can use them normally writing to them, installing on them, removing from them etc.