Whats the best software out there for partitioning?

[Ric0h]

Deleting, Adding, Moving, and so on.

I need a software that does that, (freeware or shareware) for ubuntu 8.04

Must handle Windows partitions too.

The only one I know of is gpartion or something like that.

[saikee]

cfdisk is the best partitioning software of all operating systems.

fdisk is the most robust (being the last to be able to read a bad disk) and informative too.

Both are terminal programs available in the majority of Linux distros but Red Hat family (Red Hat, Fedora etc) uses sfdisk in place of cfdisk.

Both support over 100 different partion types. They are "partitiioning" tools. Formatting is done by the operating system itself for whatever the filing system selected.

[con]

Yea, cfdisk wins hands-down!

cfdidsk how-to (http://www.linux.org/docs/ldp/howto/IBM7248-HOWTO/cfdisk.html)

[blackbelt_jones]

Whatever distro I plan to install, if I don't intend to use preexisting partitions, the first thing I like to do is boot a slackware installer disk 1. Disk 1 gives you the option of running cfdisk from the CD before starting up the Slackware installer. It's the simplest, most direct way I know to use cfdisk. I don't usually like to mess with resizing, etc. if I can help it. I prefer to delete the old partitions, and create new ones, period. But I would imagine that anything that can be done with cfdisk can be done easily and directly, simply by booting a Slackware disk, and typing "cfdisk" when prompted to do so.

[rjhythloday]

I prefer gparted.

[saikee]

rjhythloday,

Gparted is alright if you don't have the need to know 100+ partition types Linux supports, hide and unhide partitions, alter the partition types, change the disk geometry, read a disk that Gparted is afraid to touch, understand that partition creation is a different operation to formatting, etc, etc...

[Ric0h]

Can someone tell me how to install cfdisk or gparted?

I dont see any executable files, so I guess it has to be manually done?
I have never installed something on linux, so please give me basics.

[shadowrider]

Can someone tell me how to install cfdisk or gparted?

I dont see any executable files, so I guess it has to be manually done?
I have never installed something on linux, so please give me basics.

as saikee has mentioned, cfdisk is a terminal-based partitioning tool.
open up a terminal, login as root, and do:
#cfdisk /dev/[disk]

[Ric0h]

How do I login as root? I dont remeber setting up a root password, just a username and pass.

[shadowrider]

under linux, root is considered as "super user", so you would do:

try as user:

$sudo passwd

that should set the root password, then you can login to root like so:

$su

ps: "su" supposedly mean "switch user", but if no user specified, then it goes to root(superuser)

[saikee]

shadowrider has beat me to it when I tried to reply with the following.

gparted is shipped with Ubuntu. It is in the menu under the name of Partitions Editor.

If you want to see the partitions of every disk the best terminal command is
sudo fdisk -l

If you want to use cfdisk on device sda, just type
sudo cfdisk /dev/sda

Both cfdisk and fdisk are are of the Bash shell.

gaparted can be fired off at terminal by command
sudo gparted /dev/sda

The addition and deletion of programs inside a Linux is always handled by a package manager. For Ubuntu GUI it is called Synaptic Package Manager. It can be fired off at a terminal by command starting with "sudo apt-get" as in any distro from the Debian family.

[loopback48]

The Command Line (CLI) is your friend. You'll fine it very useful. Most of the time it's not necessary. Many GUIs available to you. But still, the CLI will come in handy.

I also use cfdisk. Download and burn a DSL iso (DamnSmallLinux). I use it to access their cfdisk and partition my disk. Look around for a 'root terminal'. Fdisk it too cumbersome for my taste.

Gparted is also a nice GUI partition tool. Just stop and look at it. Very nice.

By the way, if you haven't notice, when you open a terminal, the $ symbol indicates you are a user. The # indicates you are root. Of course to access root, you'll have to 'su' then your system will ask for the root password. Lots of things only root can do. But be careful doing everything in root.

Little things like this will trip most folks. Hang in there. You'll get it. I know you can.