GParted:Filesystem Manipulator

Jul 14, 2010 by Shivendu Madhava

GParted translates to Gnome Partition Editor. It is used for manipulating filesystems, that is, create, resize, etc. The stand-out feature is that it is used for creating space for new operating systems, and for disk imaging.

The purpose of GParted is to allow the individual to take a hard disk and change the partition organisation therein, while preserving the partition contents.

GParted maintains a very simple GUI. It is downloaded as a “live CD” .iso image, from which a bootable CD can be created for the system.

There are some Linux distributions that are Debian-based, and use a software called apt. Certain others are Red Hat based, and use a software called yum (yumex, kyum). To download and install GParted, use:

# yum install gparted
or
#apt-get install gparted

The Interface

The first window that opens when GParted is started is as shown.

Upon clicking the GParted menu, a pop-down menu is presented.The user can select to refresh the display of the drives on the system. The second choice, Devices, allows to choose the hard drive whose partitions are to be modified. This is useful if there is more than one hard drive. The third option under the Gparted menu is used to obtain more information.

The Edit menu shows two greyed-out functions that are quite useful: Undo and Apply. These options may also be seen in the toolbar. To activate them, you have to choose the partition to be modified.

Then, under the View menu, the Hard Disk Information Panel displays details about the hard disk, such as model, size, etc. This panel is most useful in a multi-hard-disk system, where the information is used to confirm that the hard disk being examined is the one that is wanted. The most important menu is the Partition menu. It allows you to do many operations.

How to use it

Delete is selected if you want to delete a partition. To perform the delete, you must first select the partition. You may also format any partition to a filesystem that is supported in the menu under“Format To”.

The user may also format any partition to a filesystem that is supported in the menu.

Creating a new partition

The New button on the toolbar allows you to create a new partition, if you have already selected an unallocated area. A new window appears and lets you choose the size you want, and also specify the kind of partition: Primary, Extended, or Logical. It also allows you to specify the filesystem.

Link:http://gparted.sourceforge.net