Re: hfs+ resize gone pear shaped

[David Purton]

On Fri, Nov 11, 2005 at 01:55:54PM +0100, K.G. wrote:
> Hi David,
> 
> On Fri, 11 Nov 2005 15:05:18 +1030 David Purton <address@hidden> wrote:
>  

[SNIP]

> > 
> > ran parted and attempted to resize the partition.
> > 
> > It *nearly* worked, but then right at the end I got a fatal: out of
> > memory error.
>  
> Waouh, it should not happen, but this is the second time we got such a
> report...
> 
> I really want to completely understand what happened to fix anything
> that could be broken.
> 
> What was the version of the first Parted you used ?
> 

It was the latest one available from the ubuntu archives: 1.6.24-4
Once possible source of trouble could be that I couldn't actually
install the debs (the lib comes as a separate deb) since the live
filesystem is readonly, obviously. I just unpacked them to the ram disk
that ubuntu creates and set LD_LIBRARY_PATH so that it would pick up the
right library.

To be honest I think that this is prolly not were the problem lies. The
machine is a laptop with I think only 256MB of ram and I'm not sure how
much ubuntu uses, but it might really be low on memory. The debian
installer I would have anticipated would be much less memory hungry.

I noticed that it took a long time under ubuntu, getting to 98 or 99%
before it failed, but I was not aware that the debian try took nearly
that long.

> > I booted back into OSX to see the damage.
> > 
> > The partition is still listed as 40GB, with 15GB used, but 0 Bytes free.
> > 
> > I then grabed the latest debian ppc net install image (probably should
> > have done this first - you always learn these things too late :( ).
> > 
> > I ran parted again and made a second attempt to resize the partition
> > down to 30GB. I then created a new partition in the freed up 10GB.
> 
> All right, what is the version of this second Parted you used ?
> 

This was the one in the debian etch install disk as of yesterday -
1.6.24-4. I wouldn't be surprised if this were not identical to the
ubuntu one that I downloaded.

> > It worked, but the 30GB parition still reports 0Bytes free. and no more
> > can be written to it. (Deleting data does free up space)
> 
> I think the free space field has been miscalculated, probably because
> it hasn't been updated during the first crash or something.
> 

[SNIP debugging instructions]

> 
> > I then installed OSX 10.4 on the 10GB partition and it boots and works.
> 
> At least one thing works ;)
> 

Yeah - I was fairly relieved that both are still bootable and usable.
Fortunately there is a fair bit of stuff that I can delete on the 10.3
partition to free up space as well.

> > So the question that I need to know the answer is:
> > 
> >     Can I get back the other 15GB on the other partition or is it lost
> >     for ever?
> 
> Probably...

Ah, that's good news.

> 
> >     If so how?
> 
> I need to study your file system structures extracted with
> the special build of parted as explained above.
> Maybe checking and reparing the volume with disk utils
> under OS X will help, but i'm not 100% sure, so if you
> can send me your file system it would be the best.
>

This is a work machine, so I'll try and get to it on Monday.

Thanks for your help,

David


-- 
David Purton
address@hidden
 
For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to
strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.
                                 2 Chronicles 16:9a

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