Zorin 9 rocks. Win7 disappeared. Question on empty partitions.

Dannysoul

Dannysoul

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I finally jumped in and dual booted Zorin 9 with Win7 on my Acer laptop about a year ago.First time Linux. Love Zorin!
One day recently I think I hit the recovery mode selection on bootup INSTEAD of windows and then everything was gone!
Windows simply would not reinstall from factory discs etc. I finally had to stick the disc with Zorin in and voila! It came back! Now I have two 159 GB partitions which are completely EMPTY!
How can I use them?? And I DO NOT miss windows!
 


Hi @Dannysoul and welcome to linux.org :)

That sounds like a bad luck and good luck story. :D
Dannysoul said:
How can I use them?? And I DO NOT miss windows!
Click to expand...

... and that sounds like a man after me own heart :cool:

If you like, you could go to Terminal and type in and enter

Code: 
inxi -Fxs

... and relay me the information derived. That output is worth keeping as a text file, too, for when you're asked on your configuration, and for your own purposes as well.

I'm on Peppermint 8 at the moment, but I'll swing over to Zorin 12.2 I have, and be back.

I'm from DownUnder, so timezones may differ widely, you could let us know your timezone if it is not intrusive.

Good to have yet another Senior in our midst, they are coming out of the woodwork, last few months ;)

Cheers

Chris Turner
wizardfromoz
 
Ok Chris, here it is.
System: Host: dann-Aspire-4752 Kernel: 3.13.0-133-generic x86_64 (64 bit, gcc: 4.8.4)
Desktop: Gnome Distro: Zorin 9 trusty
Machine: System: Acer (portable) product: Aspire 4752 version: V2.15
Mobo: Acer model: Aspire 4752 version: V2.15 Bios: Phoenix version: V2.15 date: 12/05/2011
CPU: Dual core Intel Pentium CPU B960 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3) bmips: 8779.52
Clock Speeds: 1: 800.00 MHz 2: 800.00 MHz
Graphics: Card: Intel 2nd Generation Core Processor Family Integrated Graphics Controller bus-ID: 00:02.0
X.Org: 1.15.1 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: [email protected]
GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Sandybridge Mobile GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 10.1.3 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio: Card: Intel 6 Series/C200 Series Family High Definition Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ver: k3.13.0-133-generic
Network: Card-1: Qualcomm Atheros AR9287 Wireless Network Adapter (PCI-Express) driver: ath9k bus-ID: 02:00.0
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 20:7c:8f:81:32:6a
Card-2: Broadcom NetLink BCM57785 Gigabit Ethernet PCIe driver: tg3 ver: 3.134 bus-ID: 03:00.0
IF: eth0 state: down mac: 20:6a:8a:72:54:47
Drives: HDD Total Size: 2500.5GB (6.3% used) 1: id: /dev/sda model: WDC_WD5000BPVT size: 500.1GB temp: 38C
2: USB id: /dev/sdb model: BUP_Slim_SL size: 2000.4GB temp: 0C
Partition: ID: / size: 151G used: 19G (13%) fs: ext4 ID: swap-1 size: 4.09GB used: 0.00GB (0%) fs: swap
RAID: No RAID devices detected - /proc/mdstat and md_mod kernel raid module present
Sensors: System Temperatures: cpu: 46.0C mobo: 39.0C
Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info: Processes: 199 Uptime: 7:29 Memory: 774.7/3765.8MB Runlevel: 2 Gcc sys: 4.8.4
Client: Shell (bash 4.3.11) inxi: 1.9.17
 
All that it tells me is it is not recognizing the 2 empty partitons of 159 GB each:)
 
It tells me a lot - I can explain it all, or would you rather watch the paint dry? :rolleyes:

Handy to know is that you have the Western Digital, 500GB, and also the Seagate BUP Slim 2TB, very handy for backup.

Are you using the disk for your Zorin access, or is it the installation which was revived?

If the disk, then we can use the GNOME Partition Editor, GParted, to get a better picture of the state of the nation with the empty drives/partitions.

If installed, then you can get GParted the same way you did inxi -

Code: 
sudo apt-get install gparted

#or

sudo apt-get -y install gparted

... the -y merely says Yes to installing it without prompting, this is safe to do when a package is already in your Distro's repositories.

Final question for now is have you made the acquaintance of GNOME's Screenshot, should be in your Zorin Menu?

With that you can take a screenshot of the GParted picture and either upload it with your reply, or else use an image hosting site such as Imgur, Photobucket, Tinypic, whatever, to upload it and then pull down to this site.

With GParted on your top right-hand side of the window will be a spot where you can examine the state of the nation with any other attached drives as well as your /dev/sda.

Wizard out for my night
 
Hi. Yes I'm using Zorin "revived". I found that gparted was already on it. I'll try to send a screenshot. It looks to my untrained eye that #7 is being used for Zorin and the other two on either side are empty. Windows used to be there. They show up in my menu as 2 separate drives. It looks like they can be used for anything, just separate locations.
 

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Hi @Dannysoul , screenshot was fine, picture's worth 1,000 words. This all looks promising. I can give a number of options, and it depends on what you want to do, to advise further.

First up, I would advise safeguarding what you have with the Zorin. Your Zorin is on /dev/sda7, as a Logical Partition within your Extended Partition /dev/sda4. It consumes 20 GiB, so you have either added applications and or personal data, which has effectively doubled it in space consumed since you started 12 months ago. True?

How is the Seagate situated? Can you hook it up, then revisit GParted, and on the top right-hand side where it shows /dev/sda, you can hit the drop-down button, it will likely be /dev/sdb, and take a snap of that and show us?

Very broadly, as I see it, you can choose to rationalise your space on the WD, even move Zorin to top of the partition order, at /dev/sda1, if you wish. You can even use the Seagate to put Linux on, as well as using it for backing up of data.

From the looks of the GParted shot, you have MBR partitioning, and given the Acer's age and the Pentium reference, likely BIOS firmware.

You can put more than one Linux into the space freed up by the absence of Windows, do you have any in mind? Distrowatch is a good spot if you need ideas.
And its page hit ranking page shows what is most often "hit", which presumes downloads of same Distros. Your Zorin uses a GNOME DE (Desktop Environment) and an article on DEs can be found here - https://renewablepcs.wordpress.com/about-linux/kde-gnome-or-xfce/

So you can see now, that your question here

Dannysoul said:
Now I have two 159 GB partitions which are completely EMPTY!
How can I use them??
Click to expand...

... is a little like "How long is a piece of string?" :p, but common, and understandable.

So have a think about it, ask any questions, and once we get an idea of where you want to go, we'll make it happen ;)

Oh, and my Timeshift article is here https://www.linux.org/threads/timeshift-similar-solutions-safeguard-recover-your-linux.15241/ ... and I am thinking the Seagate is a perfect spot to store a snapshot of your whole Zorin, if you wish?

Cheers

Wiz
 
Wow! I feel like I should send you a check after all that! Thank you for opening my eyes a bit more. Yes it makes better sense, so I will read this over and get back to you.
I was thinking about Mint but I'm still very open. I like to do recording so Wine comes into play there. Pretty smart these linux geeks!
I surprised myself and started using the terminal a bit. Lots of good info on that out there. Bedtime now, talk at you later. Thanx again, Chris. .
 
Thank you Jas, succinctly put o_O

@Dannysoul , what Jas (@JasKinasis ) doesn't know about scripting, Debian and a whole bunch of goodies is hardly worth printing about. :p

We have a wonderful think tank here at linux.org, and I learn from them and take notes for my own Wiki or KB (Knowledge Base), very frequently.

So if I am not around much next 4 weeks (selling our old house to pay off the new, and doing the legal paperwork myself to save dough), you won't be left in the lurch, quite likely the opposite.:D

Cheers

Wizard
 
I read ur timeshift article. My eyes are opening a lot more. I'm busy too with my wife in chemo.
 
Well I took ur advice and downloaded Linux Mint! I tried to install it in my external drive with no success so I was finally able to stick it in partition 3. Much confusion but after getting some good principles from you and a little poking around for clues, it worked! Now I can use Mint and/or Zorin. I didn't let the paint dry. Good on ya, Chris! Good luck with the house.
 
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