Can I repartition/reconfigure Debian to use extra disk space without wiping everthing?

Question

I installed Debian inside a Virtual Machine on my mac using WMWare Fusion using the default settings (8gig harddrive space) but it's now full.

I've upped the disk allowance in the VWWare settings but is there any way of having Debian use this space - repartition/reconigure - without wiping the data already on the partion (I've already configured most of everything which took a while and obviously I don't want to have to do that all again).

Output of df -h:

Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda1             7.5G  7.2G     0 100% /
tmpfs                 126M     0  126M   0% /lib/init/rw
udev                   10M   80K   10M   1% /dev
tmpfs                 126M     0  126M   0% /dev/shm 
overflow              1.0M     0  1.0M   0% /tmp

Output of mount:

/dev/sda1 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
tmpfs on /lib/init/rw type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,mode=0755)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
sysfs on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
procbususb on /proc/bus/usb type usbfs (rw)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
tmpfs on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw,nosuid,nodev)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,noexec,nosuid,gid=5,mode=620)
overflow on /tmp type tmpfs (rw,size=1048576,mode=1777)

Output of fstab:

# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
# <file system> <mount point>   <type>  <options>       <dump>  <pass>
proc            /proc           proc    defaults        0       0
/dev/sda1       /               ext3    errors=remount-ro 0       1
/dev/sda5       none            swap    sw              0       0
/dev/hda        /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto     0       0
/dev/fd0        /media/floppy0  auto    rw,user,noauto  0       0

Answer 1

Once you have increased the disc space try:

resizefs /dev/sda1

There are two parts to this question.

• Adding the disc space to the machine
• Using the new disc space

Add the new disc space by powering down the machine and then going to settings and make the disc bigger.

To use the disc space it depends which file system you are using and whether you are using LVM or not.

Look at pvresize and lvresize if you are using LVM, after that look at xfs_growfs if you are using xfs. If it is ext3 then look at resize2fs

This might help. I think adding the contents of /etc/fstab would help us help you.

Answer 2

I suggest you use a boot up disk of GParted, available from distrowatch, to do the changes to your partition.