Partition size for Linux mint

[vinodvinu]

Hi all,
I just installed Linux Mint alongwith WindowsXP. The size of that disk drive (which i choose to install mint) is 7.8GB. I need to add some space to that drive. But how?. A message box was appered when i installed Mint. It shows me that i didn't add any swap drive to that installation. I just avoid that Msgbox beacause i don't know anything about swap space. Moreover, the user guide of Mint showed me that 6.3 GB is minimum required space to install Mint. Will this be a problem ?. Please help me to add a 10GB to that drive. My second request is that somebody please help me to correct the boot menu. I mean when i try to boot my PC, a window came and allow me to choose the operating system which i want. But here in this black colour window Linux Mint is first item. I need Windows XP to be the first item in that window. How to do it. Thanks in advance.
-Vinod chandran

[veedeoo]

Try using partition editor, it is really good. I highly recommend the live cd version .

Warning! be careful with this tool.

On your question about the boot menu , run your pc and then select linux mint. Open your terminal and type

    sudo gedit /boot/grub/grub.cfg

This should brought up your text editor. Copy the text from the editor, close the editor. Post what's on the editor here here..

UPDATE

Here is a good tutorial on mint.

[rubberman]

Boot into Mint, and then post the output of the command (as root): fdisk -l

If your disc has some unused space, you can increase your Mint partition size, and then resize the file system. Also, you can either create a swap partition (best performance), or create a swap file in the Mint partition. Swap is important when your memory needs exceed your RAM. It can also be used for cache memory.

Anyway, when you post the output of "fdisk -l", I can better advise you on what to do. FWIW, I have to do this at work quite frequently when people don't allocate enough disc space to their file systems. In general, the steps are these:

1. Use fdisk to increase partition size.
2. Boot with live cd/dvd.
3. Run the command: fsck -f /dev/sdxN (the partition with the file system you are going to increase in size).
4. Run the command "resize2fs /dev/sdxN" to resize the file system. This assumes you are using an ext2/ext3/ext4 file system. It will work with any of them.
5. Reboot into the native Mint OS.