Is it possible to move Ubuntu on a primary partition to a logical/extended partition?

Question

I'm currently dual booting Windows 7 64bit and Ubuntu 10.10 each on primary partitions. Then on the other 2 partitions I have the manufacturer recovery partition (which I am not sure I should remove...), and then a partition for storage and files.

Ok so now I want an Arch Linux installation on the hard drive, but obviously I cannot create a new primary partition because I already have 4. I found out that linux can run from a logical partition (which you can have multiple of)..However I do not want to format my Ubuntu partition and I'd prefer to keep the data on there all intact.

Is there a way to move my Ubuntu installation (on the primary partition) to an extended partition where I could put multiple logical partitions for multiple linux installations?

Answer 1

absolutely. I have done this multiple times.

1. Copy the entire partition keeping permissions intact and not fallowing symbolic links.
2. Update your /etc/fstab file for the new root partition.
3. Update your bootloader.

done!

Obviously this is a high level overview. But that's the basics.

Answer 2

Make a new logical partition and use dd or ddrescue to copy the ubuntu filesystem to the new logical partition (make sure the logical partition is greater then or equal to the ubuntu filesystem). Use gparted to expand the copied filesystem to the partition size. Install Arch linux on the old ubuntu partition. Make sure your boot loader configuration corresponds to the correct partitions