Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3: System Administration Guide
Prev | Chapter 2. Swap Space | Next

# 2.3. Removing Swap Space

To remove a swap partition:

1. The hard drive can not be in use (partitions can not be mounted, and swap space can not be enabled). The easiest way to achieve this it to boot your system in rescue mode. Refer to Chapter 11 Basic System Recovery for instructions on booting into rescue mode. When prompted to mount the file system, select Skip.

   Alternately, if the drive does not contain any partitions in use, you can unmount them and turn off all the swap space on the hard drive with the `swapoff` command.

2. At a shell prompt as root, execute the following command to make sure the swap partition is disabled (where `/dev/hdb2` is the swap partition):

       swapoff /dev/hdb2

3. Remove its entry from `/etc/fstab`.

4. Remove the partition using `parted`:

   - At a shell prompt as root, type the command `parted /dev/`hdb``, where `/dev/`hdb`` is the device name for the hard drive with the swap space to be removed.

   - At the `(parted)` prompt, type `print` to view the existing partitions and determine the minor number of the swap partition you wish to delete.

   - At the `(parted)` prompt, type `rm `MINOR``, where `MINOR` is the minor number of the partition you want to remove.

     | Warning
     | Changes take effect immediately; you must type the correct minor number.

   - Type `quit` to exit `parted`.

To remove a swap file:

1. At a shell prompt as root, execute the following command to disable the swap file (where `/swapfile` is the swap file):

       swapoff /swapfile

2. Remove its entry from `/etc/fstab`.

3. Remove the actual file:

       rm /swapfile

Prev | Home | Next
Adding Swap Space | Up | Moving Swap Space