Partition redesign

[mk637]

Hi there,

I have a notebook with a 58GB HD. I chose to make one 20GB Windoze partition and a 35GB Linux partition. I only have a boot and a root partition in linux.

3 months later I have to admit, I have miscalculating my storage needs. I need more partitions and the existing partitions have to be resized.

1. I want want to give windoze 30GB because I am going to use it more for multimedia applications. I have a tool that is going to resize my windows partition on the fly. But will that not affect my linux partition? How can I do that?

2. I want to resize my root partition, make it smaller, in order to make two partitions of 1 or 2 GB each, for special purposes. I have not been able to do that until now. parted resize tells me, I cannot resize the root partition. I have been told to boot with Knoppix and I did it, but had no access to my old partitions. Further, my notebook has no good-old disk drive to boot from disk. Remains only to boot from usb-stick, but my stick has only 64MB. I have not found no leightweight bootable linux version for a usb-stick.

These are my considerations so far. Grateful for any helpful thoughts.

[mechmaster]

there is a good program called QTParted. and that you can resize any type of partition. I have really good experiance and it is safe and easy to use. It comes automatically on the yoper download and bootable ISO but im sure there are other places to use it and get it. I have only used it with yoper though but like i said it works like a charm.

edit:

you can even use it while running the knoppix live CD.

[sether]

1. I want want to give windoze 30GB because I am going to use it more for multimedia applications. I have a tool that is going to resize my windows partition on the fly. But will that not affect my linux partition? How can I do that?

what tool is it? it might destroy the linux partition, but it depends what software you are using.

2. I want to resize my root partition, make it smaller, in order to make two partitions of 1 or 2 GB each, for special purposes. I have not been able to do that until now. parted resize tells me, I cannot resize the root partition. I have been told to boot with Knoppix and I did it, but had no access to my old partitions. Further, my notebook has no good-old disk drive to boot from disk. Remains only to boot from usb-stick, but my stick has only 64MB. I have not found no leightweight bootable linux version for a usb-stick.

like mechmaster suggested, qtparted (or parted in your case) is good for the job. but i don't see how you're gonna be able to do this if parted won't work for you and your only means of booting is a usb drive. if you can get knoppix to work, open up a terminal window and type

$ su
# qtparted

because perhaps the reason you didn't have access to the partitions was because you were'nt root. did little hda1, hda2, etc. icons appear in kde on startup of knoppix?

anyways, if knoppix isn't the way you want to go, you can run some distros like DSL (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/) off of a usb drive.

report back what the situation is (i.e. can you use qtparted/parted on knoppix or not, can you boot DSL off of the usb drive, what windows software do you have, do you have partition magic, etc.) and we can help you with your problem a little better.

[mk637]

Folks, first, thanks a lot for your answers!

what tool is it? it might destroy the linux partition, but it depends what software you are using.

It's the Acronis PartitionExpert.

like mechmaster suggested, qtparted (or parted in your case) is good for the job. but i don't see how you're gonna be able to do this if parted won't work for you and your only means of booting is a usb drive. if you can get knoppix to work, open up a terminal window and type

$ su
# qtparted

because perhaps the reason you didn't have access to the partitions was because you were'nt root. did little hda1, hda2, etc. icons appear in kde on startup of knoppix?

I am certainly going to take a look at qtparted. I certailny tried parted and as I said, the problem was - I think - , that you first have to unmount the partition in order to resize it, is that right? And I also tried it as root with Knoppix, but I how can you specify the partition you want to resize, when /dev is in a ram-disc and you don't have a /dev/hda5 in it?

anyways, if knoppix isn't the way you want to go, you can run some distros like DSL (http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/) off of a usb drive.

Thanks a lot. I am going to take a look at that too.

I am going to report you in a week or so. Thanks a lot again.

[sether]

It's the Acronis PartitionExpert.

from the product info page (http://www.acronis.com/products/partitionexpert/) it looks like it can resize ext2,ext3, and reiserfs partitions without data loss. but that's the full (not demo) 2003 version, but i don't know what version you have.

I am certainly going to take a look at qtparted. I certailny tried parted and as I said, the problem was - I think - , that you first have to unmount the partition in order to resize it, is that right? And I also tried it as root with Knoppix, but I how can you specify the partition you want to resize, when /dev is in a ram-disc and you don't have a /dev/hda5 in it?

yeah, you have to unmount the partition before resizing. now i'm not too familiar with how knoppix names hard drives, but i think hda5 would be on /dev/hda5. it should just show up in qtparted though. if you can't find it, just do df -h to find out where it is.

Thanks a lot. I am going to take a look at that too.

you might not need to use DSL or even knoppix for that matter if that partitioning software supports linux filesystems. if it's the full 2003 version, then i would just do it that way.

[mk637]

if that partitioning software supports linux filesystems. if it's the full 2003 version, then i would just do it that way.

I am puzzled, I don't know exactly if the software can do it. One thing for sure, my version is the full 2003 version.

When I started it, it correctly recognized all partition, including linux. When trying to resize my linux root partition, a warning was displayed. The text was the following:
"You are about to change parameters of Ext3 partition.
If this is NOT a bootable partition click on ok to continue.
If this is a bootable partition, you will need to perform some actions to make it bootable after partitioning operations. Please be sure you have your Linux boot disc before clicking ok.

In order to make this partition bootable again you should:
- boot from disk and login as root
- run your boot loader manually
- reboot the system and you will be able to boot linux again"

???

The README says the program cannot handle linux filing systems, which is obviously wrong...

The above was too risky for me, because grub is my main loader, which load windows or linux. I was not sure if i would be able to boot even windows again, and i have no linux boot disk, since i have no floppy drive. I don't really trust the software...

[sether]

that software should work. by "linux boot disk" it's probably refering to either a floppy or the linux cd you installed with. you may have mentioned it earlier, but what distro are you using? it shouldn't be too hard to resize the partition with the software you have.