How can I increase size of my linux partitions

[Cool Surfer]

How can I increase size of my linux partitions pl. I have 2 drives wirth windows xp, mandriva 2008 and vista . I want to use windows partitions free space.

Secondly, the linux partitions i made were
10gb /
12gb root
3gb swap

If I want to install virtulbox > and winxp in it n office 2007 then which of the above partitions should be bigger?
root or home?

[oz]

I'd use the Parted Magic LiveCD:

Parted Magic

[Thrillhouse]

Can you post the output of fdisk -l so we can get an understanding of your partitioning scheme? The output of df -h might also be helpful.

Also, you say you've dedicated 10 GB to / and 12 GB to root. This is confusing because / is often referred to as the root partition. Can you clarify that?

On to your question, you can manipulate your partitions with fdisk but unless you are very familiar with that command and with your partition structure in general, I wouldn't recommend doing that. I would download and burn the GParted Live CD. It is very intuitive and very user friendly. Just burn it to a disc like you did the Mandriva installer and then run it as a Live CD and you'll be able to easily resize your partitions.

If I want to install virtulbox > and winxp in it n office 2007 then which of the above partitions should be bigger?
root or home?

To be safe, I would add space to /. That increases your entire system's storage space whereas if you added space to home and somehow save your virtual machine outside of home, the VM won't have access to that new space.

EDIT: ozar beat me to the punch.