Driver backup for re-ordering partitions

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OK, at this point I'd rank myself a mid-level beginner at most things linux, (which is to say I can edit files in VI without consulting a book or webpage, and I'm very happy about that) which is what I'm getting at on this endeavor and I'd like to ask a little help and/or friendly advice.

I have 55G of space to work with, I'm currently running the entire drive as the kubuntu system I've got running. I've regretted the small amount I chose for swap (default schmefault I needed more than THAT)

My goal: 40G Kubuntu, 10G "let's try this distro today" I've got BSD in mind for an adventure in computing, but I've got a few distros to try

Normally I'd just cp /home/route* /path/to/my/backup/drive, but this is where it gets a little more interesting. It took me half a month to convince kubuntu to play along with the wireless card in this system. I'm a fan of having an internet connection and I'd like to do so without having to do all that again... and without having to dig out my extra cat5 cable.

So where would I find the files for my wireless card to copy, and subsequently paste or overwrite, them into a fresh install. (unless it would just be easier somehow to resize the partitions, but I don't know how to do that so that it still boots)

As always, thank you for your help and I'll do my best to help others in turn.