<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> <title></title> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> On 10/09/09 19:44, Nils Kassube wrote: <blockquote cite="mid200909101944.34810.kassube@gmx.net" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">john d. herron wrote: A screenshot at <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="http://picpaste.com/jdh_partitions_20090909.png"><http://picpaste.com/jdh_partitions_20090909.png></a> displays the layout of partitions on my 40 GB harddisk. I do need to provide more space for the current Feisty on /dev/hda7 and would also like to empty /dev/hda3 to make room for a test-install of Kubuntu 8.04. May I turn to you for advice on the possibilities, if any, of reshuffling the partitions? jdh </pre> </blockquote> <blockquote cite="mid200909101944.34810.kassube@gmx.net" type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Resizing partitions is always risky IMHO. But if you make backups of your data it is possible. What would be your preferred disk layout?</pre> </blockquote> <blockquote cite="mid200909101944.34810.kassube@gmx.net" type="cite"></blockquote> Well, if possible it would like it to look something like this: 1) Leave /dev/hda1 (the fat32 partition) in place, but trim it by about 2 GB. I've already stored most of the win97 stuff in a like partition on a 70%-empty 160 GB external USB harddrive; all I need to do is delete about 3 GB of non-essentials from /dev/hda1. 2) Remove /dev/hda3 after moving its current contents (a skeleton /home directory) to a location on the external USB drive. 3) Move /dev/hd1 free (the hidden 'buffer' partition) to a position adjoining the end of the trimmed /dev/hda1. 4) Remove /dev/hda4 (currently empty; I used it for temporary storage of ISO files to be burned on CDs). 5) Resize (i.e. left-grow) /dev/hda2 to a position adjoining ~ the end of the free /dev/hda1. Thus the extended partition /dev/hda2 would then span ~ 28 GB (commencing at ~ 10 GB and ending at ~ 38.34 GB. Then, inside this enlarged extended partition (/dev/hda2): 6) Recreate a somewhat enlarged /dev/hda3 (e.g. ~ 13 GB) into which to install Kubuntu 8.04.2 7) Recreate a somewhat enlarged /dev/hda4 (e.g. ~ 2/3 GB) next to /dev/hda3, to temporarily store things that don't really pertain to a particular distro. 8) Move the linux-swap partition (which will presumably become /dev/hda5) left, to adjoin the enlarged /dev/hda4. 8) Left-grow the current /dev/hda7 (which will presumably become /dev/hda6), to adjoin the relocated swap partition. Does this sound feasible - and practical - to you? and how should these changes be reflected in grub? It would be practical, of course, if I could install distros to run from the external UBS drive; unfortunately, the box's current BIOS does not contemplate that. Yesterday afternoon I tried to do step 1: qtparted let me enter the change, but did not commit. Am I overlooking anything? perhaps something elementary? or should I use some other partitioning application? Thanks for helping, I really do appreciate. jdh </body> </html>