qparted issue: cannot split ntfs partition

[Alex Mandel]

Samuel Thurston, III wrote:
> I just got a new dell laptop and was eager to install ubuntu in a 
> dual-boot configuration with windowsXP.  Since Dell no longer ships 
> install CD's and I don't want to lose any of the suspend/hibernate 
> functions of my laptop, I wanted to resize the NTFS partition to make 
> room for an Ubuntu partiton.  I was glad to see that on the new live CD, 
> qparted is part of the installed packages.  I opened it and tried to 
> split the main partition, still leaving plenty of space for the hungry 
> windows swap file and several gigs of application data.   I rearranged 
> the partition as I wanted and hit apply, and after roughly 30 seconds of 
> progress bar, the partition table redrew... exactly as it was before. 
> I'm a little lost as to where to go from here, I don't really have the 
> scratch to drop on a copy of Partition Magic, and don't want to even if 
> I did.  I tried running an appropriate ntfsresize command with the 
> options set to just show me what would happen, not to actually do it, 
> and it said everything went fine... I am however, hesitant to use 
> ntfsresize in a permanent way as it would seem to have the potential to 
> screw things up but good. any suggestions?
> 
> TIA,
> Sam

I haven't tried the new live disc, but I've used Knoppix several times 
with great success, in fact I'm on a Dell Laptop where I did that exact 
operation.
One quirk of qparted is that the machine needs to see your drive but it 
can NOT be mounted when you try to run the action.
I also found that it hangs occasionally or just doesn't do anything if 
there's something it doesn't like, but it doesn't tell you what it 
doesn't like.

Alex