Resize XP partition for more Ubuntu space

[Charles Malespin]

On Mon, 2005-09-19 at 20:07 -0700, Vram wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-09-19 at 22:01 -0400, Emerzen wrote:
> > 1.) Defrag your Windows partition before doing any resizing.  
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 2.) Grab qtparted or gparted via synaptic (or partition magic for fee)
> > and resize.  Keep in mind that you can only have a total of four
> > partitions on any one disc, however Linux can use LVM to form
> > quasi-partitions.  Since you are only resizing this shouldn't be a
> > problem.  However, it you're going to create any new partitions, keep
> > the total number in mind.  
> > 


So just to make sure, I can resize my windows partition while running
gparted in ubuntu?  I dont need to be running it via knoppix or some
live CD?  And should I back up things just in case, or is this fairly
easy and safe...?  And on that topic, is it enough to just do 
$sudo tar -czvf /home/malespin.tar.gz * and copy my home into a tar file
that I burn onto a cd?  i havent backed up before and I dont have any
other options besides burning CDs(no floppy etc).  Thanks for all the
help so far, 
Charles