Now, I do not need windows partition, so I had in mind to delete it and do:
kill current sda1 & sda2 (boot)
create sda1 ext2 /boot
create sda2 ext4 30 gb /
create sda3 swap
resize & move current sda3 (extended) to fill the gap
kill current sda5 & sda6
create backup partition of that empty space
resize current sda7 to use entire space.
Question: I do not care for any of those partitions, except current sda7, which is PRECIOUS /home. Will moving entire extended and resizing /home corrupt my data?
If you intend to kill partitions, simply enter expert partition mode in the openSUSE installer, tick the partitions on which you want it to install and leave it up to openSUSE; it will ignore all the other partitions.
The only other thing to watch is that openSUSE 11.2 is aware of cohabiting with other Linux distros; but check that it does what you want with GRUB.
I leave nothing to suse or any other thinhg to mess with my partitions on its own!
EVER!
Anyways, Windows will be deleted and Mint overran.
Question was will moving/resizing partitions corrupt data at /home partition.
I ask because it will not only change size, it will change beginning address ( will be pushed left, and then resized)
If it were me, I’d back up home onto an external hard drive (if you have one). The resize will take FOREVER, and if you don’t suffer file corruption you will almost certainly suffer file fragmentation. Moving all that data over USB will take some time also, but nowhere near as long as a partition resize will.
I would agree with pennyless - I made the mistake once to resize my laptop partitions on a Friday and almost missed my flight on Sunday because it was still churning.
Here’s another possible problem: I would not be 100% sure you can mount the resized sda7 as /home without headaches since it’s from a different distro. I would for sure move all the hidden files and folders to an external drive first, or - better yet - put all the files on an external drive, reformat and then after you log into the pristine /home folder copy things back one at a time.
Just out of curiosity: I’ve never been on a Mint system, why do you want to go to openSUSE? What’s the comparison?
This should be work. The most critical thing here is the partition table. So long as sda6 remains sda6 etc…
Resizing can take ages BTW
Backing up is most advisable.
I love openSUSE. SuSE 9.3 was my 1st linux, and I sticked (tried others, though) to it till 11.1 which is total garbage. I needed to find alternative because 11.1 didnt work properly.
Mint Linux, is the best distro of debian based… I have fierce dislike of Debian and it’s derivates. I find DEB package management bad, APT is very stupid (cant downgrade nor install mid-version), and what I dislike most is Debian way of doing things, especially kernel compilation.
In one phrase: I cant make Debian do as I want easily, have no nerves to do it, and I really dont like it.
Mint, however, is THE BEST debian based distro you can have on machine (for desktop usage). I like it very much, but not as openSUSE. OpenSUSE is just “my kind of distro”.
I love openSUSE. SuSE 9.3 was my 1st linux, and I sticked (tried others, though) to it till 11.1 which is total garbage. I needed to find alternative because 11.1 didnt work properly.
Interesting you say this. I stayed away from KDE on 11.1 and 11.1 + GNOME is still running strong on my laptop (which is what I use 95% of the time). In fact, I never thought I would be able to remove the Windows partition and work solely from Linux, but I could make that jump.
Now, with 11.2, I am seriously contemplating going back to KDE, since the eye-candy is really good. It’ll be my X-mas project, unless I find dead bodies in 11.2 on my desktop. So far so good.