[kde partition manager] want to size up a partition

I just looked at the “posting permissions” and unfortunately I’m unable to insert the screen copy of the kde manager’s representation of the goal I want to hit.
So, I will try, with my poor english, to explain it with words and to be as clear as possible.

I got a dual boot system with 4 hard disks and grub installed on /dev/sdd1.
Windows xp sp2 (only used for professional audio tools, don’t whip me ^^) is installed on /dev/sdc1.

The disk sdc is partitioned with the following settings:

/dev/sdc1   *           1         498     4000153+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdc2             499       18922   147990780    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sdc5             499        1494     8000338+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdc6            1495       18922   139990378+   7  HPFS/NTFS

When I partitioned the disk I was believing 4 Go were sufficient for windows xp but after years I realized that many applications were using the C: by default (no way to change it thru regedit or another workaround, f*****g hardcoding probably) installing stuffs and under windows this is impossible to use such blessed things like the unix’s symbolic links !!! So right now I’m a little tight with the remaining space to work with windows xp. (Of course the swap file has been moved to another partition since the first day I installed xp…)

The idea I have is to use the 7Go of unused space on this disk to size up the /dev/sdc1 partition.

When using kde partition manager I noticed that there is no way to use the unused disk space to size up /dev/sdc1 directly.

Do you think if I create a partition with the 7 Go of unused space that there is a way to size up /dev/sdc1 without messing up the bootloader ? I don’t think GRUB matters about the new partition, it should get the /dev/sdc7 entry.

*For the backup there is no problem this partition is completely backed up every two weeks (as an image) so the datas may not be lost as a real catastrophic… but if there is danger for the other partitions… that’s will be more annoying… but solvable ^^
*

Once partitioned I believe that there will be a way to “merge” the /dev/sdc1 and /dev/sdc7 partitions and then I would enjoy a new xp partition with 7Gb of free space (it would change from my actual 300Mb !!).

Technically it would be possible this is just a question of chaining the different blocks each others and refer to the new space added.
The last block in /dev/sdc1 would point to the first block that starts /dev/sdc7 and “that’s all”… and /dev/sdc7 would disappear as a partition.

Am I right to see the mechanism like this ?
Is there details I forgotten to take in account ?

Thank you for any help you could give ^^

You first reduce the size then you will need to move the partition I assume sdc2. Reduce the size of sdc2 then move it to provide space to expand sdc1.

Note any time you play with partitions always backup your important data.

If you can get rid of sdc2,5 & 6 you could then expand sdc1.

/dev/sdc1   *           1         498     4000153+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sdc2             499       18922   147990780    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA) 
/dev/sdc5             499        1494     8000338+   b  W95 FAT32 
/dev/sdc6            1495       18922   139990378+   7  HPFS/NTFS

At the top level, this disk has two primary partitions, sdc1 & sdc2. sdc2 happens to be a logical partition that contains logical drives sdc5 and sdc6. You can not combine logical drives with primary partitions. A disk can only contain four primary partitions and you can only mark a primary partition active for direct booting. When one of those primary partitions is Logical, the logical partition can contain many Logical drives, as in your drive configuration.

Thank You,

Opps did not notice that sdb2 was an extended?? that does complicate matters.

> I just looked at the “posting permissions” and unfortunately I’m unable
>to insert the screen copy of the kde manager’s representation of the
>goal I want to hit.

easy why to do that: make your screen capture then upload it to
http://www.imagebam.com/ (free!) then paste the URL link into your
post here…

by the way, your english is great!


DenverD
CAVEAT: http://is.gd/bpoMD [posted via NNTP w/openSUSE 10.3]

http://thumbnails4.imagebam.com/9821/e02b0698203231.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/e02b0698203231)
This is the screen copy I wanted to show…

Reading the different reactions, I suppose that I have to backup the entire disk before trying anything… in this case I just have to format the whole disk and then create the partitions as needed… no need to size up.

I was believing that partition manager could help me to proceed without touching the two other partitions that I use; if I have to backup the whole disk, in this case I just have to make a bigger backup with the whole partitions and then restart with the partitioning and then recover all the datas from the different partitions… it is not the solution I expected… I wanted to find a better solution in terms of manipulations on the disk.
During the time I backup then partition then restore the system would be unusable and that’s the key… I need it… and don’t want to pass hours in manipulations (especially backups that takes lotta time) that will prevent me to use the computer.

I have to reserve a weekend to do that calmly ^^

Or this application may work with any loss of data (sometimes I got chance) and would work quickly !!

Whatever I have to backup all the partitions on this disk before I go…

Thank you for your support ^^

You can simply use a partition manager to do the fiddling but if anything goes wrong like you hit the wrong button enter the wrong number power gets interrupted or Mr Murphy comes to call you put your data at great risk. Backing up is to protect against accidents. If all goes well you do not need to restore the data.

Yep !! Magic is not part of the informatical sciences ^^

some pray god/allah/jah/buddha/whatever their believings, some relate to Linux ^^

I’ve got so much bad experiences with Windows that Linux saved me so I discovered in myself a spiritual person ^^

*Example: the hard disk stucks at boot under windows, no way to get to the desktop… boot on Linux (or live cd) and then copy (where du -hsc doesn’t says I/O error when checking the target folder) all the disk’s files and then save 95% of the data of the disk where bad sectors are located, zero format the hard disk (less pain), normally it marks the bad sectors and then restore the data…
*