I have root / in a 5.0 GB partition, starting at 0 up to 652, an en empty 4.8 gb partition at 652 to 1274. Question is is there any way to extend my root partition to the empty one, or can you back up repartition and then restore, using the SuSe 11.0 DVD?
Have you looked at gparted (do a search for it) and whether it supports this operation?
Gparted will allow you to delete the empty partition and resize the adjacent partition to take up the free space. But only when the root partition is not mounted (i.e. when Suse is not running on it). So you can do the operation by booting up the live CD of Gparted and operating on the hard drive from that vantage point. [backup any endangered data first].