Okay, this problem is slightly unique. I've checked the forums (not exaustively, I'll admit, but I didn't just skim either), and nothing quite matches this problem. Here goes:

My good friend the windows user over here has been using Windows 2000 for a while. He has one hard drive with the operating system and a few other things on it, and then another drive with most of his program files on it. The OS "System" drive is PATA, 30 Gigabyte, and the "Data" drive is 130 Gigabyte, SATA. He's complaining about some noise in his computer, and I'm reasonably sure that it's the hard drive that his OS is on (it's older, not really made to be quiet or anything). So, this is no emergency, just a matter of convenience, and possibly to answer some curiosity. I have a Knoppix LiveCD here, and I know I hear that it's possible to resize partitions using one of the utilities on there (QtParted, something like that, right?) Oh, by the way, each drive has only one partition which takes up the entirety of each drive respectively. Anyways, what's the best way (if it is possible), to get some space opened up on the second, larger drive, and to clone the OS onto it? I've seen people suggesting dd, but doesn't that only work when the partitions are the same size (granted, I could probably manage that, right?) Just looking for the best solutions to this. Thanks all!

tredontho

For dealing with what is most likely an NTFS partition, dd would be about your only option until one of the LiveCDs gets full NTFS write support on it. And yes, you'd need equally sized partitions... though, you could ntfsresize the first drive WAY down, dd it, and then ntfsresize back up (if you want).

Okay, thought so. Yes, both of the partitions in question here are ntfs. ntfsresize... should I use that to resize the partition on the 2nd drive then, as well? I'll load up the livecd that I have, to see what all I have at my disposal, because it's not the latest version. And I will probably post on here the steps that I think I should take, just so it gets checked... I would hate to make a mistake here, although theoretically since I'm not erasing the data on the first drive, I could always just use that... Thanks for the heads up!

tredontho

ntfsresize resizes filesystems not partitions.
Go get the gparted liveCD - it does both in one GUI-ified utility.

I used it yesterday to do just this, to make room so Ubuntu could be installed.

Edit: ntfsclone is available from the same people who make ntfsresize - might be worth a look as well.

syg00, thanks for the correction there, my mistake. I realized that afterwards, but figured you'd all know what I meant, and correct me in any case. I looked into ntfsclone, and it looks like GParted can do pretty much the same thing, and it (GParted) resizes the filesystem and partition as needed, so it's even better, from what I can tell. I downloaded the ISO, and just finished burning it. Some other issues which may need attending, though:
Whilst reading the ntfsclone page, it mentioned that Windows usually will not boot unless partition is the same, starting sector is the same, etc. Is there any way I will be able to resolve these issues? Also, copying the OS over won't mess with the rest of the drive, as in making it think it's smaller than it really is, or anything like that, will it? Sorry for the total n00bness of these questions, but they seem to be concerns others have had, looking at the forums, and the answers aren't always clear. Thanks for the help!

tredontho

gparted uses other utilities to do the grunt work - including ntfsresize and libparted. It's a (GUI) front end.
If you look at the homepage for features, you'll see that you can copy but not move a NTFS partition.

I guess I misread your requirements. Resizing (in-place) works fine; ntfsclone creates a backup in case it all goes to hell, and you need to restore.
As for moving it to somewhere else, I'd be inclined to believe the folks that wrote the code.