partitioning advice with QT Parted
 

i have recently shrunk my windows partition thru yast, and now have free space i want to access with linux....i tried to create a logical partition on it using the cylinder numbers i wanted to use, but yast will not allow me use them...i got knoppix, and was playin around a bit with qtparted to see if i could do it that way, but before i do it i wanted to seek some opinions so as not to trash my system....below is my info from fdisk...it was sayin something about unmounting all partitions i think, which scared me so i backed out, and am seeking advice first...can i get format and get access to my unused space between cylinders 786 and 3787???
thanks for your help
aw

this is my return from fdisk:

Disk /dev/hda: 80.0 GB, 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 * 1 785 6304286 7 HPFS/NTFS
Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary.
/dev/hda2 3788 9728 47721082+ f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 3788 3918 1052226 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda6 3919 5224 10490413+ 83 Linux
/dev/hda7 5225 9727 36170316 83 Linux

1. Create a 100MB partition for /boot
2. 4/3 of RAM size for swap
3. remaining size for /

can i get format and get access to my unused space between cylinders 786 and 3787???

I think the best way to use this space on the hdd, is to delete the extended partition.

and was playin around a bit with qtparted to see if i could do it that way, but before i do it i wanted to seek some opinions so as not to trash my system

You should not play around with a harddisk partitionier.

If I understood correctly, you have SUSE installed and want to use the empty space as additional partition?

Have a try with a command-line partitioner (I prefer cfdisk). See if it allows to create a partition from 786 to 3787. You can always exit without writing the partition table.

cfdisk final advice before i re-partition please.....
 

sorry, "playing around with qtpart" was a bad choice of words....i was just looking around in it to see if it gave me the optino to do what i wanted to do...

the second poster is correct in his assumptions regarding the fact that i am already booting suse, and dont need the boot or root paritions, i just want to use the space from a shrunken windows partition that i did in yast...

via cfdisk i have gotten to the point where i think it should be right(and therefore "write" ), but as i am a little paranoid, i figured one more post for confirmation is in order...

in cfdisk it allowed me to hi-lite the freespace partition, and thru-up an option to create new logical (or primary--i chose logical) partition with the free space...then i chose type, and selected linux 83....then it thru up the new partition table which has renumbered the paritions.....it follows a logical scheme, as it changed my original hda5 swap to be my new parition as hda5....then my swap was changed to hda6 (used to be my root), and hda7 became root(used to be home), and hda8 was created as my new home partition...

that makes sense to me....the thing i am paranoid about is, is this just a simple renaming of the old root and home partitions in the partition table, and everything will werk sweet and adjust accordingly???or is this new numbering scheme in the table gonna affect my system???

i wasnt able to specify cylinder numbers, but the size corresponded, so im "assuming" its correct...but that could be a very fatal error sometimes, so..........

below is the current(before) partition table, followed by the "new" one that i havent "write"d yet....can someone double chek this and my thought process for me before i commit it???

thanks alot...i apppreciate it immensely....

before/current:

hda1 Boot Primary NTFS 6455.63 *
Pri/Log Free Space 24693.52 *
hda5 Logical Linux swap / Solaris 1077.52
hda6 Logical Linux ReiserFS 10742.22
hda7 Logical Linux ReiserFS 37038.44
Pri/Log Free Space 16.46

after:

hda1 Boot Primary NTFS 6455.63 *
hda5 Logical Linux 24693.52 *
hda6 Logical Linux swap / Solaris 1077.52
hda7 Logical Linux ReiserFS 10742.22
hda8 Logical Linux ReiserFS 37038.44
Pri/Log Free Space 16.46

i know (or think i know) that the asterisks(*) denotes where the boot loader is, and if thats the case, why is there 2? do i need to fix sumthin about that???

I suggest you create a primary partition instead of a logical. This is for the simple reason that partition numbers will change. I don't even know if you can create two extended partitions. The problem is that the free space is outside of your existing extended partition (hda2), which is not possible for a logical partition.

If the numbering changes, you need to adjust not only /etc/fstab, but also your bootloader. Making a mistake here could mess-up your system. Creating a primary partition wouldn't change the numbering (at least in theory).

Hope I am right, maybe you should wait for another opinion before writing the partition table.

EDIT: Strangely, cfdisk doesn't mention the extended partition, like fdisk does.
EDIT2: Just learned that multiple extended partitions are possible, however I still suggest a primary partition to avoid the numbering troubles.

thanks for the tip, im not sure why i just assumed i couldnt create a useable primary partition for this???or that i needed to do it as an extended???
but now it makes perfect sense....so i did that, and it created it as hda3 and left all the other numbers/drives as they were....

so im thinkin i will go ahead with that, but might wait a few hours to see if anyone posts a dissenting opinion....

thank a lot..
aw

If you have already created free space with yast and everything is good, you should be able to form a partition there safely. You still may have to edit files like abisko suggests.

You can run into 'major' trouble by changing partition sizes or adding partitions once operating systems are installed.

From experience, and some of it very bad, set your hard drive up exactly the way you want it from the first. Once you get into a multiboot environment you take great risk. Be prepared by backing data up and getting ready to start from scratch as the worst case scenerio.