So I installed Linux and Windows on my laptop, but I'm beginning to discover that I use Windows less and less every day. So I wanna delete my Windows partition, and expand my root linux partition to reclaim that space.

Here's my partition information:
/dev/hda1, from 1 to 381, FAT32.
/dev/hda2, from 382 to 993, Extended
/dev/hda3, from 382 to 960, Linux
/dev/hda4, from 961 to 993, Swap

What I wanna know is, is it possible to delete that FAT32 partition and resize hda3 to take up the available space? Or should I just backup a few files and repartition the whole drive?

Partition Magic

Okay, but how about a FREE solution?

what distro do you have? you may want to snoop around and see if there's some file tools in there. i know mandrake 8.2 has one. and i did something similar to what you are doing, but it was before i put anything on my ext partition. i partitioned with partition magic and then booted from a mandrake cd, and i didn't have enough space on my ext partition, and it let me alter that.... but i really can't remember if it formatted it or not... sorry

Well, I've got Red Hat 7.2. I've looked around with Google and I haven't found much information on this. ext2resize seems to be able to do it, but the documentation's really sparse.

I'd feel more confident about this if I were resizing my primary partition (the FAT32 partition) to take over the entire drive.

Partition Magic is really the best idea, but I'm poor so I can't afford it

Have you looked into gnu parted? It may do the job for you. If you can't seem to get things right, feel free to email me and ask for help...

If I was you I'd format the fat32 partition and move /home to it.

Sounds like a good idea... how would I do that? And, is there a way to ensure that programs will install to that directory only, instead of scattering themselves to /usr/share/doc, /usr/bin, etc.?

first use cfdisk/fdisk whatever to change the type of the partition to ext2. then format it using:

mke2fs /dev/hda1

that's it really. you'll then need to graft which ever partition over onto it, but i don't wanna explain it all, have a search, or wait for someone else to tell you! if you can use ext3 add a -j to the mke2fs command and that'll automatically make it ext3. then just edit your /etc/fstab

oh and stuff partition magic. no need. ever. Mandrakes installation cd is really handy at times tho. diskdrake is really good for resizign and stuff.

as well as making a /home or /usr (i'd recommend moving /usr personally, but that depends how big your partitions are) being easy, it's also safer, as you'll not alter the partition references, which can be no end of trouble.

oh and as for that scattering thing... everything goes where it does for a reason. but having a dedicated /home or /usr will not cause any trouble like that. if one thing is heading towards /usr/bin, everything else will likely go somewhere in /usr with it...

You can direct where programs compiled from source install by using the --prefix switch with ./configure, do "./configure --help" to see the options for a particular program.

Hmmm... an interesting turn of events...

I deleted my MSDOS partition with Partition Magic, but now parted and nparted report my table geometry like this:

/dev/hda: IDE-FUJITSU MHC2040AT(128-63-993 512MB/sec) 3909Mb
/dev/hda-1: free Cil:(1-382) 1500MB
/dev/hda1: primary Cil:(382-960) 2279MB ext3
/dev/hda2: extended CIL: (961-993) 129MB
/dev/hda5: logical Cil:(961-993) 129MB linux-swap

Now, what the hell is up with that hda-1? I can't format it 'cause mke2fs doesn't recognize anything called /dev/hda-1...

I'm getting the impression that I should just reformat this entire installation and start from scratch.

see.. now you *REALLY* should follow instructions. you shouldn't have deleted the partition. only change the type. you've no reason to use apps like parted. you ONLY need fdisk and such.

you should be ok you recreate the partition as ext2 and everything should fall back into place. as you'ev deleted it, the partition number have changed, no handy.

preusmably hda-1 means hda minus one, implyign it's not a partition. not seen it before tho.

I've been looking through the man entries for fdisk and sfdisk and I haven't seen anything about renaming partitions as ext2... am I missing something obvious here?

heh, yes.

cfdisk:
t Change the filesystem type. By default, new partitions are created as Linux partitions,
but since cfdisk can create partitions for other operating systems, change partition type
allows you to enter the hex value of the filesystem you desire. A list of the know
filesystem types is displayed. You can type in the filesystem type at the prompt or
accept the default filesystem type [Linux].

just run cfdisk, and you'll get a usable interface.

In cfdisk you go to "type" to change a partition.