Below is a rundown of my system setup:

AMD AthlonXP 2.4 w/1GB RAM
C:=80GB (76GB listed as useable...?)XP=62GB SuSE10=13GB
D:=200GB Ghost Image Bkup
E: & F:= DVD-ROM and DVD-RW
G:=250GB Ghost Image Bkup#2

Partitions for SuSE10
SWAP=1.5GB
/boot=500MB
/home=3GB
/=8GB (only 800MB remaining)
an extra partition was created during install that =
1GB (not sure how this happened).

I've ghosted the entire drive so the above parameters are safe (I hope).What I want to do is to use either Windows Partition Magic 8 or linux parted program (which I've never used before) to reduce the XP partition to something like 50GB or perhaps 45GB...giving me approx. 10-15GB more space for the / partition. Also I would like to delete the "unknown partition=1GB) and use it as well for the / partition. My big concern is how SuSE will react to these changes...will it even boot? In the past PM8 has been a great tool but there has been times when I've had to use that saved image file to restore my system.

Reducing the XP partition is easy but joining that free space along with the unknown partition (total=10-15GB) to the / seems to be the problem I've had in the past. Any thoughts or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

Probably the first consideration is, what bootloader are you using? You are going to change the partition tables with the changes you propose. SuSE probably won't boot if grub is your bootloader. You may be able to boot from cd, then run grub-install to fix that.

Second, don't give PartitionMagic too much to do in one step. I've seen it choke up. Just resize the windows partition and delete the 1 gig partition.

Then, if you have a live CD, boot from that to resize the unmounted SuSE partitions and re-write the partition tables.

Try booting SuSE from HDD. If that fails, boot from SuSE cd and run grub-install. Then try to reboot SuSE.

You may still have to restore that ghost image.

thanks for the input...yes I do use GRUB for the bootloader...so if I follow you correctly...only use PM8 to resize my XP part. and delete the 1GB, then use the 'grub-install' program to rewrite the bootloader code.

Reboot again to see if that works and if so I would then use my SuSE10 DVD install disc to repartition my / ?
Would that join the 10-15GB into the / partition ?
A live CD ?...isnt that a OS on a disc? I have the full install DVD would the same hold true for it (to use it to resize my /)?

thanks for your time...

My bad. I wasn't clear enough about why to boot from a live cd. You shouln't try to resize the SuSE partition while it's mounted, that's why booting from a live cd is called for.

Then run fdisk or cfdisk (from the running live cd) to resize the unmounted SuSE partition to take up the free space you made by resizing windows and deleting the 1 gig partition. Finish the resizing by writing the new partition table, then save and exit the partition tool (fdisk or cfdisk).

Dont'd try to do anything else until you Reboot. I've read somewhere that the partition table changes aren't loaded into the running OS until you reboot. If you fail to reboot and try to install/upgrade/restore/etc, you could end up with overlaping partitions which can really screw things up (been there, done that).

Remove the cd from the drive, then try to reboot. If you're lucky, since the partiion numbers don't change for the windows and SuSE partitions, SuSE will boot. If you are not lucky, SuSE won't boot, and you will have to restore the ghost image.

fdisk...isnt that just for windows...or is that ported over to linux (on my DVD?)...or, are you saying that I need a live image of SuSE10 to be able to merge the space that was made available by PM8 (I understand about the mounting issue). So the only way to do as you suggested (safely) is to use a 'live CD'? Where do I get this 'live CD'?
Sorry for being so confusing...beginning to wonder about other alternatives. Regards

Live cd == Knoppix, Gnoppix, and other distros which are complete on a bootable cd. They contain compressed files, so they run a bit slower because of the need to uncompress files as they are used. Download one and burn it to cd, and you have a backup OS to use for emergency purposes if your Linux installation goes bonkers.

You may also be able to boot from cd/dvd into a running SuSE. I haven't tried yet, so I can't say. Since I got Knoppix, I don't worry about it.

My personal preference for partition table manipulation (as in, making/editing partitions, I use cfdisk. It's text based ala DOS applications. Use the arrow and tab keys to navigate through selections and options. Press enter to make something happen. Very few keyboard inputs.

after digging thru my past linux distro's I found that I do have Knoppix v3.8 already...is cfdisk on that disk or can I find it on my SuSE DVD?...it sounds like a simple to-use program and thats probably just what I need...

So the final Q is where do I find cfdisk?...will keep you posted on the results.