Hi,

I've got Redhat9 install on my PC with the disk currently partitioned for /boot, swap and /. I'm having problems with WiFi drivers and I want to install Windows temporarily so that my PC doesn't have to live in the front room next to the cable modem so it can use the internet.

Is there any easy way to shrink and move my / partition so that it remains at the end of the disk while making enough space for a WindowsXP (not my choice :\) install. I know I'll probably have to rebuild the MBR afterwards, but that doesn't bother me. A step-by-step guide up to that point would be useful.

Thanks

ibboard; u left out important info; ie drive size, that said now if it is 40gb or larger no problem. both os,s demand space to store all u would desire. that
is where u will have to decide which to have biggest piece of that (pie) drive. advice; give linux larger piece along swapsize and memory ram, linux
devours ram to run effecient. as to howto http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-
installtion-HOWTO/details.html covers howto in what u need. in section
4.1 the linux os subsections 4.1.4 installations and 4.1.8 partitions and filesystem in detail. advice: expand each section and subsection for more detail information. lots of pages but ingreat detail!

That should be

http://tldp.org/HOWTO/HOWTO-INDEX/index.html

got somehow mangled

I think its a 40GB disk, but thats not the problem. The problem is how to resize and move a partition. Since I've only got the one partition at the moment its always mounted and I've read that you can't do anything beyond expand it when its mounted.

I've tried rescue mode, but umount /dev/hda3 always returns a 'busy' error, even when I'm not viewing it or using it in any way (that I know of)

Thanks

Try parted / qtparted / sparted or partimage for prior backup.

huh? sorry, I don't quite understand how that'll help - qtparted says it runs on parted and that parted can't cope with 'sliding' partitions (or at least thats what I remember it saying somewhere last night). I know of utilities, but I think my main problem is the fact that the partition I want to move and resize is always mounted.

Never heard of those. Can you post a more detailed error description please...

Easy . Get Knoppix or some other live CD and do it from there. They usually mount the hd read-only and you can safely umount everything on your hd and then use parted .

I thought I'd read it on the website last night in the FAQ or something - either that or it turned up in one of my many Google searches!

I tried Rescue mode from an install book disk hoping that I'd be able to do it from there, but like I said before, it wouldn't unmount my main partition (resource busy). I'll try again tonight mounting the disk in read only mode.

And when you ran it on your machine?

You need a live CD, a rescue system uses your installation as far as it can and thus mounts /

I didn't try running it on my machine because I don't have anywhere to back up to.
And as for the live CD option - I'll look at it, but I might be easier trying to borrow a copy of Partition Magic from one of my friends or otherwise using their computer than trying to get hold of a CD.

Partimage should be able to write to CDs inclusive splitting your data in chunks of the appropriate size -- AFAIK, but I didn't try it myself.

Look here for more information about partimage and also here for further links.

Partition Magic is a Windows-program, isn't it?!? :/

I've not got a CD writer!
And I think it is a Windows program, but if the worst comes to the worst then I can unhook the disk and hook it up to a friends PC or create a rescue-type disk (I'm sure I remember Partition Magic having something that loaded on boot-up and was OS-independant). I've used Partition Magic before when I was at home, but now I've moved out and I'm at the wrong end of England to borrow it from my dad!