doing away with XP - need to resize main linux partition, but how?

DJCF · 02-24-2005, 08:33 AM

Hi, All!
I'm having a small problem installing MythTV - I'm out of diskspace. I do in fact have a RAID-1 configuration for two 250GB HDDs, but the main linux partition is running off an old 8 gig drive, 4 gigs of which are in use by XP. (Yes, I know, stupid of me.) Give that I've used the XP install exactly once, whereas the Fedora Core 3 installation is running 24/7 as a router, I'd really like to do away with the XP partition and use the entire 8 gigabytes for Linux.

The Partiton Table looks like this: (coppied manually from "Hardware Browser":
Device Start End Size Type
/dev/hda
hda1 1 463 3632 Fat32 /// that's the XP partition i want to get rid of
hda2 464 475 94 ext3
hda3 476 540 510 linux swap
hda4 541 973 3397 extended
hda5 541 973 3397 ext3

The fstab file looks like this:
# This file is edited by fstab-sync - see 'man fstab-sync' for details
LABEL=/ / ext3 defaults 1 1
LABEL=/boot /boot ext3 defaults 1 2
none /dev/pts devpts gid=5,mode=620 0 0
none /dev/shm tmpfs defaults 0 0
none /proc proc defaults 0 0
none /sys sysfs defaults 0 0
LABEL=SWAP-hda3 swap swap defaults 0 0

So, how would I go about resizing my linux partition? Guides I've seen on the Net either instruct me how to reformat the XP drive for ext3, which is good but not what I want to do, or assume you are resizing a data partition - not the main partition your system is running on!

How, then, would I do what I am trying to do?

Daniel

Finlay · 02-24-2005, 01:20 PM

i would use fdisk to delete the XP partition, then use a tool like partition magic to resize the linux partition.

Komakino · 02-24-2005, 01:46 PM

If you have a copy of knoppix or similar lying around, boot to that and use qtparted to resize your disks. Using a live CD means you don't need to mount your partitions which is best when you're resizing them.

I've had a lot of sucess with qtparted

DJCF · 02-24-2005, 02:20 PM

Quote:

i would use fdisk to delete the XP partition, then use a tool like partition magic to resize the linux partition.

Unfortunately, I tried this. The version of PM I have does not support the resizing of ext3.

Quote:

Originally posted by Komakino
If you have a copy of knoppix or similar lying around, boot to that and use qtparted to resize your disks. Using a live CD means you don't need to mount your partitions which is best when you're resizing them.

I've had a lot of sucess with qtparted

Thanks, I'll probably try this. However, wouldnt this mean my mount points would change, as hda2 becomes hda1, hda3 becomes hda2, etc.? And, furthur, wouldn't this prevent FC3 from booting? Lastly, I use grub, what should I tell it to do, and when should I tell it to do this? (Before I delete the XP partition, or after?)

Daniel