I would like to ask if its safe to resize a partition containing Mandriva Linux 10.1 to a larger size using partition magic 8.

Before installing mandriva i created a new partiton (4 gigs, linux ext2) in windows using Pm8 and i installed mandriva there. But I didnt know that linux couldnt access my other drives which were NTFS so now i need to resize my linux partition to something bigger. I have a dual boot system and want to do this through windows using partition magic 8. Would this be a safe procedure? or are there any risks that i should be aware of.

You could do that also from Mandriva. There is a nice GUI utility in MCC, just have a look in

there. Of course, if you resize your partition, there is a risk of losing data from the partition

you will take space from. Back up is always necessary for all your critical data. One thing that

is not known about linux (I did the same as you did, i.e. create an ext 2 partition to install

linux) is that (with Mandrake at least) the installer takes care of all the trouble and let you

create the required partitions...

I don't know how good PM8 is (although if it claims to be capable then it shouldn't hurt particularly if you're increasing the size) but the generic procedure is to use resize2fs to size down the partition (not needed in your case) and use cfdisk to delete the present partition and replace it with a larger/smaller partition. Afterwards resize2fs is used again to size the filesystem to use the full partition. This will need to be done with the partition unmounted (or mounted read-only) so it's often done from a Live CD (e.g. the rescue mode of the Mandriva install disks). This procedure is generally safe (I have used it on a number of occasions) however the standard proviso with repartitioning still applies - it can go wrong and if it does then fixing it can be tricky at best.

I used Partition Magic 8 to split up my laptop hard drive for XP and Mandrake partitions. Then I realized I wanted to make my Mandrake partition bigger, so I used PM8 again to extend it. Both times the whole operation went perfectly, I lost no data on either side.

PM8 is extreemley good at what it does, ive used it for over 2 years now and never had a problem. I never lost data or corrupted a partition, all in all it's probably the best product when it comes to managing partitions easily.