partition resizer application under linux?
 

I use mandrake 9.2. I dual boot 2 winxp and mandrake 9.2 . I've tried many times to resize a partition with partition magic 8 (through winxp) but all i managed to make was to corrupt my mbr or data. Bad luck.

I wanna know if there is a tested linux program that can resize partitions SAFELY under linux. I also have knoppix 3.3 cd which has qtparted. Will that do the job? Will it work or will i have more problems (loss or mbr dat etc)?

What kind of partition are you trying to resize?

I have 2 partitions in windoooooze : one ntfs (where winxp r installed) and another partition for games which is fat32. I have 1 gb of swap for linux and the rest is ext3 for linux /

PS I have converted my ntfs partition 2 fat32 but that didn't help either

Qtparted is nice but then so is Partition Magic and both programs normally will do the job. Also resizing from the command line works fine with me. :) However, if you are having a lot of problems resizing and you aren't comfortable with losing data, I think the best bet is to make an image with Norton Ghost. Then when you have an image saved on cdroms or even on the other hard drive, you can restore from that image and select a smaller or larger partition area ( resize ) at the time of restore.

I can hear the groans from the linux gurus now but using Partimage ( linux product ) works nice if you are able to or know how to resize partitions. :)

One thing, I recommend that you defrag the Windows partitions before making the image.

doesn't mandrake come with a partitioning tools itself? look under the mandrake control panel

also, qtparted is about the same as partition magic (qtparted is a spiritual clone of pm and both use quite different tools)

typically, i have never had a problem with PM (used it from day 1 of linux using and still use it today); definitely make sure you do defrags in windows and a scandisk while you're at it

In my experience with PM, I've learned these two things are important:
1) Dont't give it too many things to do before clicking on the command to apply your selections. I've managed to get it to choke up a few times. I finally decided to just give it one or two things to do, update, then select a couple more to update, etc, until the job is done. Doing it that way, I don't have problems anymore.
2) If the partition you want to resize (larger) is not the last one, you'll have to start with the last one. Increase the backend size, then decrease the frontend size. Then do the same for the second to last, etc, until you get to the partition of interest. Then just enlarge the backend size to take up the space you've freed up. Decreasing the size of a partition shouldn't be a problem. Just decrease it my the amount you want, and increase the next one in line to take up the freed up space.

I use BootIt which works with all OSes. You put it on a disk and you can boot with the disk and manage your partitions. It hasn't done me any bad.