[ale] BootitNG and NTFS resizing results

[Dow Hurst]

BootitNG is a wonderful tool!

You download the full package as the usual shareware deal.  For Linux 
users you just unzip the file and then dd the img file that is provided 
to a floppy.  Then you can boot your problem machine with that floppy.  
The program boots you into a GUI environment that lets you do all kinds 
of very helpful stuff.  So here is what I had to do:

It was a Dell Inspiron 8500 with lots of bells and whistles that came 
with XP Pro in the second partition and the little Dell partition 
first.  I had already used ntfsresize to split the large partition in 
half (which was as far as it could go).  So I had installed SuSE 8.2 
with a couple of mouse clicks into that third partition.  SuSE 8.2 
installation auto-selected to create an extended partition with swap 
being first and / being second.  I accepted that since I hadn't gotten a 
solution to making the NTFS filesystem smaller.  The install quietly did 
it's thing for about an hour from the DVD with no need for me to 
intervene.  The result was the following partition table and two 
installed working OSes:

/dev/hda1  Dell 32Mb     primary
/dev/hda2  XP Pro 22Gb   primary
/dev/hda3                extended
/dev/hda5  Linux swap    first logical
/dev/hda6  Linux /       second logical

Now, BootitNG lets you do what it calls "Partition Work" which involved 
selecting the /dev/hda2 and resizing the NTFS from 22Gb down to 6Gb.  
This was without using any type of defragmenter to overcome the problems 
that ntfsresize had run into.  So I had new free space that I wanted to 
put in the Linux root partition or /dev/hda6.  Here is what the table 
looked like at this point:

/dev/hda1
/dev/hda2
freespace  not part of /dev/hda3 extended partition
/dev/hda3
/dev/hda5
/dev/hda6

So BootitNG let me add the free space to the extended partition 
/dev/hda3, but obviously this space is physically added to the beginning 
of the extended partition.  So somehow I need to get the free space put 
at the end of the hard drive, and not leave it in the middle, so that I 
can append it to the Linux root partition which is still physically the 
last partition on the disk.  BootitNG let me slide the swap logical 
partition, /dev/hda5, to the beginning of the extended partition.  I 
then "slid" or physically moved the Linux root down as well, which put 
the free space at the end of the extended partition, /dev/hda3 just like 
I needed.  So the table looks like this now.  At this stage I have no 
idea yet whether anything is still viable on the drive after all this 
moving:

/dev/hda1
/dev/hda2
/dev/hda3
/dev/hda5
/dev/hda6
free space  now part of the extended partition

I exited BootitNG at this point since I needed to do two more operations 
to finish.  (If I knew more about BootitNG menu I could have skipped 
using fdisk)  I booted off the first SuSE 8.2 CD into the "Rescue 
System" SuSE provides which is very complete for tools and hardware 
recognition.  I ran fdisk on /dev/hda and deleted /dev/hda6.  I then 
remade it with the same starting point but made the ending point so that 
all that extra free space was taken.  Once I committed the changes and 
got out of fdisk, I ran resize_reiserfs on /dev/hda6 and was finished.  
Crossing my fingers I booted from the hard disk and found Grub intact, 
XP booting fine, and my Linux install booting just fine.  No errors and 
no problems.  I am rather new to this kind of fiddling with resizing of 
file systems and messing with partitions so I am impressed right now big 
time!  But this tool saved me lots of time and headaches along with a 
bunch of money.
Dow

-- 
__________________________________________________________

Dow Hurst                  Office: 770-499-3428
Systems Support Specialist    Fax: 770-423-6744
1000 Chastain Rd. Bldg. 12
Chemistry Department SC428  Email:   dhurst at kennesaw.edu
Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com
Kennesaw, GA 30144
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