Changing reiserfs partition size.

[ErikTheRed]

OK, have searched the forums but can't locate the information. So here goes.

Managed to DataDump all the data from an old H.D. 300GB to a new Extended Partition on the new 400GB H.D.
Sure work slick, but slow.

Need to reduce the size of the 300GB partition which is a "reiserfs" type on the new H.D.
This partition type is apparently un-supported on gparted.

Is there a Live Linux distribution which contains a partitioning utility which will support re-sizing a reiserfs partition?

Thanx in advance for the answers to a stupid question.

[mrrangerman43]

This may help

[ErikTheRed]

Thanx for the quick reply mrrangerman43.
I'll have to "study" the supplied information.
May take a while since I'm on a small pipe from my ISP.
ErikTheRed

[saikee]

One alternative would be to format the new 400Gb hard disk to the desire partition sizes in Reiserfs filing system and the copy the files across.

If the partition has to be bootable then just reinstore the boot loader.

[ErikTheRed]

Thanx for the information saikee.
I was hoping that your suggestion was my last resort.
The longer story is that I'm trying to set-up a multiboot system with about 40 partitions.
Having minimal success using gparted and the limitations of some of the gnome releases not wanting to handle more than 16 (I think) partitions.
Been at it for too long to remember the exact number now.
Had success with mrrangerman43's provided information regarding using reiserfsck utilities and a live Debian distro.
Not to be complaining about free Linux but sure wish there were more consistancies with the utilities and distros.
Probably just better off to start from scratch and flatten the HD.
Thank you again for the replies!
ErikTheRed

[trilarian]

How entangled are you with Reiserfs? It has had many set backs ever since this.

If you copy vs clone (tar vs dd) you could swap filesystems easily. An example: you have 180GB of data on the 300GB, and want to make a 200GB partition for it on your 400GB drive. The 300GB partition is /mnt/sda1 and the 200GB partition on the 400GB drive is /mnt/sdb1. Since you already have a live disc, boot with that just to make sure there are no locked files.

tar vcf - /mnt/sda1 | ( cd /mnt/sdb1; tar xfp -)

This will read /mnt/sda1, compress it in memory, and copy/decompress in /mnt/sdb1 (faster way than just using cp). /mnt/sdb1 can be any partition type, including resierfs, but since you are making a new partition you may want to consider one that has more active support.

You mention things not being consistent between distros, and I agree to a point. However, I find if you learn the older programs they tend to be on every distro. cfdisk instead of gparted for example. You lose the GUI, but its on every distro I've ever used. Same for tar over DataDump. Just something to consider, not a "You're doing it wrong". I was frustrated too, until I found which programs were always available.

[ErikTheRed]

Thanx trilarian for the detailed reply!

Yep, I have definately decided to do away with the reiserfs.
It was just too long ago since i set-up the old 300GB system.
I fully understand that things change in "our industry".
Yep, a little frustrated at the newly released distros. See previous disclaimers from me regarding this.
Have a latest Live Distro with gparted 0.12.0 and then it can't handle more than 16 partitions but have an earlier distro release which handles more than 16 partitions but does not handle as many filesystem types as the latest one.
Thanx again for the details.
ErikTheRed