GParted
This tutorial here belongs to the geekier or the more power-user kind of a segment of the site. Before we start off with anything, just remember to back-up valuable data. We warn you once again that if things go wrong here, there is little chance for it to get restored back to normal. This is a risky process and do only if you know what you are doing.
Partitions are divisions on a hard disk usually created for space management or
multiple boots on a PC. It can be useful for a lot more than just better
organizing your stuff on your PC. Partitioning allows power-users to tweak
around with particular sections of their hard-drive without putting the other
parts contain data in any kind of jeopardy. People who are used to this delicate
process usually use a utility such as Partition Magic, which supports just
Windows based platforms – and costs a bomb. Just in case you are stuck, you
are in a fix with a severe crash, such a utility can be of little or no use. The
power of Linux and its live sessions (starting an operating system directly from a
CD, instead of your hard disk) comes really handy here especially when teamed
with this amazing partitioning tool named GParted – a GNOME front-end
- Resize or Move Partitions
Probably one of the most common tasks that anyone would do with a partition editor. Many at times, people do come under situations where they might like to expand one their partitions using some free space in another partition. With little effort, and a little caution, it is possible to accomplish this maintenance duty. - Format in multiple file-systems
Almost every other major platform uses a different file-system. Windows itself has 3 different types of file-system formats, Macs have 2 and Linux has quite a few. GParted can come handy for users of a variety of platforms, especially those who run multiple operating systems on their machine as it is capable of handling almost every major filesystem in use. - Merge Filesystems and Spaces
GParted gives the user the capability to merge free spaces created into an already used partition. This comes nifty whenever you had new hard drives to add.