How do I format and resize my SSD?

[Shabakthanai]

Using Gparted Live CD, I selected the SSD drive. There were three partitions, /, linux-swap, and /home.

I would like to change the size of all the partitions and format them for a Kubuntu 13.04 install, as follows:

/ 25gb primary ext 4
/linux-swap 16gb
/home (remaining space on SSD) primary ext 4

That increases the size of the / partition and /linux-swap partition, and reduces the size of the /home partition.

For some reason, the Gparted form seems to have changed. My attempts to resize failed and the naming of the mount points was no longer a choice. It appears to have been replaced by 'label'. Could someone please straighten me out? Thanks!

[oshunluvr]

I'm confused as to what you're trying to accomplish. Re-sizing partitions has not a single thing to do with labeling or mount points. The mount points that are or are not displayed by gparted when you run from the liveCD do not impact the mount points of any other distribution accessing them included the installed distro. It seems you may be a bit confused about the use and purpose of mount points?

If you're just trying to re-size, don't bother resizing swap. It is easier to delete it and recreate it as the last step. You didn't say what the sizes you where using before were, but try it this way:

Boot gparted live.
Select your hard drive.
Delete the swap partition.
Re-size the / partition.
Re-size and move the /home partition.
Create the swap partition.
Done.

Don't mount anything on the hard drive at all because then you won't be able to resize. If you want to label the partitions, go ahead. Labeling has nothing to do with mount points.

You'll have to move the /home partition because you can only expand to the right, so to make it larger you have to move it the the left first. If you shrink it, you will have unused space at the right end of the drive so you'll have to move it right into the emptied space.

[Shabakthanai]

Dear Oshunluvr,

I should have responded sooner. Right now, I think I understand my error. If I was using the partition tool included in KDE desktop instead of Gparted, and the drive I wanted to change already included an OS and other partitions that I wanted to modify, and if I did not delete the partitions to be changed, would I have had to retain the the existing structure of partitions or delete and recreate a new partition table for the drive? It has been a while since I worked with used partitions, so I believe I was confused about the process.

I have since used Gparted to work with that SSD. I deleted, formatted and created the size of partitions I wanted. It seems fine now. Additionally, after reading your reply, I believe I could successfully resize the partitions I wanted to change, now. Thanks for the instruction. Currently I believe I have new partitions of the desired size that are formatted and ready to receive a new installation. I wish I could have the need to resize partitions now, so that I could confirm that I understand. Your instruction second paragraph from the bottom of your reply was what I needed to know. Thanks for the help.