Tell you this was a nightmare. On this old laptop the linux partition was too small, so I though I simply alter the size of the partitions. So I used paragon partition manager to shrink the windows partition. and create an additional linux partition with the free space. This worked without problems on the windows side, but now linux didn't work anymore. the kernel Init-Jump thingie failed. (Using lilo bootmanager)
So i just had to reinstall linux. All those shell commands I use one time every year...
I was dead for 3 days or so, now I'm back. But this could happen to anyone :)
Hehe, JOY!
One suggestion for next time: Put your Linux installation across multiple partitions / drives. Your home folder especially should have its own place, so that way you can keep a rather small partition for the root directory stuff that shouldn't be disturbed (the kernel, /boot, etc.).
Resizing your home partition is quite painless and unlikely to create disasters like the above, especially when it can be done without restarting.
Just put a backup of the current home folder somewhere, delete the contents of the old one, then change /etc/fstab to mount your home partition on /home. Restart, or just mount with the mount command to mount the new home partition, then just copy your backup into the freshly mounted /home. It's quite seamless; this computer has been doing it for over a year now across many major updates.
Of course, while it is wonderfully seamless, don't forget that it happens. I nearly had a heart-attack when an update reconfigured my fstab and lost that setting! (My own fault for running a development version).
If you feel really adventurous, it's possible to get a separate partition for most of those root directories, and it really does make things easier until you have to reinstall.
Well, I'll make sure never to install this Linux thing onto a PC I own.
WindowsXP for me - just like having your own puppy - albeit a dead one.