How to shrink a windows partition to make more room for Linux?

[joe at actionline.com]

Joe last wrote:
>> Utterly incomprehensible.

Eric last wrote:
> Not really. I presume you did something that mounted a filesystem in one
> of the partitions, but given that you haven't even told us *how* you're
> running GParted, it's sorta hard for us to guess. :(

>From the beginning of my inquiry, I provided a screen capture of GParted
at the following URL: http://upquick.com/linux/gparted1.png

I had used a live-cd to install Linux in free space on a 200-gig HP box
that had a 10-gig HP restore partition as the primary (/dev/sda1) and four
extended sub-partitions (or file systems) within a second partitions
(/dev/sda2). I followed all the installation defaults; but when I then
tried to shrink the 'xp' space so I could increase the Linux space,
GParted would not allow me to do so.  At no time while I tried numerous
scenarios to do this was the 'xp' partition or file space mounted.

In any case, after wasting 3 days on this ridiculous matter, I ultimately
gave up last night ane 'nuked' the whole dang thing.

So, yes, for me, it remains utterly incomprehensible and it all just
further reinforces my utter despise for everything about M$.