Um, maybe use gparted program, its a linux freeware download used for repartitioning hard drives without erasing data. It saved my bacon when I was working on my daughter's HP Pavilion laptop running XP Media Center. Since it is a live CD linux, it supposedly will run on any computer that can boot from CD.
I know where you're coming from, though I live in a larger town, can't really spend money for a new external HD, and am hoping my old mac mini with 80G HD can be used for my backup device (already posted that question elsewhere in this forum...) Good Luck, and let me know how it works!
Mark ,
spchsr@yahoo.com