Re: A "magical" HDD formatting question.

[Sthu Deus <sthu.deus@gmail.com>]

Thank You for Your time and answer, Andrei:

> No. You have to find a way to unmount the partition you want to
> format.

And no way to make such may virtual unmounting - may something like
kernels are now updated on the fly?

> Make a minimal installation in some space that you can spare
> temporarily (ex. swap partion). Make sure that you can access both
> the old partition and the external clone. Reformat as needed and
> clone back your system.

I have thought about this too, but the problem is that I have - on the
targeted for formatting drive -  single partition, and though I can
make out of single - two - through some hard work - finally, I will get
my reduced partition formatted as needed (w/ ext4 FS) but that small
partition will remain - that I have no idea how to use latter nor I
want it at all...

I can not boot from the USB - I do see the exact option in it menu
and dmidecode tells me the same:

Boot from CD is supported
Selectable boot is supported
LS-120 boot is supported
ATAPI Zip drive boot is supported
BIOS boot specification is supported
   Boot-up State: Safe

I tried all the options in the menu, connecting IDE CD-ROM w/ bootable
Debian through IDE-to-USB adapter. - No any effect.