Ouch!

Resizing partitions is always a bit risky regardless of software stability. You know - dog chews through power cable at just the wrong moment etc.

As far as booting Knoppix off CD just to have a play around goes, I would say "go for it".

If you want to start resizing partitions and installing on hard drive... well, as noted above, there are no guarantees. All I can properly suggest is the age-old mantra of "make sure you do a backup before anything that might involve data loss".

However, I will say this. After 15 years in the IT industry, I do not trust software that is closed source, and I do trust software that is open source. Even if I don't personally inspect the source code, I take comfort from the fact that - given the source is there for anyone to see - the authors tend to be more honest about what the software can and can't do, and how stable it really is.

Oh, and another thing, apparently defragging is pretty important before attempting to resize.

Hope this helps
Kevin