GParted is a Linux program to configure partitions on a hard drive.
I need to re-partition my wife's computer, but you can't do it when the hard drive is in use, so you have to create a disc or stick to open the computer and have it installed before the computer starts.

I use the non-G (e.g. command line) version of parted, depending on what you're trying to do I may be able to help.

And yes, drives don't like to be partitioned when they're mounted so you need to use a live USB/CD stick. Also tampering
with partitions of a currently partitioned/formatted drive is usually a quick way to a bad time.

I strongly suggest you make backups before you try anything.

Whatever the partitioning program you use, you can't be messing with a disk in use.

You boot from a live DVD or a USB-stick system, then you do your disk diddling.  Do you have the first part figured out?

Any Ubuntu, Mint or most other live USB's  will have gparted on them.  That will allow you to partition the drive because it won't be mounted.

Just be careful.  Your boot disk in GParted looks an awful lot like your main drive.  Chose which partition to blow away carefully.

I use an Ubuntu LiveCD or use Unetbootin to put an .iso on a USB stick.

I use Mint typically, but this. Just boot from a live disk and use the disk management function. Easy.

I tried this three or four times today. Never was able to get an .iso on a memory stick using Unebootin.
I give up.
I may take it to a computer specialist in town.

If you boot off the Gparted image, you can edit your normal boot drive, but please be careful

https://gparted.org/liveusb.php

I use Balena Etcher to "burn" the USB drive.

https://etcher.balena.io

Try putting an iso on USB using Rufus.

I just burn the iso to a DVD, that way it's write-protected.

This is what I ended up doing.
Now I will try it on a spare desktop before I do anything with my wife's computer.

I'll probably report back.
Thanks for all of the replies and useful info.

if it is a windows computer, there is a built in partition adjustment now, so you can change partition sizes on the fly.
you didn't say, so just throwing that out there if you were not aware. windows 8 and up as I recall.

GParted is a Linux program.

We are using the current version of Ubuntu Mate on four different machines.
I can afford to break one of the desktops experimenting before I touch my wife's laptop.
If I break one, I can just re-install the latest version from a disk I have. It will automatically re-partition the hard drive, but probably not the way I want it to.

I'm going to ask what I ask to customers all the time. I know the what, now tell me why. The lack of ability to make a bootable USB drive, makes me wonder why you've chosen this solution to your unprovided root cause.

Because I created a bootable disk and it worked when I re-partitioned the computer?
the memory sticks, when I looked on the back of the package, said they were for Microsoft only.
The DVD worked.

Don't particularly like the tone of your post.

Probably just means they are formatted in NTFS or something, you should be able to format them to anything you want.

I bought an external hard drive once that was sitting on clearance that was marked as for a game console only, plugged it in, deleted the partition table and reformatted to ext4, works fine.

You misunderstood. What are you attempting to solve for by repartitioning a drive? Knowing this informs me as to the actual issue and if your chosen solution is even ideal.

My tone on the other hand is simply one of experience. If a technical solution is chosen, and the ability to execute it is questionable, it's best to step back and look at the larger picture.

@packing XDs

My wife and I both have Lenovo Thinkpad laptops purchased for a hundred bucks each. Business computers that had their hard drives wiped, and sold in bulk.

I installed Ubuntu Mate on them, and they work fine.

A few weeks ago hers started shutting down when she tried to open certain programs. It would just shut down instantly, with no warning. When it started doing that any time she went to Youtube, she became irate, so I looked at the partitions on her drive.  They were not partitioned like my computer is. I figured if I could re-partition her hard drive, that would fix the issue.

It's very easy to put an Ubuntu OS on a disk and install it to a computer.
Creating a live bootable memory stick for GParted...not so easy. After a few attempts, I started this thread.

That is the why.

I thank everyone who offered help, and I apologize to you for my reply.
I hope you and all of the others have a great day today.

When you boot off the dvd or flash drive select "Try Ubuntu" and then once you get to the desktop click on "show apps" then click on "Gparted".

OK, that paints a better picture. I really didn't need to know the details to know that mucking with the partition table wasn't going to help anything. However, providing those details, I can in fact give you some ideas/solutions. First, do you keep the the OS updated? Ubuntu should pop an update window if there are any available. You can also go to the software center and check there. Or open a terminal and type: sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

If there are updates, install them, and reboot. If the issue persists, then it can be a few other things. First, 'started shutting down'. Do you mean the application being used, or the entire laptop? If the laptop, like completely powered off until you hit the power button, or just restarts itself? If it completely powers off, its likely a hardware problem. Maybe cooling, maybe the GPU/RAM. There are ways to dig into that deeper, but for a $100 laptop the juice might not be worth the squeeze. If its just rebooting itself, then that could be a kernel panic (see above about updates). We could go down the kdump route if you really wanted to know 'how the sausage is made'. But I would guess the hardware may just be failing. Give me a rundown of these questions, and Ill be happy to throw some ideas at you.

ETA
Does the crashing happen when on AC power and/or battery?

- PackingXDs, 20yr IT professional keeping Linux running, 30yrs of using it personally.

We keep our laptops plugged into a power source whenever we use them.

When I say "shut down", I mean it shuts down instantly, as if you hold your finger on the power button until it shuts off.

I know all about updates, and use Synaptic Package Manager, even if Update Manager pops up.
Then I click on Update Manager (if it's open), to see if there are Linux Headers to be removed. Usually it just says the computer is up to date. Sometimes it has Linux Headers to remove, sometimes it says to restart the computer to finish installing the updates.

My wife watches Youtube a lot, which heats her computer up, so she has a cooling fan she sets it on to keep it cooler.

The re-partitioning seems to have helped for now.

If it starts acting up again, then it may be time to replace her laptop.

Mate version 24.4LTS will come out soon. I usually like to wait a month to install a long term version, to give them time to work the bugs out. Right now we are running 23.10, which will lose support in July, I think.

Use Rufus with the default settings.

Given your description of the problem (mystery shutdowns), I'm not sure changing the partition table will solve it.  Take a look at what your system logs are recording at the time of shutdown/reboot.

Older computer with that symptom makes me think that heat sink is clogged with dust and/or fan has failed leading to overheating. The bios/motherboard is shutting down as a protective measure when the CPU temp (probably) gets too high, which happens when she tries to do something that is more processor-intensive. I've seen that over and over with older computers.

I can't really see how partitioning is having that effect on anything. If there wasn't enough swap space or something like that it would tend to result in freezes not power-offs. The bios on most computers will hard power off the machine once a monitored temperature reaches a critical threshold.

ETA:
install something that allows you to monitor the CPU temperature would be an easy way to see if this is what is happening:
https://linuxconfig.org/get-cpu-temperature-on-linux
https://itsfoss.com/monitor-cpu-gpu-temp-linux/

I would just install something like glances and keep it up in a terminal, while doing Youtube or whatever causes the crash. It would be pretty evident if load/temps/etc were getting out of hand well before a hard crash.

Psensor is available on UbuntuMATE.

I turned both of our laptops over. they were filthy. Dust blocking all of the intakes and exhausts.
Vacuumed them both thoroughly.

I'll look into Psensor, and the links provided by Gamma762, and choose something to install.
Psensor would be the easiest to install, as I can do that with Synaptic Package Manager rather than using the terminal.

Thanks for all of the advice and help!

You'll get even more dust out of em if you'll pull the back plate off & get the grime out of the inside, particularly the fans.  Eventually the fans will pack up w/ grime in the bearings & need to be replaced.

glances should be an official package. Otherwise can be installed via pip. It's top, df, iftop and sensors all in one.

You were right. I pulled the panels off of both computers and the inside was more dirty than the outside.
Vacuumed both the back of the panels and the fan areas. Much cleaner now.

I installed Psensor using Synaptic package manager, but I don't understand how to use it. Read several links, don't know how to set minimum and maximum fan speeds.

ETA; I dumped Psensor. Decided I don't need it.

I use it to monitor temp.  My last laptop had cooling issues, so could get pretty hot.  I selected the general processor temp, and that displays on the top bar.