Extending ext3 partition

*** Make sure you have a back up prior to proceeding. ***

1. Boot into rescue mode.
   
2. Unmount partition if mounted and check disk:
   
   umount /dev/sda1
e2fsck -vn /dev/sda1

3. Delete /dev/sda1 partition and create a bigger one with fdisk:
   
   fdisk /dev/sda

4. Recreate the partition /dev/sda1 with the starting point at the default location and the ending point at highest possible cylinder. (Note: if you are extending by merging two partitions, the data in the second partition is lost so make sure to backup data you need.)
   
5. Run partprobe and resize2fs utility with no size arguments:
   
   partprobe /dev/sda
resize2fs /dev/sda1

6. Reboot and check everything in file-system is intact.