Hello, I've installed Kanotix 2006 RC4 which comes with Gparted version 0.3.1+cvs20060928-0+c0.kanotix.1.
I have the same problem of gparted scanning devices forever. I managed to install Kanotix on hard disk by creating a swap and an ext2 partition from within Windows XP with PQMagic and then installing Kanotix from live cd and using the Knoppix-installer.
My system is a Compaq Evo N610c laptop with P4 Mobile 1.67 Ghz and 30 GB hdd.
When I perform a fdisk -ul I get this:
Disk /dev/hda: 30.0 GB, 30005821440 bytes
240 heads, 63 sectors/track, 3876 cylinders, total 58605120 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Device Boot Start End Blocks Id System
/dev/hda1 63 18431279 9215608+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda2 18431280 19459439 514080 82 Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/hda3 * 19459440 25613279 3076920 83 Linux
/dev/hda4 25613280 58605119 16495920 f W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/hda5 25613343 56503439 15445048+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
/dev/hda6 56503503 58605119 1050808+ 7 HPFS/NTFS
In the office I have installed the same Kanotix distro and Gparted is running fine. I even managed to schrink/resize the C: partition from Windows Xp with it.
Any help is welcome. Thanks in advance :-)