Grrr! I should learn to control myself better when EVERYTHING goes wrong:

1- in Acronis, I couldn't find the option to resize the partitions - where do I look
2- I discovered than insmod mbcache.ko must be entered BEFORE insmod ext2.ko.
3- creating a fs backup using the method described here. If by tomorrow, I will not have found the correct option in acronis, i'll just use nandwrite, no matter the consequences