Changing Hard Disk Partition Size

[randau]

Can hard disk Partition sizes be changed after they've been in use
without damaging the files stored within the Partition?

If you create hard disk Partitions leaving a portion of the disk
unallocated and later find that you need more room in one of the
Partitions, can its size simply be increased to utilize some of the
unallocated portion of the disk?

Is a Partition's disk space scattered throughout the disk or does it
have to be contiguous?

 

[DL]

You need a third party tool, Partition Magic being one, you can only do it
destructively with win, or the win cd

 

[Arno Wagner]

Can hard disk Partition sizes be changed after they've been in use
without damaging the files stored within the Partition?

Yes, with a partition-resizer application or by backing up,
deletion and recreation, and restoring the files.

Havinf backup fro this sort of operation is highly advisible!

If you create hard disk Partitions leaving a portion of the disk
unallocated and later find that you need more room in one of the
Partitions, can its size simply be increased to utilize some of the
unallocated portion of the disk?

No. But you can move the other partitions after it and increase
the size of it afterwards.

Is a Partition's disk space scattered throughout the disk or does it
have to be contiguous?

No. Allways consecutive sectors.

If you use NTFS, you need to buy something like partition magic,
unless you go tha backup-change-restore way.
Be aware that PM destroys partitons routinely, so backup is essential.

Otherwise you can use GNU parted (free) for the moving and resizing.

Arno

 

[Ed Light]

You can resize with a floppy made of the trial version of bootitng. Best to
backup first.


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[Bruce Chambers]

Can hard disk Partition sizes be changed after they've been in use
without damaging the files stored within the Partition?

If you create hard disk Partitions leaving a portion of the disk
unallocated and later find that you need more room in one of the
Partitions, can its size simply be increased to utilize some of the
unallocated portion of the disk?

Is a Partition's disk space scattered throughout the disk or does it
have to be contiguous?

There is no way to resize partitions using native Windows tools
without deleting the existing partitions, and creating and formating new
partitions, and then reinstalling the OS and applications.

There are, fortunately, quite a few 3rd party products that can
help you repartition the hard drive non-destructively. Two such
products are Symantec's Partition Magic and BootItNG. The latter even
has a free, fully functional 30-day evaluation version available for
downloading from www.bootitng.com. Simply use one of them to resize the
system partition, and then create a second (extended) partition.


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Guest]

My favorite method for resizing a partition is Norton Ghost. Norton Ghost is
more of a backup program than a partition program, but I use it to move disks
from a small drive like a 20GB to a larger/faster drive. It automatically
resizes the partition to the new drive. It works with quite a few USB
external drives in USB 1.1 mode (read SLOW) and a couple of configurations
with USB 2.0 as the backup device. I personally keep a 160GB IDE drive
partitioned as FAT32 with WIN98 CLI boot only that I plug into systems to
create backup images. Make sure you read the help file about the -SPLIT=
flag as you have to split the image up into multiple files if it is over 2GB
and you are writing the backup file to a FAT32 drive. I've never tried to
"resize" a partition with Norton, but all you should have to do is use Norton
to backup the partition/drive, delete the old partition and use Norton to
restore it. Ghost should automatically resize it to the maximum size of the
drive. I still use Ghost 2003 as the newer versions of ghost run from the
GUI and I don't trust them. Also, I always run a "disk check" with the
check for and attempt recovery of bad sectors as well as fix problems checked.

The beauty of Norton Ghost is it does the backup and resizing in one
application. You can also use ghost explorer to pull individual files from
the image at a later date.

 

[Todd H.]

Can hard disk Partition sizes be changed after they've been in use
without damaging the files stored within the Partition?
Yes.

If you create hard disk Partitions leaving a portion of the disk
unallocated and later find that you need more room in one of the
Partitions, can its size simply be increased to utilize some of the
unallocated portion of the disk?
Yes.

Is a Partition's disk space scattered throughout the disk or does it
have to be contiguous?

The ones I've done it's been contiguous, but I'm not sure if that was
a requirement or not.

I've use qtparted and Partition Magic on several occasions to resize
NTFS partitions. Another poster said qtparted wouldn't do NTFS, and
that doesn't match with my experience. I've resized 3 NTFS volumes
down to make space for dual booting Linux, and each time I used
qtparted on the Kanotix linux live CD. Or I may have used Ubuntu's
live CD recently. I can't recall. So many liveCD's so little time!

I used Partition Magic once several years ago before i discovered the
joys of qtparted and linux live cd's. As I recall it worked fine.

Best Regards,

 

[Poprivet]

Can hard disk Partition sizes be changed after they've been in use
without damaging the files stored within the Partition?

If you create hard disk Partitions leaving a portion of the disk
unallocated and later find that you need more room in one of the
Partitions, can its size simply be increased to utilize some of the
unallocated portion of the disk?

Is a Partition's disk space scattered throughout the disk or does it
have to be contiguous?

1. You don't need so many newsgroups; you're shotgunning rather than using
logic to select a group; one good way to get bad information, believe me.
Many will try to screw you rather than help you out.

2. Yes, partitions can be resized but XP doesn't have anything to do so.
It takes either an XP backup/reinstall of your machine or or 3rd party
program to do so. The three most popular are Partition Magic, Acronis TI
and BootItNG. They are not real expensive.

3. Avoid downloading and useing a trial version to get out of paying for
something; usually it'll work, but next time the issue comes up, you still
won't have anything available to do the job and will go thru this again,
most likely.

4. Personally I use Partition Magic and have found it reliable, stable and
easy to use. Acronis is apparently good too but I haven't used it. I tried
bootit quite a long time ago and didn't like it, but it may be better
designed by now.
All of these programs brag that you will not lose any data during the
operations or do a good job of advising if you are sure to lose data.

5. Regardless of what ANY instructions say, NEVER, EVER mess with
partitions without doing a full backup first! The chances of something
screwing up and ruining the procedure are too great to take chances of not
having a backup handy.
Personally I've never lost any data, but I still maintain complete
backups with intermediates done daily. I use Norton Ghost for that an
dthere are other good imaging programs around, too.

6. Yes, the partitions are continguous within themselves, but not to each
other necessarily; the partition apps manage that part of it and move things
around where they're needed. Excessive fragmentation might tell you to
defrag first with some of them; take the advice. Read the screens carefully
during use.

HTH
Pop`

 

[Rod Speed]

Yes.

Not necessarily, it has to be contiguous with the partition
being expanded, tho any decent partition manager can
move partitions as well as changing their size.

The ones I've done it's been contiguous, but
I'm not sure if that was a requirement or not.

Corse it is, the partition table entrys specify a start and end for
each partition in terms of the physical location on the drive, and
there is just one start and one end specifiable for each partition.

I've use qtparted and Partition Magic on several occasions to resize
NTFS partitions. Another poster said qtparted wouldn't do NTFS,
and that doesn't match with my experience. I've resized 3 NTFS
volumes down to make space for dual booting Linux, and each time
I used qtparted on the Kanotix linux live CD. Or I may have used
Ubuntu's live CD recently. I can't recall. So many liveCD's so little time!

I used Partition Magic once several years ago before i discovered
the joys of qtparted and linux live cd's. As I recall it worked fine.

Acronis Disk Director Suite leaves it for dead.

 

[Arno Wagner]

1. You don't need so many newsgroups; you're shotgunning rather than using
logic to select a group; one good way to get bad information, believe me.
Many will try to screw you rather than help you out.

2. Yes, partitions can be resized but XP doesn't have anything to do so.
It takes either an XP backup/reinstall of your machine or or 3rd party
program to do so. The three most popular are Partition Magic, Acronis TI
and BootItNG. They are not real expensive.

3. Avoid downloading and useing a trial version to get out of paying for
something; usually it'll work, but next time the issue comes up, you still
won't have anything available to do the job and will go thru this again,
most likely.

4. Personally I use Partition Magic and have found it reliable, stable and
easy to use.

Well, I have lost two installations in three attempts to resize with
PM. I cannot recommend it at all.

Acronis is apparently good too but I haven't used it. I tried
bootit quite a long time ago and didn't like it, but it may be better
designed by now.
All of these programs brag that you will not lose any data during the
operations or do a good job of advising if you are sure to lose data.

5. Regardless of what ANY instructions say, NEVER, EVER mess with
partitions without doing a full backup first!
Indeed!

Arno

The chances of something
screwing up and ruining the procedure are too great to take chances of not
having a backup handy.
Personally I've never lost any data, but I still maintain complete
backups with intermediates done daily. I use Norton Ghost for that an
dthere are other good imaging programs around, too.

 

[Ed Light]

3. Avoid downloading and useing a trial version to get out of paying for
something; usually it'll work, but next time the issue comes up, you still
won't have anything available to do the job and will go thru this again,
most likely.

The bootitng floppy will always be good. It only becomes a trial if you
install it on the hard disk. Then, if you don't pay, it eventually beeps at
you on boot for a really long time. I know because a friend in another city
waited to buy it.

Anyhow, you need to install it only if you want to have a boot manager.

--
Ed Light

Bring the Troops Home:
http://bringthemhomenow.org
http://antiwar.com

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[Ed Light]

Well, I have lost two installations in three attempts to resize with
PM. I cannot recommend it at all.

Scary!

So far, no problems with bootitng resizing lots of ntfs partitions. It does
warn you to make a backup first every time you start, if I remember
correctly.

The news server is terabyteunlimited.com and use port 1198


--
Ed Light

Bring the Troops Home:
http://bringthemhomenow.org
http://antiwar.com

Send spam to the FTC at
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Thanks, robots.

 

[randau]

1. You don't need so many newsgroups; you're shotgunning rather than using
logic to select a group; one good way to get bad information, believe me.
Many will try to screw you rather than help you out.

I did spend considerable time and effort researching and selecting the
4 groups I cross-posted to. However, I do wish there was a way of
telling from the replies which group each reply comes from.

 

[randau]

Thank you all for your informative answers to my questions. I'm
planning on upgrading to a new machine and operating system and wanted
to consider Partitioning of the hard drive. After seeing your replies,
I think I'll be very judicious about Partitioning the hard drive (if I
do it at all). Maybe just one Partition for the Operating System and
everything else (applications and data) in a second Partition (in case
I had to reinstall the OS).

Thanks again for all your helpful replies,

 

[Ed Light]

Maybe just one Partition for the Operating System and
everything else (applications and data) in a second Partition (in case
I had to reinstall the OS).

It's good to have an OS partition and a data partition and every now and
then image the os partition to DVD. The bootitng floppy can do that.

You can move the mail store, favorites, and other things to the data
partition, so that they are up to date if you have to restore the OS
partition to the last DVD image.

The latest version of the freebie tweakui from Microsoft will let you move
the favorites, and Outlook Express will let you move the mail store.

I run a main OS partition and some clones of it and they all share the mail
and favorites. And the internet temp files.

In fact, they all share the same My Documents folder.

My boot manager is bootitng.
--
Ed Light

Bring the Troops Home:
http://bringthemhomenow.org
http://antiwar.com

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[Ed Light]

It's good to have an OS partition and a data partition and every now and
then image the os partition to DVD. The bootitng floppy can do that.

Don't forget to set the OS partition as the boot -- "active" -- partition.

--
Ed Light

Bring the Troops Home:
http://bringthemhomenow.org
http://antiwar.com

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[Ed Light]

I run a main OS partition and some clones of it and they all share the
mail and favorites. And the internet temp files.

In fact, they all share the same My Documents folder.

My boot manager is bootitng.

I feel so clever!

--
Ed Light

Bring the Troops Home:
http://bringthemhomenow.org
http://antiwar.com

Send spam to the FTC at
(e-mail address removed)
Thanks, robots.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Thank you all for your informative answers to my questions. I'm
planning on upgrading to a new machine and operating system and wanted
to consider Partitioning of the hard drive. After seeing your
replies, I think I'll be very judicious about Partitioning the hard
drive (if I do it at all). Maybe just one Partition for the
Operating System and everything else (applications and data) in a
second Partition (in case I had to reinstall the OS).

Please note that if you ever have to reinstall the operating system, having
your data in a separate partition may help you (but see below), but having
the applications there will do *nothing* for you. The Windows folder
contains many references to your installed applications (in the registry and
elsewhere) that are needed by the applications. If Windows is reinstalled,
all those references vanish and the applications will no longer work.

Returning to the issue of having the data in a separate partition, note that
if your data is important to you, it always needs to be backed up, and if it
is backed up and you ever have to reinstall the operating system, you can
simply restore the data from the backup, even if it's not on a separate
partition. In fact, I think that many people who do as you suggest get a
false sense of security from having data on a second partition and have that
kind of separation *instead* of a backup, thinking that it takes away the
need for a backup. In fact, that's not at all true of course, since things
like a hard drive crash (and other events) can easily destroy everything.

In general, my view is that most people's partitioning schemes should be
based on their backup scheme. If, for example, you backup by creating a
clone or image on the entire drive, then a single partition might be best.
If, on the other hand, you backup only your data, then the backup process is
facilitated by having all data in a separate
partition.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

Thank you all for your informative answers to my questions. I'm
planning on upgrading to a new machine and operating system and wanted
to consider Partitioning of the hard drive. After seeing your replies,
I think I'll be very judicious about Partitioning the hard drive (if I
do it at all). Maybe just one Partition for the Operating System and
everything else (applications and data) in a second Partition (in case
I had to reinstall the OS).

Thanks again for all your helpful replies,

I've used BootItNG many times in the past, and it's always been reliable
at resizing my partititions. However, whenever I use BING, I'm usually
using it to upgrade to a new bigger hard disk, which means that I'm
always only using it to resize a partition upwards, never downwards.
Going upwards is easy, going downwards could be hairy.

Yousuf Khan

 

[randau]

Pardon me if this post is repeated. My first attempt at posting it
appeared to have failed.

Please note that if you ever have to reinstall the operating system, having
your data in a separate partition may help you (but see below), but having
the applications there will do *nothing* for you. The Windows folder
contains many references to your installed applications (in the registry and
elsewhere) that are needed by the applications. If Windows is reinstalled,
all those references vanish and the applications will no longer work.

Thank you, that's a really good point! Though I should know better,
I'm still in the habit of thinking about application programs as they
were in the good old days when they were totally separate from the
operating system. You could delete them by merely deleting their
parent directory (with all its sub-directories) and you could restore
them along with all their data by merely coping them from a backup
disk. Why in the world did they make things so complicated by creating
all those application program tentacles into the operating system? Was
it really necessary?

Returning to the issue of having the data in a separate partition, note that
if your data is important to you, it always needs to be backed up, and if it
is backed up and you ever have to reinstall the operating system, you can
simply restore the data from the backup, even if it's not on a separate
partition.

In general, my view is that most people's partitioning schemes should be
based on their backup scheme. If, for example, you backup by creating a
clone or image on the entire drive, then a single partition might be best.
If, on the other hand, you backup only your data, then the backup process is
facilitated by having all data in a separate
partition.

I do backup all my data daily using the FileBack application program.
It lets you specify which folders and/or files you want backed up and
automatically backs up any that are new or have changed. So, there's
probably no need even for a data partition. I think I'll forget about
partitioning altogether.

Thanks again for the heads-up reply.