Can I split off a new partition after I installed my Win 98SE OS?

D

DJW

I did a clean install of windows 98 SE on my computer after doing a
format of the hard drive. I have put a few other things on it’s hard
drive. I now realize I should have partitioned it. I have a 27.9 GB
drive with 1.13 GB used and 26.7 GB free. Would it be ok to try and
partition at this time? I think I want to cut off into a new partition
about 10 GB of it.
I went looking for a way to do it with FDISK or FORMAT but all
instructions were for at the time of the wiping out of all the data
during a clean reformat. I went and found a freeware program called
Cute Partition Manager file name cpm.exe. Does anyone think it is ok
to use? So far I have nothing on the hard drive that I could not
afford to loss other than the time invested in formatting,
reinstalling win 98SE, all my hardware drivers and a few applications.
I am more a Macintosh user and on that end we initialize then
partition in the windows world do you partition then format. And after
I split off a second partition will I then have to format again that
partition? Or will this application I got do that all for me?
 
H

Harry

I went and found a freeware program called
Cute Partition Manager file name cpm.exe. Does anyone think it is ok
to use? So far I have nothing on the hard drive that I could not
afford to loss other than the time invested in formatting,
reinstalling win 98SE
[...]

You have nothing to lose, haven't you?
No pain, no gain :)
 
R

Rod Speed

DJW said:
I did a clean install of windows 98 SE on my computer after doing
a format of the hard drive. I have put a few other things on it’s hard
drive. I now realize I should have partitioned it. I have a 27.9 GB
drive with 1.13 GB used and 26.7 GB free. Would it be ok to try and
partition at this time? I think I want to cut off into a new partition
about 10 GB of it.

Are you sure about that ? It normally makes more sense to have a single partition.
I went looking for a way to do it with FDISK or FORMAT but all instructions
were for at the time of the wiping out of all the data during a clean reformat.

Yes, those can only do it with loss of the data in the current partition.
I went and found a freeware program called Cute Partition
Manager file name cpm.exe. Does anyone think it is ok to use?

Never tried it. I prefer True Image.
So far I have nothing on the hard drive that I could not afford
to loss other than the time invested in formatting, reinstalling
win 98SE, all my hardware drivers and a few applications.
I am more a Macintosh user and on that end we initialize then
partition in the windows world do you partition then format. And after
I split off a second partition will I then have to format again that partition?

The new small one, yes.
Or will this application I got do that all for me?

Fdisk and format will do it once you have reduced the current partition to say 20GB.
 
D

DJW

I went ahead and tried the Cute Partition Manager app and it said that
it could not create another partition something to the effect that
there was no room. I thought maybe something had been written to the
end of the hard drive. So I did a defrag to free up contiguous space
and tried again with the same result.
Above are you saying that first I need to reduce the size of the
single present partition and then I will be able to have a portioning
application see that there is spare unused space on the hard drive to
make a partition which then will need to be formatted at the drive D
letter?
I have used FDISK and I think FORMATE but are there online
instructions how to do this reduction, new partition and format. I not
totally sure of the DOS commands and which program(s) to run. And do I
have to be booted off of the floppy boot disk in order to work on the
hard drive to accomplish what I want to do?
 
R

Rod Speed

DJW said:
I went ahead and tried the Cute Partition Manager app and it
said that it could not create another partition something to the
effect that there was no room. I thought maybe something had
been written to the end of the hard drive. So I did a defrag to
free up contiguous space and tried again with the same result.

Its more likely that it cant reduce the size of an existing partition.
Above are you saying that first I need to reduce the size of the
single present partition and then I will be able to have a portioning
application see that there is spare unused space on the hard drive to
make a partition which then will need to be formatted at the drive D letter?
Correct.

I have used FDISK and I think FORMATE but are there online
instructions how to do this reduction, new partition and format.

It cant do the reduction at all. You have to use something like True Image
that can reduce the size of the existing partition without losing the data in it.
I not totally sure of the DOS commands and which program(s) to run.
And do I have to be booted off of the floppy boot disk in order to work
on the hard drive to accomplish what I want to do?

Yes, but it cant reduce the size of the current partition without losing the data in it.

It can only delete the current partition, losing the install thats already been
done, and you can then create two new partitions of the sizes you require.
 
D

DJW

So basically back to square one. Is True Image a shareware
application? With FDISK at the time I started and wiped the hard disk
clean was there an option to be able to make two partitions from the
one hard disk and I either was not thinking or did not realize I
wanted to divide the hard disk up?
 
R

Rod Speed

DJW said:
So basically back to square one.
Nope.

Is True Image a shareware application?

Nope. Seagate does have an older version available for free download tho.

I havent bothered to check if it check that you do have a Seagate drive.
With FDISK at the time I started and wiped the hard disk clean was
there an option to be able to make two partitions from the one hard disk

Yes. More strictly when you created the first partition on the drive,
it asked you which size it should be and you could have selected
less than the offered full space on the drive, and then once the
first one had been created, you could have told it to add another
and included all the space you didnt include in the first one.
and I either was not thinking or did not realize I wanted to divide the hard disk up?

Yes, the last most likely.

You still need to be sure you really do want more
than one partition, it isnt usually the best approach.
 
A

Ardent

I did a clean install of windows 98 SE on my computer after doing a
format of the hard drive. I have put a few other things on it’s hard
drive. I now realize I should have partitioned it. I have a 27.9 GB
drive with 1.13 GB used and 26.7 GB free. Would it be ok to try and
partition at this time? I think I want to cut off into a new partition
about 10 GB of it.

Do a defrag, the defrag that came with Windows ME is faster. Then
resize to 2 or 3 gb using Zeleps Partition Resizer. This will leave
the remaining part of the disk free. Then you can use Ranish's
Part240.exe to partition it or use FDISK.

However, before you do all this backup important data

Hope this helps

--
Thanks for your time and attention
Archer

Hard Disk Management
http://members.tripod.com/~diligent/harddisk.htm
 
H

Harry

So basically back to square one. Is True Image a shareware
application?

Google "freeware partition resize" pointed to here.

EASEUS Partition Manager 3.0 Home Edition - FREE FOR HOME USERS ONLY
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

Never used it myself.

My personal preference is
1. Power Quest Partition Magic 8.x
2. Acronis Disk Director 10

Both are commercial software.
 
H

Harry

So basically back to square one. Is True Image a shareware
application?

Google "freeware partition resize" pointed to here.

EASEUS Partition Manager 3.0 Home Edition - FREE FOR HOME USERS ONLY
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

Never used it myself.

My personal preference is
1. Power Quest Partition Magic 8.x
2. Acronis Disk Director 10

Both are commercial software.
 
Y

Yousuf Khan

DJW said:
I did a clean install of windows 98 SE on my computer after doing a
format of the hard drive. I have put a few other things on it’s hard
drive. I now realize I should have partitioned it. I have a 27.9 GB
drive with 1.13 GB used and 26.7 GB free. Would it be ok to try and
partition at this time? I think I want to cut off into a new partition
about 10 GB of it.
I went looking for a way to do it with FDISK or FORMAT but all
instructions were for at the time of the wiping out of all the data
during a clean reformat. I went and found a freeware program called
Cute Partition Manager file name cpm.exe. Does anyone think it is ok
to use? So far I have nothing on the hard drive that I could not
afford to loss other than the time invested in formatting,
reinstalling win 98SE, all my hardware drivers and a few applications.
I am more a Macintosh user and on that end we initialize then
partition in the windows world do you partition then format. And after
I split off a second partition will I then have to format again that
partition? Or will this application I got do that all for me?

Two things I think you can try since CPM didn't work, are BootItNG or
one of the Ubuntu Linux Live CD's to resize your partition. Both of them
require you to create a self-bootable CD. Both are downloadable off of
the Internet.

BootItNG is pretty simple, I'd try that method first. The second option
is to download the Ubuntu CD or any Linux CD pretty much. Linux usually
comes with a utility called Parted or Gparted or something similar to
that which can usually resize both FAT and NTFS partitions given enough
free space at the back.

Yousuf Khan
 
D

DJW

Am still am not sure if I can do it with FDISK. But can some one tell
me or point me to directions how to downsize my present hard drive
single partition that already has my windows 98SE on it and some
applications? I will do a defrag first and only break off 10 BG of the
total 30 BG drive hopefully leaving me with one C partition of 20 GB
about and one second partition at D of about 10 GB.
I am very foggy about DOS commands. If I boot with the emergency
windows 98SE floppy what commands would I need to use in order to do
the above. And yes I know I may lose data if not screw things up but I
would rather try it first instead of a reformat partition and clean
install of every thing so far that I have done. Something I would have
to do anyway if things don’t work out or did this partitioning in the
right order way before I started to install stuff.
At the A prompt than what?
And 20 GB or 10 GB what number about would that be in what ever units
I would encounter in FDISK?
Another thought is could I run FDISK while booted in windows using C?
Downsize C and make the unused part of the Hard drive into a D
partition?
 
A

andy

Fdisk cannot shrink partitions.
You should just bite the bullet, and use Fdisk to delete the existing
partition. Then create a 20 GB primary partition. Then create an
extended partition with the rest of the drive. Create a logical volume
within the extended partition. Format both partitions. Install
Windows 98se.
 
Y

Yousuf Khan

DJW said:
Am still am not sure if I can do it with FDISK. But can some one tell
me or point me to directions how to downsize my present hard drive
single partition that already has my windows 98SE on it and some
applications? I will do a defrag first and only break off 10 BG of the
total 30 BG drive hopefully leaving me with one C partition of 20 GB
about and one second partition at D of about 10 GB.

Fdisk cannot downsize your partition, it can only delete and recreate
it. When you recreate it, you will have lost all of the data that was
once there unless you got it backed up someplace. Fdisk is too old and
unsophisticated for advanced activities like resizing without losing
data. You need to get the utilities I listed before, or something
similar to them.

Yousuf Khan
 
D

DJW

Google "freeware partition resize" pointed to here.

EASEUS Partition Manager 3.0 Home Edition - FREE FOR HOME USERS ONLYhttp://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

Never used it myself.

My personal preference is
1. Power Quest Partition Magic 8.x
2. Acronis Disk Director 10

Both are commercial software.

Harry Thanks for the link however I went there and it’s system
requirements are for windows 200 32 bit and above 32 bit OSs. I need a
utility for windows 98 SE or DOS that I can run from the win 98 boot
floppy. The hard drive is made by FUJITSU and I cannot find a utility
for hard disk management made by them.
 

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