Extending or Cloning a boot partition

J

jpal

Hi,

On my laptop, the boot partition is low on free space. To resolve the
problem, I would like to do one of two things (for free if possible):

1. Extend the boot partition size
2. Clone and move the boot partition to another partition on my drive.

I have searched archives where I have found serveral potential methods.
However, some responses, for example, indicate that it is impossible
to extend the boot partition while others say to use Partition Magic.

Note that I am on a sabbatical right now, so I do have access to the
software and licenses (which is I why I don't simply want to do a
reformat/reinstall). In addition, my laptop only has one hard disk, so
a disk clone to an internal disk is out of the question. I do however,
have an external USB drive available.

Thanks in advance for any advice,

Jeremy
 
G

Guest

Why don't you just copy out all the files you don't need to the ex USB drive
or the 2nd partition and delete them from the original location?

partition magic is a great utility and I've resized my boot partition
numerous times with it but of course you could also be inviting trouble to
squash your HDD. Even cloning can be disasterous sometimes.

Depending on your hardware a usb clone may not work so at the end of the day
just back up all your files before attempting anything
 
R

Rock

Hi,

On my laptop, the boot partition is low on free space. To resolve the
problem, I would like to do one of two things (for free if possible):

1. Extend the boot partition size
2. Clone and move the boot partition to another partition on my drive.

I have searched archives where I have found serveral potential methods.
However, some responses, for example, indicate that it is impossible
to extend the boot partition while others say to use Partition Magic.

Note that I am on a sabbatical right now, so I do have access to the
software and licenses (which is I why I don't simply want to do a
reformat/reinstall). In addition, my laptop only has one hard disk, so
a disk clone to an internal disk is out of the question. I do however,
have an external USB drive available.

You cannot change the size of the boot and system partitions using native XP
tools, however it can be done using 3rd party tools. Partition Magic is
one. Another is BootIt NG (BING) from Terabyte unlimited. They have a
free, 30 day full featured trial version.
 
K

Ken Blake, MVP

On my laptop, the boot partition is low on free space. To resolve the
problem, I would like to do one of two things (for free if possible):

1. Extend the boot partition size
2. Clone and move the boot partition to another partition on my
drive.

I have searched archives where I have found serveral potential
methods. However, some responses, for example, indicate that it is
impossible to extend the boot partition while others say to use
Partition Magic.



Unfortunately, no version of Windows provides any way of changing the
existing partition structure of the drive nondestructively. The only way to
do what you want is with third-party software. Partition Magic is the
best-known such program, but there are freeware/shareware alternatives. One
such program is BootIt Next Generation. It's shareware, but comes with a
free 30-day trial, so you should be able to do what you want within that 30
days. I haven't used it myself (because I've never needed to use *any* such
program), but it comes highly recommended by several other MVPs here.

Whatever software you use, make sure you have a good backup before
beginning. Although there's no reason to expect a problem, things *can* go
wrong.
 
D

Dave Cohen

Unfortunately, no version of Windows provides any way of changing the
existing partition structure of the drive nondestructively. The only way to
do what you want is with third-party software. Partition Magic is the
best-known such program, but there are freeware/shareware alternatives. One
such program is BootIt Next Generation. It's shareware, but comes with a
free 30-day trial, so you should be able to do what you want within that 30
days. I haven't used it myself (because I've never needed to use *any* such
program), but it comes highly recommended by several other MVPs here.

Whatever software you use, make sure you have a good backup before
beginning. Although there's no reason to expect a problem, things *can* go
wrong.

I do and have used bootit for a number of years. It will not only enable
you to do what you want to do, but has multi os support and imaging, so
you can image what you have to external media in case things should go
wrong. There is a support group for this product.
Dave Cohen
 

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