Help! I'm buying a new computer with Vista on it.

[bill.boylan]

Question 1: How can I partition a drive that already has Vista installed on
it?

Question 2: Can I use the partitioning feature of Vista for this? I've read
there's no need for Partition Magic any more since Vista has its own fine
partitioning capability.

Any advice will be appreciated.

Bill Boylan

 

[Bruce Chambers]

Question 1: How can I partition a drive that already has Vista installed on
it?

Question 2: Can I use the partitioning feature of Vista for this? I've read
there's no need for Partition Magic any more since Vista has its own fine
partitioning capability.

To actually resize the system partition and create additional
partitions, you'd still need to use a 3rd party partitioning tool.

However, you can use Vista's built-in Disk Management to extend, delete
or shrink existing volumes, so you would then be able to create another
logical drive in the freed space. The disk Management tool cannot
create a new partition in the space freed by shrinking a volume, as the
partitions remain untouched.


--

Bruce Chambers

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[Chad Harris]

Hi Bill--

You can partition a drive that already has Vista on it by putting in a Vista
DVD if you have one and allowing it to format or using Disk Management to
first shrink the volume to create an unallocated space from which you can
then partition the volume. You can reach Disk Management easily by typing
the term diskmgmt.msc into the run box>enter. One big difference was that
in XP if you resized a disk, it was not fault tollerant--i.e. you would
lose everything in the process.

Before you can format a hard disk, you must first create one or more
partitions on it. After you have partitioned the hard disk, you can format
each partition. (Often, the terms volume and partition are used
interchangeably.) You can partition the hard disk so it contains a single
volume or several volumes. Each volume is assigned its own drive letter.

Partition Magic 8 now owned by Symantec does have additional features that
the Native Disk Management in Vista does not have. I don't know of may
intrinsic apps that could possibly have all the features of most major
application by a 3rd party financially speaking.

These links should be helpful.

Create and format a hard disk partition

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/d9a4d35e-efdf-406c-a049-0860180129a71033.mspx

Search results for "partition"
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/windows/en-us/search.aspx?=&qu=partition

Can I repartition my hard disk?
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/f2e9a502-e63c-413d-8804-87326ef4f4cc1033.mspx

Formatting disks and drives: frequently asked questions
http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/3ccec49c-2c67-4ff7-b672-ea1d32977aa81033.mspx

CH

 

[bill.boylan]

Another question on the same subject: Thanks to Messrs Chambers and Harris
for a lot to think about. NEXT QUESTION: Would RAID make my life simpler or
more complex? I can specify a “DataSafe” hard drive that is really three
hard drives working together: the two for RAID 0 and a third which backs up
everything. Would partitioning be easier if I got the RAID? Or, for other
reasons, would I be walking into the lion’s den???



Bill Boylan