Partition NIGHTMARE - experts only

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i never knew XP home edition was so unfriendly when it comes to making a partition. see i have a laptop 40 gig hd... now i wanna break it up so as i can install other operating systems an d for organisation of my files. BUUUUT i cant.... is there any way possible that i can create a few partitions on m y machine?? ive tried the diskpart in dos but its no good. also to spice it up a bit.... my laptop has no floppy drive, only a cd/dvd drive.... now whos gonna step forward and help me out here???
 
Joe said:
i never knew XP home edition was so unfriendly when it comes to
making a partition. see i have a laptop 40 gig hd... now i wanna
break it up so as i can install other operating systems an d for
organisation of my files. BUUUUT i cant.... is there any way possible
that i can create a few partitions on m y machine?? ive tried the
diskpart in dos but its no good. also to spice it up a bit.... my
laptop has no floppy drive, only a cd/dvd drive.... now whos gonna
step forward and help me out here???
Click to expand...

If the hard drive contains one 40GB partition, you will need a third party
utility like Partition Magic8 to "shrink" your current C:\ and create a new
partition or more in the space remaining. The other way to go about it is to
backup everything you want on that drive, boot from the XP Home CD and
delete any existing partitions.*All data is lost* Then you'd create at least
two new partitions, format them and install the OS again.
 
XP's DiskPart utility is capable of only partitioning a hard drive that is empty
or has "unallocated" free space.
For example, if you were to install a new second drive, DiskPart can be
used to partition and format it. DiskPart cannot segregate current files from
free space, therefore, only a sophisticated third-party partitioning program,
such as Partition Magic 8 , can be used with a drive that already has Windows XP
installed.

The only way you can create, delete, resize or merge existing partitions,
and not harm your existing Windows installation, is to purchase and use
a third-party partitioning program such as Partition Magic 8.
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/pmdetails.cfm

The alternative is to perform a "clean install" of Windows XP:

How to Partition and Format a Hard Disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313348&Product=winxp

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User

Be Smart! Protect your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/security/protect/

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|i never knew XP home edition was so unfriendly when it comes to making a partition. see i have a laptop 40
gig hd... now i wanna break it up so as i can install other operating systems an d for organisation of my
files. BUUUUT i cant.... is there any way possible that i can create a few partitions on m y machine?? ive
tried the diskpart in dos but its no good. also to spice it up a bit.... my laptop has no floppy drive, only a
cd/dvd drive.... now whos gonna step forward and help me out here???
 
You WILL need a 3rd party tool to do that.

I use PartitionExpert 2003 from www.acronis.com. $49.99 http://www.acronis.com/products/partitionexpert/. HTH

--
Just my 2¢ worth
Jeff
__________in response to__________

| i never knew XP home edition was so unfriendly when it comes to making a partition. see i have a laptop 40 gig hd... now i wanna break it up so as i can install other operating systems an d for organisation of my files. BUUUUT i cant.... is there any way possible that i can create a few partitions on m y machine?? ive tried the diskpart in dos but its no good. also to spice it up a bit.... my laptop has no floppy drive, only a cd/dvd drive.... now whos gonna step forward and help me out here???
 
"Everybody" knows PowerQuest's Partition Magic (now owned by Symantec).

I've often used a program that does the same thing: Paragon Software
Group's Partition Manager. See www.partition-manager.com.

There's one thing that the Paragon program does better than Partition
Magic: getting partitions right when some of them are for Linux. When
on two other systems I tried to set up dual-boots, with Windows 2000 or
XP as primary OS and RedHat Linux (various versions) as secondary,
partitions set up with Partition Manager after the fact messed up Linux.
Why, I never resolved: PowerQuest said it was RedHat's fault, and
vice versa. But in any case, Paragon gave no trouble.

You might want to look at the Hard Disk Manager suite from Paragon that
includes their Partition Manager. It includes a driver allowing you to
access Linux ext2fs and ext3fs partitions from within Windows. (They
also offer a separate utility that allows you to read AND WRITE Windows
partitions, including NTFS partitions, from within Linux.)

Joe said:
i never knew XP home edition was so unfriendly when it comes to making a partition. see i have a laptop 40 gig hd... now i wanna break it up so as i can install other operating systems an d for organisation of my files. BUUUUT i cant.... is there any way possible that i can create a few partitions on m y machine?? ive tried the diskpart in dos but its no good. also to spice it up a bit.... my laptop has no floppy drive, only a cd/dvd drive.... now whos gonna step forward and help me out here???
Click to expand...

--
Murray Eisenberg (e-mail address removed)
Mathematics & Statistics Dept.
Lederle Graduate Research Tower phone 413 549-1020 (H)
University of Massachusetts 413 545-2859 (W)
710 North Pleasant Street fax 413 545-1801
Amherst, MA 01003-9305
 
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