Hi, Andrew.
Well, yes - and no.
Can anyone recommend any non-destructive, STABLE/SAFE ntfs partition
resize software?
Diskpart /extend. Check it out in WinXP's Help and Support by searching for
extend. But keep reading, because the left hand takes away most of what the
right hand gives. :>( There are many gotchas that can keep you from using
this program, or can make it work differently than you expect.
It's non-destructive, stable and safe. But it will only extend a partition,
not shrink one. And the biggest limitation, from your standpoint, is that
it won't work on the System Partition or Boot Volume.
Of course, when that HD is a data drive in a different computer, then that
boot volume is "just another volume" to the copy of WinXP that is running.
So, you can move the HD temporarily to another computer, extend the
partition, then move it back home. To make room for the extension of the
first partition, you can first delete the second partition (after backing up
its contents), then recreate it after extending the first one and restore
its data.
Note that DiskPart.exe in WinXP is NOT the same as the DiskPart command in
the WinXP Recovery Console. Run DiskPart.exe from the command prompt in a
"DOS" window. Type diskpart to enter the shell; you should see a new
prompt: DISKPART> Type Dir to see a list of nearly 2 dozen functions,
including extend.
If you have access to a third-party program, such as Partition Magic or
BootItNG, you probably should use the proper version of one of those.
RC