Partition

[Guest]

I have a two OS on the same drive (NT and Win2k pro) No
longer require to boot to NT so would like to get rid of
it and and the partition reallocating space to W2k drive.
Can someone talk me through this so I don't do any lasting
damage!!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I have a two OS on the same drive (NT and Win2k pro) No
longer require to boot to NT so would like to get rid of
it and and the partition reallocating space to W2k drive.
Can someone talk me through this so I don't do any lasting
damage!!

Your post is a little contradictory. First you write "Two OS on
the same drive" (which drive???), then you say "reallocate
space to the W2k drive".

If they are on the same drive then anything you delete
will be automatically available to the other OS!

Please clarify.

 

[Guest]

Both are on same physical drive. NT4 is allocated C: and
w2k D:

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Since Win2000 is located on drive D:, it must end its life
on drive D:. AFAIK there is no safe and reliable way to
move it to drive C:, short of a re-installation.

To reclaim the space used by WinNT on drive C:, you
can do this:
1. Boot into Win2000.
2. Rename c:\winnt into something else.
3. Wait a few days.
4. If all is well, delete the renamed winnt folder.
5. Use a partition managing product such as Acronis
PartitionExpert to expand drive D: at the expense
of drive C:.
6. Modify the hidden file c:\boot.ini to remove the WinNT
boot option.

As will all such intrusive operations, it's a good idea to
back up your important files prior to starting your work.

 

[Rob Stow]

Both are on same physical drive. NT4 is allocated C: and
w2k D:

This means C: is both the system and the boot partition
for NT. However, while D: is the boot partition for
W2K, C: is still the system partition. Hence, whatever
you do needs to maintain C:'s ability to function as
a system partition for W2K.

What works is to delete everything on C: except
for the most of the files in the root directory (assuming
that this is a "standard" C: drive with no files in the
root directory other than what the OSes needed to put there).
Other than what is in the root directory, there shouldn't
be anything on C: that W2K needs. If there is a pagefile
in C:\ it should be safe to delete that *unless* you set
up W2K to use C: for its pagefile location.

If C: is FAT16, you should be able to reduce all
of the files on it to a total size of under 1 MB, at
which point you can use a tool like Partition Magic to
shrink C:. After that PM can be used to expand D: into
the newly created free space.

If C: is NTFS, then you have the MFT to contend with.
The MFT grows as necessary but it never, ever, shrinks.
Hence, if you have a 500 MB MFT you are stuck with it.
You can still shrink C: to whatever minimum size Partition
Magic will allow, but you might be better off using PM to
convert C: to FAT16 just to get rid of the MFT.

Whatever you do, be sure to do a thorough backup before
you delete a single file or resize any partitions. I
strongly suggest you use a tool like Drive Image to save
images of both C: and D:.

And just before resizing a partition, be sure to do a thorough
defrag of that partition. For partitions that you intend to
shrink, be sure to tell your defragger to put all of the free
space at the *end* of the partition rather than in the middle.

The above procedure works every time, but I usually prefer
to just blow away both partitions and install W2K from scratch:
it is a good opportunity to clean up your W2K installation
by only reinstalling the apps, drivers, etc that you need.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

And just before resizing a partition, be sure to do a thorough
defrag of that partition. For partitions that you intend to
shrink, be sure to tell your defragger to put all of the free
space at the *end* of the partition rather than in the middle.

Why defrag it? What difference does it make?

 

[Rob Stow]

Why defrag it? What difference does it make?

It makes the resize job go a lot faster, for one thing,
and experience has shown me that when you are shrinking
a partition it is safer if *you* move the files to
the front of the partition rather than making Partition
Magic do it. The files need to be moved to the front
before the free space can be chopped off at the back.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

It makes the resize job go a lot faster, for one thing,
and experience has shown me that when you are shrinking
a partition it is safer if *you* move the files to
the front of the partition rather than making Partition
Magic do it. The files need to be moved to the front
before the free space can be chopped off at the back.

I cannot comment on the speed issue, but after resizing
hundreds of partitions with PQMagic, with a 100% success
rate, I feel that the safety aspect you mention is a subjective
issue. PowerQuest would probably say the same.

 

[Rob Stow]

I cannot comment on the speed issue, but after resizing
hundreds of partitions with PQMagic, with a 100% success
rate, I feel that the safety aspect you mention is a subjective
issue. PowerQuest would probably say the same.

Has PM stopped recommending a defrag before resizing or
moving a partition ? I use version 6 everywhere and
the manual recommends the defrag. I have tried version 7,
but it gave me lots of problems - especially with logical
drives and extended partitions that had been created by
linux - so I went back to version 6.