Partitioning a drive w/ info on it?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Roadmeat
  • Start date Start date
R

Roadmeat

Can I partition a formatted drive that already has data on it without
wiping the info off the drive?
 
I'm trying to network two computers together that have the same name.
How do I
change the name of one of them without doing a total reinstall? Thank you
in advance!

Don J
 
Don J said:
I'm trying to network two computers together that have the same name.
How do I
change the name of one of them without doing a total reinstall? Thank you
in advance!

Don J

-----------------------------------------------------------
Click to expand...

Control Panel / System / Computer Name.

BTW, piggy-backing your post onto someone else's
post for a completely different subject is not a good idea.
 
Roadmeat said:
Can I partition a formatted drive that already has data on it without
wiping the info off the drive?
Click to expand...

When following Don's suggestion, remember to back up
your important files first. Partition managers work ***most***
of the time but failures and accidents do occur. They are
usually fatal.
 
Don said:
I'm trying to network two computers together that have the same
name.
How do I
change the name of one of them without doing a total reinstall? Thank
you in advance!
Click to expand...

Did you really mean to post this in the middle of someone else's
unrelated thread? Probably not. The answer to your question is Control
Panel>System>Computer Name tab.

If you want more help, please make a new post.

Malke
 
Roadmeat said:
Can I partition a formatted drive that already has data on it without
wiping the info off the drive?
Click to expand...


No, not natively within Windows.

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.
 
Roadmeat said:
Can I partition a formatted drive that already has data on it without
wiping the info off the drive?
Click to expand...

Not with any tools native to XP. Some 3rd party software can partition
nondestructively. Make sure, however, that you have a full and complete
backup. Things can go wrong, and one should always have a backup in any
case. Software that does this is Symantec's Partition Magic and
Terabyte Unlimited's BootItNG which offers a 30 day full featured free
trial version. I believe Acronis also has software for this but I have
not used it.
 
I'm trying to network two computers together that have the same name.
How do I
change the name of one of them without doing a total reinstall? Thank you
in advance!
Click to expand...

Start Button

Help & Support

Enter "Change Computer Name" into search field

Open item called "Specify computer & workgroup names"
 
Here's the problem... I have a 2nd drive that won't identify, I've done
everything, changed jumpers, cable position, bought an external drive
enclosure.. same issue across the board. The 2nd drive (which has
everything in this world I need) won't read since I installed windows
on the 1st one. I picked up something somewhere that maybe it needed to
be re partitioned.. so thats why I asked this.. but I can't back it
up.. its just not there.

Here's what it does:

The main WD drive is listed as basic, has a new xp home version on it
and is the master.

This 2nd Maxtor drive is listed as dynamic and foreign, its in disk
manager and device manager but doesn't have that white space in disk
manager showing its good. This 2nd drive did this once in the past and
a friend said it had to be manually mapped becuase it won't identify..
can't figure out what that means... Its an old maxtor and I've tried
their utilities and drives.. won't help. I know how to map a drive
usually but this isn't even found in that option. What all the
utilities seem to be agreeing on is that this drive is there physically
but not logically.
 
Roadmeat said:
Here's the problem... I have a 2nd drive that won't identify, I've done
everything, changed jumpers, cable position, bought an external drive
enclosure.. same issue across the board. The 2nd drive (which has
everything in this world I need) won't read since I installed windows
on the 1st one. I picked up something somewhere that maybe it needed to
be re partitioned.. so thats why I asked this.. but I can't back it
up.. its just not there.

Here's what it does:

The main WD drive is listed as basic, has a new xp home version on it
and is the master.

This 2nd Maxtor drive is listed as dynamic and foreign, its in disk
manager and device manager but doesn't have that white space in disk
manager showing its good. This 2nd drive did this once in the past and
a friend said it had to be manually mapped becuase it won't identify..
can't figure out what that means... Its an old maxtor and I've tried
their utilities and drives.. won't help. I know how to map a drive
usually but this isn't even found in that option. What all the
utilities seem to be agreeing on is that this drive is there physically
but not logically.
Click to expand...

If the data is extremely valuable to you, contact a data recover service
such as www.ontrack.com or www.drivesavers.com.
 
Roadmeat said:
Here's the problem... I have a 2nd drive that won't identify, I've done
everything, changed jumpers, cable position, bought an external drive
enclosure.. same issue across the board. The 2nd drive (which has
everything in this world I need) won't read since I installed windows
on the 1st one. I picked up something somewhere that maybe it needed to
be re partitioned.. so thats why I asked this.. but I can't back it
up.. its just not there.

Here's what it does:

The main WD drive is listed as basic, has a new xp home version on it
and is the master.

This 2nd Maxtor drive is listed as dynamic and foreign, its in disk
manager and device manager but doesn't have that white space in disk
manager showing its good. This 2nd drive did this once in the past and
a friend said it had to be manually mapped becuase it won't identify..
can't figure out what that means... Its an old maxtor and I've tried
their utilities and drives.. won't help. I know how to map a drive
usually but this isn't even found in that option. What all the
utilities seem to be agreeing on is that this drive is there physically
but not logically.
Click to expand...

Disk Management supports converting non-boot disks from dynamic partitions
to basic partitions.
Microsoft management console. Help files.
 
Yea but you lose everything.

Disk Management supports converting non-boot disks from dynamic partitions
to basic partitions.
Microsoft management console. Help files.
Click to expand...
 
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