Re-partitioning a hard drive
October 31, 2006 9:24 AM Subscribe
I have a 40 gig hard drive that is currently in two equally-sized partitions; over time the first partition (C: drive) has become full (due, in large part, to program files, which I've pared down to only those I want to keep). I would like to re-do the partitions, such that the C: drive would have, say 25 gig and the D: drive the other (roughly) 15 gig. I'm looking for suggestions/recommendations for what is the best software available for such a task? Thanks in advance for any ideas.
Partition Magic is the program of choice for many people. Be aware, that resizing partitions could result in the loss of all of your data.
Be sure to make backups somehow, before you go monkeying around with your partition tables.
And Steven is correct. In order to shrink the second partition, you'll likely need to pull the data off of the partition first.
posted by stovenator at 9:47 AM on October 31, 2006
Be sure to make backups somehow, before you go monkeying around with your partition tables.
And Steven is correct. In order to shrink the second partition, you'll likely need to pull the data off of the partition first.
posted by stovenator at 9:47 AM on October 31, 2006
Seconding stovenator, Partition Magic is really the only app I've seen that can effectively do what you're looking to do. I've always had success with it, but, as always, you really need to back up your data before doing something like this.
And, honestly, if you're backing up your data anyway, you probably should just verify that the backup works, then repartition, reformat and reinstall.
posted by owenkun at 9:50 AM on October 31, 2006
And, honestly, if you're backing up your data anyway, you probably should just verify that the backup works, then repartition, reformat and reinstall.
posted by owenkun at 9:50 AM on October 31, 2006
For Windows, the bets paid solution is definitely Partition Magic.
The best free solution is to burn yourself a a linux live CD (I recommend Ubuntu 6.06) and boot from that. This will load the linux operating system from your CD drive. This CD should have a program called QTparted (or something similar) that will also be able to repartition your hard drive. Sorry I don't have the exact specifics, it's been a while since I've gone this route.
Of course, backup everything first before attempting any sort of re-partitioning.
And like it was mentioned up thread, I'm not sure doing what you want is possible without deleting everything in the 2nd partition first. (Feel free to prove me wrong!)
posted by cgg at 9:53 AM on October 31, 2006
The best free solution is to burn yourself a a linux live CD (I recommend Ubuntu 6.06) and boot from that. This will load the linux operating system from your CD drive. This CD should have a program called QTparted (or something similar) that will also be able to repartition your hard drive. Sorry I don't have the exact specifics, it's been a while since I've gone this route.
Of course, backup everything first before attempting any sort of re-partitioning.
And like it was mentioned up thread, I'm not sure doing what you want is possible without deleting everything in the 2nd partition first. (Feel free to prove me wrong!)
posted by cgg at 9:53 AM on October 31, 2006
The competitor to Partition Magic is TrueImage. I used the demo to do a HDD migration & partition expansion and it worked quite well. It's probably another option for doing what you want to do, but as others have noted, it'll be a bit tricky.
If you really don't want to backup and restore, I think you'll have to do something like this:
0. Backup.
1. Shrink the second partition as much as possible and create a new partition with the freed space.
2. Migrate the shrunken partition to the new partition
3. Delete the shrunken partition
4. Expand the first partition into the space freed by the deleted shrunken partition
posted by Good Brain at 10:03 AM on October 31, 2006
If you really don't want to backup and restore, I think you'll have to do something like this:
0. Backup.
1. Shrink the second partition as much as possible and create a new partition with the freed space.
2. Migrate the shrunken partition to the new partition
3. Delete the shrunken partition
4. Expand the first partition into the space freed by the deleted shrunken partition
posted by Good Brain at 10:03 AM on October 31, 2006
If you're willing to go the linux livecd route, I've really gotten a lot of mileage out of the (free) gparted (gnome partition editor) livecd. So far, it's had no difficulty working with my ntfs partitions.
posted by treepour at 10:14 AM on October 31, 2006
posted by treepour at 10:14 AM on October 31, 2006
Er, sorry. Here's a working link to the gparted livecd.
posted by treepour at 10:15 AM on October 31, 2006
posted by treepour at 10:15 AM on October 31, 2006
Another vote for PartitionMagic. I've used it since version 4 back in 1998 or so and have never had it fail (YMMV). It will handle nearly any partition format you want. The program can resize or move existing partitions, copying your data from one part of the disk to another if resizing the thing would require physically relocating data to clear the necessary disk space. Don't neglect the option to make rescue disks, and make sure anything important is backed up just in case.
posted by caution live frogs at 11:09 AM on October 31, 2006
posted by caution live frogs at 11:09 AM on October 31, 2006
Second gparted, worked great for me.
posted by eleongonzales at 11:47 AM on October 31, 2006
posted by eleongonzales at 11:47 AM on October 31, 2006
I tried PartitionMagic once, and it didn't work. The problem was that I had filled one partition completely, with no way to free up space (3 gigs is enough for Windows XP, right? Right??). PartitionMagic wouldn't run because it wanted something like 15% free space on each drive. If you've got that, though, it should be a breeze.
Depending on your future plans for the computer (as in whether you want to keep it another year or two), you could buy a bigger hard drive, partition that one to your desire, and then use Norton Ghost to make an image of your smaller drive on to the new one.
posted by backseatpilot at 11:58 AM on October 31, 2006
Depending on your future plans for the computer (as in whether you want to keep it another year or two), you could buy a bigger hard drive, partition that one to your desire, and then use Norton Ghost to make an image of your smaller drive on to the new one.
posted by backseatpilot at 11:58 AM on October 31, 2006
3 gigs is enough for Windows XP, right? Right??
Actually, moving the paging file to another partition always does the trick for me if I need more space in my OS partition.
posted by Memo at 12:19 PM on October 31, 2006
Actually, moving the paging file to another partition always does the trick for me if I need more space in my OS partition.
posted by Memo at 12:19 PM on October 31, 2006
Doh! Yes, gparted is the linux solution I was thinking of. i think qtparted is on the knoppix live CD. Anyway, I digress...
Another thing to keep in mind (but it more relevant when shrinking partitions), is that you should defrag the hard drive before doing any work. (Does PM do this automatically for you? That would explain the 15% requirement). The defrag utility in windows is an okay place to start in that it will help a little, but it really does suck compared to some of the other commercial defrag software applications out there when you're trying to cram all your data into the smallest possible space.
posted by cgg at 12:44 PM on October 31, 2006
Another thing to keep in mind (but it more relevant when shrinking partitions), is that you should defrag the hard drive before doing any work. (Does PM do this automatically for you? That would explain the 15% requirement). The defrag utility in windows is an okay place to start in that it will help a little, but it really does suck compared to some of the other commercial defrag software applications out there when you're trying to cram all your data into the smallest possible space.
posted by cgg at 12:44 PM on October 31, 2006
Do you have a good reason for wanting two distinct partitions on one drive? If not, it may be easiest both technically and for managing your space to just expand C: to take up the entire 40 gigs.
You don't mention what is on D: but if it is mostly empty it should be easy to temporarily move everything off it and just delete D and expand C to the entire disk. Both Partition Magic and gparted should be able to do that without problems.
posted by Skorgu at 1:40 PM on October 31, 2006
You don't mention what is on D: but if it is mostly empty it should be easy to temporarily move everything off it and just delete D and expand C to the entire disk. Both Partition Magic and gparted should be able to do that without problems.
posted by Skorgu at 1:40 PM on October 31, 2006
I like Acronis Disk Director the best out of all of the disk repartitioning programs.
posted by dgeiser13 at 2:16 PM on October 31, 2006
posted by dgeiser13 at 2:16 PM on October 31, 2006
Like "The Elder Geek", last month Partition Magic failed for me so I switched to Acronis Disk Director - glad I did because it's even better.
posted by Zeedog at 5:10 PM on October 31, 2006
posted by Zeedog at 5:10 PM on October 31, 2006
"The competitor to Partition Magic is TrueImage"
The competitor to Partition Magic is NOT TrueImage. TrueImage is Acronis' disk imaging product. As I said Acronis Disk Director is the competitor to Partition Magic. TrueImage is the equivalent of Symantec Ghost.
posted by dgeiser13 at 6:59 PM on October 31, 2006
The competitor to Partition Magic is NOT TrueImage. TrueImage is Acronis' disk imaging product. As I said Acronis Disk Director is the competitor to Partition Magic. TrueImage is the equivalent of Symantec Ghost.
posted by dgeiser13 at 6:59 PM on October 31, 2006
I have used both Partition Magic and the Gparted live CD with great success. Free software is always my preference.
Good Brain's method is what I've used. Definitly defrag and back up your data before repartitioning.
posted by lhauser at 8:35 PM on October 31, 2006
Good Brain's method is what I've used. Definitly defrag and back up your data before repartitioning.
posted by lhauser at 8:35 PM on October 31, 2006
Response by poster: Thanks to everyone. My plan (an amalgam of selected suggestions from you kind posters) is to archive/offload as much as possible from the D: drive, which should free plenty of space to resize the partitions and get the results I want. I'll use either Partition Magic or Acronis, I think - still evaluating that aspect of the project.
posted by zephyrbill at 11:47 PM on October 31, 2006
posted by zephyrbill at 11:47 PM on October 31, 2006
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:43 AM on October 31, 2006