Technical computer question

Dunno about specifics...although I'm sure someone out there does.

From my experience, however, attempting such things is very risky, especially if you've got an OS installed on all of the partition you're trying to downsize.

Make sure you backup everything first..

Cheers for input. Although the partition I'd be looking at shrinking doesn't have an OS on it.

More details for people who might be able to help:

Its an 80Gb hard-drive. 20Gb C:\ containing XP. 60Gb D:\ with everything else. 40Gb on D is free. File system on both partitions is NTFS.

I want to shrink D so I can create a Linux partition and begin my escape from Bill Gates.

I used partition magic to do the job for me. fortunately i borrowed it off a friend so i didn't have to pay.

Partition Magic is the best for this stuff. It's Microsoft approved, too.

There are some dodgy freeware programs about but PM is easier to use than any of them I think.

Exactly what I wanted to say... I mean dont follow this advice but you know ahem ahem there are some things called filesharing tools ahem ahem well I havent said a word

Partition Magic is the best for this stuff. It's Microsoft approved, too.

I have a similar problem in which my 15gb hard drive needs upgrading however I want to copy my exisiting data over exactly how it currently is including the operating system.

Emergency over. One of the benefits of having a person doing CompSci in my flat, is he has every useful piece of software under the sun.

Many thanks for all bits of advice.

Ed

Hey!
I've got a little problem that hopefully someone can help me with. I have 2 partitions on my hard-drive and I'd like to resize one of them to leave space for me to create a third partition. And I'd like to do this without the loss of any data, using freeware. I know there is commerical software out there but I'd rather not pay £30 for something I intend on using once.

Thanks in advance,
Ed

thats "sir" Bill to you laddie

Hi there,

Are you talking NTFS or FAT partitions?

If you're talking NTFS, which is the most likely as I assume you're on XP, unfortunately Linux cannot yet touch (as in write to) NTFS partitions non-destructively (hence why the Linux NTFS driver can currently only read from NTFS partitions). However, there are some slightly not well-known ways to resize NTFS partitions from within Linux (or from a small Linux kernel booted off a CD etc.; see http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html). If you're going to be using Mandrake Linux, I believe the latest version of their DiskDrake tool, which you can run at setup, will allow non-destructive resizing of NTFS partitions (I don't know how much I'd trust it though). By the far the best option is to find a Windows-based solution for resizing your NTFS partition. In my experience, Partition Magic 8 is the only one you can really trust (and even then, ensure you have a complete backup and that it wouldn't be the end of the world if you had to re-format).

If you're talking FAT, then the situation is much easier. I believe that Linux can easily non-destructively resize FAT partitions without much effort. Do a few searches on http://groups.google.com for more information.

Oh, and welcome to the wonderful of Linux! Which distribution are you going to use? I recommend either Mandrake or Redhat for a complete beginner (I assume that's what you are...). By far the most fun is a 'Linux From Scratch' system, i.e. no distribution and everything is compiled from sources on another machine or pre-existing Linux install. This allows the most control but is also very complicated!

EDIT: Just noticed that you've fixed it. Oh well, I'll leave this for reference.

Regards,

Wooo,

Hardly an emergency though, eh.

Did you use Partition Magic in the end like we said?

Cheers for your advice Rich. I went for SuSE, seems good to me not that I know a lot about Linux yet! Maybe I'll go for 'Linux from Scratch' next time...