Any free utility to...?

[johnjbruin]

Any free utilities to partition hard disks in win xp?
Keyword: free. Please dont suggest FDISK or "format c:". Looking for something with a half decent gui at least.

 

[alm4rr]

Try sourceforge.net and the software forum

there's been a few like threads there recently

 

[johnjbruin]

Originally posted by: alm4rr
Try sourceforge.net and the software forum

there's been a few like threads there recently

Partition magic isnt freeware? Is it? Or do I have wrong info about it?

Sorry, but i posted the thread here since response time here is much faster.

 

[alm4rr]

heh you saw it before I edited it - I didn't see the word free on the first post

I have a freeware version round here somewhere - let me look for it

It used to be commercial, but was turned freeware

 

[FoBoT]

you don't need a gui to partition, just use Diskpart.exe
its scriptable too

 

[dnuggett]

Partition magic isnt freeware? Is it? Or do I have wrong info about it?

Not freeware.

 

[johnjbruin]

Originally posted by: dnuggett

Partition magic isnt freeware? Is it? Or do I have wrong info about it?

Not freeware.

hehe. alm4rr posted partition magic in his original post. I guess he changed it before i hit the quote button on his post andd i didnt notice it while actually quoting.

 

[alm4rr]

I have a freeware of Powerquest (makers of PM) Lost n Found, a discontinued product

 

[djdrastic]

Start - Run - diskmgmt.msc maybe ?

 

[beyonddc]

Just did a search on free partition utility and came across with this.
Ranish Partition Manager

 

[IEatChildren]

Open your control panel, go into Administrative tools. From there, open up Computer Management and find Disk Management. Voila! windows XP has built-in partition management with a simple GUI

 

[johnjbruin]

Originally posted by: djdrastic
Start - Run - diskmgmt.msc maybe ?

and

Open your control panel, go into Administrative tools. From there, open up Computer Management and find Disk Management. Voila! windows XP has built-in partition management with a simple GUI

You guys are referring to the same thing. It lets me look at partitions but thats about it. How do I go about resizing or merging them with this tool.

 

[IEatChildren]

You can manipulate them. Try right clicking the disk layout

 

[Harvey]

I don't blame you for not wanting to use FDISK, but I've even been able use it to mix FAT16 and FAT32 partitions. It's a PITA, and Partion Magic is much easier way to do it.

 

[EeyoreX]

The Disk management snapin will let you resize paritions. But it does it destructively, so if you want to do a non-destructive merge etc, you'll have to try the tools mentioned, or a non free product.

\Dan

 

[kevinthenerd]

You know what I'd do? I'd pop in a Linux installation CD and use the GUI tools that the top distos come with. (You don't have to install Linux to use some of the great tools.) They'll let you do a lot with your partitions (even with NTFS, FAT, and FAT32), but I can't personally guarantee the integrity of your data.

 

[straubs]

Originally posted by: johnjbruin
You guys are referring to the same thing. It lets me look at partitions but thats about it. How do I go about resizing or merging them with this tool.

I would go with kevinthenerd's suggestion. Please make sure you backup your data before you do any of this "merging or resizing" on NTFS partitions... I had it work and go bad and wipe out the drive. This was with Partition Magic 7--the industry standard partition software. So, trust me, this isn't a simple operation and it can go bad and destroy everything with it. (I was actually able to recover about 70% of my files, but it was a lengthy process to do so. The other 30% was gone.)