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Best Way to Resize NTFS Partition for Free?

Scarpozzi

Scarpozzi

Lifer
I'm wanting to setup my work computer as a dual boot Linux/XP system.

I've already allocated 100% of my hard drive to NTFS. What's the most failsafe utility to resize it for Linux? A coworker tried this a few weeks ago and ended up screwing up the partition tables of her system. What's the best utility out there for free these days? (I don't feel like paying $50+ for Partition Magic.) Thanks,

-Scar
 
Any resize utility comes with a risk, especially with NTFS because MS won't release the specs openly so the only tools that support it are those that either paid MS or reverse engineered the filesystem. The only free option I know of for NTFS is GParted, there's a LiveCD you can use but you should backup your stuff before trying it just in case.
 
Originally posted by: InlineFive
Or if you get a hold of a Vista DVD you can resize the partition using it.
Click to expand...
Sweet. I'll check this out tomorrow if I get around to burning my Vista ISOs to disk. I have a copy of the Vista CDs through a work license...

Do you have to boot to them or is it a utility I can browse for? I have the ISOs and Daemon tools installed on my XP box. I would just need to know what I'm looking for.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
Any resize utility comes with a risk, especially with NTFS because MS won't release the specs openly so the only tools that support it are those that either paid MS or reverse engineered the filesystem. The only free option I know of for NTFS is GParted, there's a LiveCD you can use but you should backup your stuff before trying it just in case.
Click to expand...

I'm a fan of Gparted. The few times I've needed to resize partitions, it's worked great for for me. It's always a good idea to back up your data though. If you don't have backups, now's a good time to start. I use an Ubuntu cd, but you can download Gparted by itself also.
 
I also am a fan of gparted, before that I used Partion Magic. gparted is open source. for windows users, the best option is the gparted live CD, which comes in the form of a downloadable iso file which can be burnt to a disk. (you boot the computer from the CD, it loads a minimal gui environment and gives you access to gparted).
 
Whatever you do make sure to backup anything important before trying the resize (and preferably use a tool which has a recovery option) as there is always a chance of running into a problem
 
Originally posted by: aidanjm
I also am a fan of gparted, before that I used Partion Magic. gparted is open source. for windows users, the best option is the gparted live CD, which comes in the form of a downloadable iso file which can be burnt to a disk. (you boot the computer from the CD, it loads a minimal gui environment and gives you access to gparted).
Click to expand...

I wanted to re-size a 200GB SATA-I NTFS partition to have my page file on a separate partition. GParted would make this possible in WinXP?

Thanks,
IronChefMorimoto
 
I wanted to re-size a 200GB SATA-I NTFS partition to have my page file on a separate partition. GParted would make this possible in WinXP?
Click to expand...

It's possible, but you don't want to put your pagefile on a seperate partition anyway.
 
Originally posted by: Nothinman
I wanted to re-size a 200GB SATA-I NTFS partition to have my page file on a separate partition. GParted would make this possible in WinXP?
Click to expand...

It's possible, but you don't want to put your pagefile on a seperate partition anyway.
Click to expand...

Huh -- I thought that was a simple way to speed up one's machine a little. Barring having a separate drive altogether for the page file. Am I mistaken?

IronChefMorimoto
 
Originally posted by: IronChefMoto
Originally posted by: Nothinman
I wanted to re-size a 200GB SATA-I NTFS partition to have my page file on a separate partition. GParted would make this possible in WinXP?
Click to expand...

It's possible, but you don't want to put your pagefile on a seperate partition anyway.
Click to expand...

Huh -- I thought that was a simple way to speed up one's machine a little. Barring having a separate drive altogether for the page file. Am I mistaken?

IronChefMorimoto
Click to expand...

Yes, that's a mistake. It's not much of a gain, but it's better to have it on a separate physical disk. Performance will be worse on a different partition on the same disk, as the head has to travel farther to get to the file it needs. In your case it would be better to leave the page file on the main partition.
 
I've had gparted fail on making a partition smaller, but its always worked making a parttion larger. Only 1 fail out of a few hundred trys though in making a partition smaller.
 
I've had gparted fail on making a partition smaller, but its always worked making a parttion larger. Only 1 fail out of a few hundred trys though in making a partition smaller.
Click to expand...

Yea, making filesystems smaller is much, much more difficult than extending them. That's why filesystems like XFS and JFS only support growing in their native tools.
 
Originally posted by: Scarpozzi
I'm wanting to setup my work computer as a dual boot Linux/XP system.

I've already allocated 100% of my hard drive to NTFS. What's the most failsafe utility to resize it for Linux? A coworker tried this a few weeks ago and ended up screwing up the partition tables of her system. What's the best utility out there for free these days? (I don't feel like paying $50+ for Partition Magic.) Thanks,

-Scar
Click to expand...

when you install UBUNTU it will handle this for you during the GUI install.
 
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