Can anyone reccommmend some HD partitioning software?

[BoomAM]

Hi,
Can anyone reccommmend some HD partitioning software? Preferably free, and that will re-size partitions without destroying data.
There was some being given away a couple of weeks ago on a magazine i saw in manchester, but i dunno if that magazine is still out.

Thanks in advance.

 

[billandopus]

PowerQuest Partition Magic. Works well.

Free?: depends on your morals.

Availability: very available if you know where to look.

Do a quick search through the forums and i'm sure you will find lots more info.

 

[bjc112]

I think Partition Magic 8 has a 30 day trial.

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: bjc112
I think Partition Magic 8 has a 30 day trial.

Its a just a 30-trial that allows you to see what it does, you can`t actually change anything, like the partition sizes.

 

[BoomAM]

The main reason that i want to re-size partitions, is because, when i defrag my HD, it analyses first, and theres a big chunk of un-movable files, thats reasonably fragmented, i think its my swap file, so i was thinking of making a seperate partition for the swap file only.
Does it make that much difference? Having a seperate partition for the swap file?
Or should i temporary set the swap file to 50mb, place it on another drive, defrag the drive it was on, then place it back on the drive it was on at its original size (768mb)?

 

[Davegod]

IIRC if youre using WinXP (dunno about W2k) you can create a partition without mucking about - aslong as there is a suitable empty space - just with WinXP.

I find it convenient to keep the swapfile in it's own partition. You probably can just set windows to use the other disk and swap them about, although dont reduce the swapfile to something smaller than it actually needs to be and maybe reboot after each swap just to be on the safe side. BTW doing this pernamently may actually be the "better" solution anyway, a partition on a seperate lesser-used disk, especially if it is on a different IDE cable than the OS/Programs disk, since transfers and other program/file access wouldnt be interrupting each other.

 

[SUOrangeman]

Other freebies include:

Ranish Partition Manager (no resizing, however)

Any Linux install media (newer releases may have partition resize capabilities)

-SUO

 

[BoomAM]

Originally posted by: Davegod
IIRC if youre using WinXP (dunno about W2k) you can create a partition without mucking about - aslong as there is a suitable empty space - just with WinXP.

I find it convenient to keep the swapfile in it's own partition. You probably can just set windows to use the other disk and swap them about, although dont reduce the swapfile to something smaller than it actually needs to be and maybe reboot after each swap just to be on the safe side. BTW doing this pernamently may actually be the "better" solution anyway, a partition on a seperate lesser-used disk, especially if it is on a different IDE cable than the OS/Programs disk, since transfers and other program/file access wouldnt be interrupting each other.

So XP can re-size partitions?

 

[MikeMike]

no xp cant resize i dont believe only create.

MIKE

 

[BoomAM]

Right then.
Im moving everything on my backup drive to the main drive/s. I`m then going to delete the partition on the backup drive, and create 2 new ones, one for backup, one for the swap file.
How big should the swap file drive be?
My system ram is 768mb PC133.
My backup drive is 19.1gb in size (20gb).

I was thinking of 1.1gb for the swap file, which falls in line with what windows reccommends, and the remaining 18gb for backup. Opinions?

 

[BoomAM]

Heres what ive done guys.
I have a 18.00gb drive for my backups, and a 1.16gb drive for the swap file. Ive set the swap file to use 1150mb of the swap file drive, with system restore and recycle bin on that drive switched off. Thats leaves 32.6mb free on the swap file drive.
BUT everytime i start windows, it gives me a low diskspace warning for Drive Y: (the swapfile drive). How do i stop it giving me this warning on every bootup?