How to resize/re-create partition without erasing data?

[Battousai001]

Hi, I would like to ask is there a way in windows or any free software that will let you resize or recreate a partition without erasing data?

This is the case, I have an 80GB HDD, it is partitioned into two, one-20GB (primary) and the other 60GB. I am going to reformat the disk and make it equal (40GB-40GB) but the problem is the other half of the parition has important data of about 10GB, I dont have any spare HDD to put those data temporarily.

Is there a way to resize or re-create the partition into 40GB-40GB as I am going to reinstall xp, is there any internal function or command in xp that will let you re-size or re-create the partition then reformat it without erasing any data?

 

[corkyg]

I don't know about freeware - I would use Norton PartitionMagic 8. That is exactly what it excels at.

 

[pmradio]

Just found a great answer on DL.tv. Check out GParted LiveCD. It's free, you can move partitions around and does NOT destroy your data.

 

[corkyg]

That';s good info, PMRadio. But, it has limitations that P/.M does not have. These are from your linked website:

Notes:

1. The start of the partition must stay fixed. The partition you copy to must be bigger or exactly the same size as the partition you copy from.

2. Limited checking is done when the file system is opened. This is the only checking at the moment. All commands (including resize) will gracefully fail, leaving the file system intact, if there are any errors.

3. You can always shrink your partition. If you can't use FAT32 for some reason, you may not be able to grow your partition due to restrictions in cluster size.

4. Parted can only shrink HFS and HFS+ filesystems.

5. ReiserFS support is enabled if you install libreiserfs, available at http://www.namesys.com

Note one rules out a whole lot of options that P/M handles easily. But - it's free! I guess you get what you pay for.

 

[pmradio]

Good point. Wonder if there's any better open source program out there to do this?

 

[corkyg]

Here is a pretty good summary of what's out there. To do a complete array of non-destructive partition management in NTFS, I think one has to be prepared to spend a little - and that's not unreasonable.

Partitions

But - that was 2-3 years ago. There maybe something newer - hopefully someone will chime in with it.

 

[Blain]

Originally posted by: corkyg
To do a complete array of non-destructive partition management in NTFS, I think one has to be prepared to spend a little - and that's not unreasonable.

True... True...
I really like my Partition Magic 8.

 

[n0cmonkey]

backup backup backup

 

[QueBert]

Partition Magic use to be my favorite, last time I ran it, it almost killed my music partition. I couldn't do anything, then I got Acronis Disk Director, it fixed the partition that PM messed up. Also it seems to be a lot faster then PM, you don't have to reboot to re-size non OS partitions which is kinda nice. And Disk Director can recover partitions and do some other things.

An interesting PM note, I don't know if it's right or wrong. But, if I run PM on my system it shows my 320 gig drive as "bad" (doesn't show partitions or anything) chkdsk & Spinrite both say the drive/partitions are fine. And, I haven't had any issues accessing any of the partitions in widows. Not sure what the hell PM is saying the partition are bad for *shrug*

I will say speed wise DD seems to be way way faster then PM. And this pay just be my bias, but Symantec now owns PM, they can mess anything up!

 

[beggerking]

Partition Magic. Make sure you get the lastest edition + online update before you use it.