Partitioning hard drives

[John]

Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to do it. FDISK requires formatting first. I don't want to do that. Is there an app within XP that can do it? I am up to date including service pack 2.

Tia, John

[Ross Durie]

RE: Fdisk - How do you format first given you need to create a partition first.

--
Ross
"John" > wrote in message ...
Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to do it. FDISK requires formatting first. I don't want to do that. Is there an app within XP that can do it? I am up to date including service pack 2.

Tia, John

[jeffrey]

Hi,

Once there are active partitions, only way to resize them is to delete the
partitiong. XP disk management tool can be use to format, delete and create
new partitions, but not resize them. You really have to use a third party
tool to change the partition size without deleting it or loosing the data.

Jeff

"John" > wrote in message
...
Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to do it.
FDISK requires formatting first. I don't want to do that. Is there an app
within XP that can do it? I am up to date including service pack 2.

Tia, John

[Mohab el Amry]

u can partition any new hard disk by using Windows Manage tool
go to my computer , click right click and choose manage
choose disk managment, u will see all the HDs on your computer, click right
click on any hard disk you want to partition and choose creat partition
here you go.....
:)

[Jon]

You only really need 3rd party software for the initial resizing of your original partition (assuming you currently have one disk with one main partition).
For the resizing you can download Bootitng, with
its 30 day free trial, and follow its instructions to resize the partition
via DOS.

After that, you can create new partitions, and switch between them eg using XP's Disk Management
(start > run > diskmgmt.msc)

Jon

"John" > wrote in message ...
Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to do it. FDISK requires formatting first. I don't want to do that. Is there an app within XP that can do it? I am up to date including service pack 2.

Tia, John

[Michael Stevens]

John wrote:
> Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to do it.
> FDISK requires formatting first. I don't want to do that. Is there
> an app within XP that can do it? I am up to date including service
> pack 2.
>
> Tia, John

Without losing data, you will need third party partitioning software.
Click on or copy and paste the link below into your web browser address box
if accessing the newsgroups from the web based newsgroups.
BootIT NG from Terabyte has a full function 30 day trial.
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/
PartitionMagic from Symantec
http://sea.symantec.com/content/product.cfm?productid=1
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP

http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

[Tim Slattery]

"John" > wrote:

>Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to do it. FDISK requires formatting first. I don't want to do that. Is there an app within XP that can do it? I am up to date including service pack 2.

The tools included with WinXP can only delete (losing all data) and
create partitions. Partition Magic (and other such apps) can resize
existing partitions without losing data.

--
Tim Slattery
MS MVP(DTS)

[Guydpb]

So why don't you use PM ? It can create a bootable diskette, and has all the necessary tools needed on another (program) diskette without you ever having to access your OS. If ever your original OS fails (which soon or later will happen I guarantee) you can create another partition, install a 2nd OS on this partition and gain access to the 1st one within this 2nd one.
Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to do it. FDISK requires formatting first. I don't want to do that. Is there an app within XP that can do it? I am up to date including service pack 2.

Tia, John

[Gerry Cornell]

Jon

Your bit of an optimistic! If you partition a drive the chances are you will need to resize one or more partitions given time! Needs change.



~~~~~~

Regards.

Gerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Jon" > wrote in message ...
You only really need 3rd party software for the initial resizing of your original partition (assuming you currently have one disk with one main partition).
For the resizing you can download Bootitng, with
its 30 day free trial, and follow its instructions to resize the partition
via DOS.

After that, you can create new partitions, and switch between them eg using XP's Disk Management
(start > run > diskmgmt.msc)

Jon

"John" > wrote in message ...
Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to do it. FDISK requires formatting first. I don't want to do that. Is there an app within XP that can do it? I am up to date including service pack 2.

Tia, John

[John Doue]

Guydpb wrote:

> So why don't you use PM ? It can create a bootable diskette, and has all
> the necessary tools needed on another (program) diskette without you
> ever having to access your OS. If ever your original OS fails (which
> soon or later will happen I guarantee) you can create another
> partition, install a 2nd OS on this partition and gain access to the
> 1st one within this 2nd one.
> John Wrote:
>
>>Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to do it.
>>FDISK requires formatting first. I don't want to do that. Is there an
>>app within XP that can do it? I am up to date including service pack
>>2.
>>
>>Tia, John
>
>
>
I have the following problem with Partition Magic 8 : when I load it
with an external firewire drive attached, on some of them, it claims to
detect an problem :"disk appears to have partitions created using a
different drive geometry (240h63s)". Actually the drive is perfectly
sound according to all criteria (windows, Acronis disk Director, you
name it). This has caused me a lot of aggravation until I found the
problem was nonexistent.

Symantec support policy being that you must fork $20.00 for any
incident, I have requested a refund. Any ideas what are the roots of
this problem I had never encountered with Partition Magic (I used
version 7) until I bought a ThinkPad? I fail to see the connection but
there probably is one.

--
John Doue

[Alex Nichol]

John wrote:

>Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to do it. FDISK requires formatting first. I don't want to do that. Is there an app within XP that can do it?

Changing size of partitions requires third party software. Anything
else would imply starting over and deleting present partitions as part
of a clean set up of XP (not FDISK). P Magic will do, but is fairly
expensive. What I use is BootIT NG, from http://www.BootitNG.com ($35
shareware - 30 day full functional trial)

Download, to its own folder, extract from the zip, run the bootitng.exe
to make a boot floppy.

Boot the floppy, Cancel Install, entering maintenance, then click on
Partition work. Highlight your partition click Resize and resize to
taste. That will release free space in which to make a new partition
from XP. If you are resizing the second of two partitions on a drive,
so as to expand the first, you will also need to use Slide to slide the
second partition so free space in next to the one you want to expand,
then Resize that

Note that when you reboot XP will probably say 'New hardware found -
need to reboot'. That is normal, a consequence of the sizes having
changed, Reboot and all will be fine.

Having got free space, make a new partition in it from XP by Control
Panel - Admin Tools - Computer Management, select Disk Management and
look lower right for the graphic of the drive. R-click Unallocated
space, take Create Partition


--
Alex Nichol MS MVP (Windows Technologies)
Bournemouth, U.K. (remove the D8 bit)

[Jon]

Very true, but subsequent changes can potentially be done through creation and deletion of partitions, with a bit of organisation and planning, once you have that initial free space to play with.
eg using Windows tools like diskmgmt.msc

eg shifting data from Partition A to B, deleting A, recreating A to the size you want, shifting data back from B. Not always essential to pay for 3rd party software to achieve the layout you want.


Jon

"Gerry Cornell" > wrote in message ...
Jon

Your bit of an optimistic! If you partition a drive the chances are you will need to resize one or more partitions given time! Needs change.



~~~~~~

Regards.

Gerry

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FCA

Stourport, Worcs, England
Enquire, plan and execute.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Jon" > wrote in message ...
You only really need 3rd party software for the initial resizing of your original partition (assuming you currently have one disk with one main partition).
For the resizing you can download Bootitng, with
its 30 day free trial, and follow its instructions to resize the partition
via DOS.

After that, you can create new partitions, and switch between them eg using XP's Disk Management
(start > run > diskmgmt.msc)

Jon

"John" > wrote in message ...
Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to do it. FDISK requires formatting first. I don't want to do that. Is there an app within XP that can do it? I am up to date including service pack 2.

Tia, John

[Ken Blake]

In ,
John > typed:

> Instead of using Partition Magic, what other ways are there to
> do it.
> FDISK requires formatting first.


No, you have it backward. First you FDISK, then you format each
of the partitions you've created with FDISK.


> I don't want to do that. Is there
> an app within XP that can do it? I am up to date including
> service
> pack 2.


Exactly what is it you're trying to accomplish? If you want to
change the existing partition structure of your drive without
losing what's already there, there's no way to accomplish this
within Windows. No version of Windows has ever had the ability to
change the partition structure of a drive nondestructively. The
only way to do what you want is with third-party software.
Partition Magic is
the best-known such program, but there are freeware/shareware
alternatives. One such program is BootIt Next Generation. It's
shareware, but comes with a free 30-day trial, so you should be
able to do what you want within that 30 days. I haven't used it
myself, but it comes highly recommended by several other MVPs
here.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

[John]

Thanks to everyone for your help. My problem was running out of space in my C drive and I wanted to pick up some from unallocated space I had hanging out yonder. I only have twenty gig total and I probably manage my space a little tighter than most of you. All of my data is in the D drive with a chunk of unallocated for where ever needed.

One of you told me of his Firewire causing problems with his Partition Magic and it got me to thinking about my new USB Photo Printer. It looks like another drive when I go to My Computer. I unplugged it and made another attempt... and... viola, it worked.

I'll tell you (as if you didn't already know) strange things happen when you don't use a feature, application or hardware for some time. Anyway, it's one I won't forget for a while.

Thanks again, John