Help with Partitions

Hi

I was reading your info. I'm new to WXP Pro. Can you explain right from baby steps for the following problem:

I have Windows XP Pro. One 5GB C Drive partition and one 15GBB D Drive partition. I want to increase the 5GB partition to 7GB or whatever.

Is Partition Magic the best tool? Easiest? What precautions should I take? i.e. uninstall NAV2004?

Can this be done from WXP Pro CD-ROM? If so, how ? Please describe even the step of how to boot from a cd-rom and what to type. Assume I no nothing please

Thank you very much.

SA


ok, so I found that I wanna use Partition MAgic so yeah, please advise as to how to properly use it and what to do to make sure it works as it should. No software conflicts etc.

Also, after a couple of years should I just format? How do I make 2 partitions while formatting?

Thanks

Yeah, b_heyer. UNFLUX did split this one out.

With partition magic, (and it's been awhile since I used it so I'm going from memory since I don't have it installed at the moment), the first thing that you'll need to do is find the option to resize your larger drive and make it smaller, so that you have more free space on your hard drive. Submit that job first. Then after that job's done, you'll need to find the option to increase the size of the drive you want enlarged. Increase it to whatever amount of space you freed up. Then submit it. It will probably ask you to restart your computer in both cases. That's fine. It needs to do that. Depending on your settings, it may go into a mode where it remaps drive letters. I would suggest letting it do that since previously installed programs may need that information. It will add to the time it takes to do this task, but well worth it.

I know that's not quite as basic as what you asked for for instructions, but that's how you do it, and without having the program installed, I can't be more specific than that at the moment since that's all from memory.

There is one other glitch to this. I have found in the past from experience, that Partition magic may not work properly if data information is stored near the end of the drive. Before partitioning, I highly recommend going into safe mode (if you are on Win98) or in higher versions go to Start|Programs|Accessories|SystemTools|Disk Defragmentor, and defragment your drive first. The defrag tool can be found in Start|Programs|Accessories|SystemTools in either case.

Thanks

what does "end of your drive" mean? Meaning its filled up?

My smaller c:drive (which contains the XP operating system) is the one I'm trying to make bigger. It is 5GB and almost full. If it is at its capacity will the defrag tool prevent any glitches or are you just saying to use the defrag tool anyway?

If my complete hard drive hasn't been formatted in a couple of years should I format then create new partitions right from scratch anyway? How would I go about this method?

1.boot from XP disc
2. format
3. partition

In that order?

Thanks

It doesn't sound like you need to format your drive. I don't think it's really necessary, but it does give you a clean start, but it's a pain to reinstall all your drivers and programs and your critical file backups, etc, so if you can avoid it, don't do it.

What I mean is, that files are normally recorded in the first available open space on the hard drive, and over time they get jumbled around. Some files or even segments of files can end up in spots near the end of your drive and with two partitions, you compound this. Partition magic doesn't like this and will abort the job. What defragging does is organize your files and places them in a more ordered fashion near the beginning of the drive. (Added note - this also improves the efficiency and performance of your computer - I typically defrag once a month for this reason alone)

Then when you reduce the size of your larger partition, partition magic will have "clean" free space to add to the size of your smaller c:\ drive.

So the bottom line is, go into safe-mode, defrag, use partition magic to reduce the size of your larger drive, then increase your smaller drive to the freed area.

I know this works because I've done it at least a half dozen times or so with partition magic.

And added note - always make backups of your critical data before you do any of the above.

In the PM interface, left sidebar, under Pick a Task, there are the options (Resize A Partition) and (Redistribute Free Space). I need to resize my primary partition using space from my logical drive. These two options sound like they do the same thing. Which option do I choose first? Am I right in assuming I choose (Resize A Partition), then resize the larger (logical) drive and make it smaller - THEN choose Redist. Free Space and allott the free space (from the logical drive) to the primary drive to make it larger?

You are correct - exactly