Partition help

[Ty07allstar]

Is there anyway for me to make a partition on my HD considering that i have Windows already installed or would i have to reinstall Windows? Could i make a 20GB partition from my current partition and use it for Vista? What i'm saying is can i make an additional 20gb partition from my current 80gb without reformatting?

 

[llwyd]

dont think so sorry, you might be able to use software such as alcohol to to create a virtual partition but ive never tried that so i cant say for sure

 

[Dav0s]

software such as partition magic will do this for you, but it is sometimes risky

 

[Rastalovich]

I`m I understanding that u want to take u`r existing 80g drive, which has an 80g windo$e partition on it, and make a 60g (retaining the old windo$e) and add a 20g for u`r visa ?

If I were to do this, I`d firstly backup my crucial shizzle (for fear it may screw up), then use something like PartitionMagic to attempt a resize of the partition.

I know you can make the partition bigger and retain the data. But I`ve never tried making it smaller - I`d ~asume~ u can coz I think the tool option is "Resize".

Then obviously make a new 20g.

Probably be a faster process if u make sure u`r defragged as much as physically possible, so if PM does it`s resizing it hits as little a quantity of files as possible.

If I remember rightly, I may have used Ghost to make a file listable backup of a partition, scrub the partition, make a new partition, then Ghost the files back, I`m just not clear on whether this worked well or not.

 

[Ty07allstar]

Ok thanks guys.

 

[blawblaw]

diskmanagement? its easy as hell.

 

[Nagaru]

Get The System Rescue CD here. Once you boot it up, run qtparted, but note that the capatalization must be correct. This program is very similar to Partition Magic but is free. I have used this about 3 times for shrinking NTFS partitons, but still backup your data. Good Luck and feel free to pm me for more info.

 

[PV5150]

Is there anyway for me to make a partition on my HD considering that i have Windows already installed or would i have to reinstall Windows?

Yes, you can use partitioning software to resize the existing Windows partition. But, back up stuff you can't afford to lose, and you shouldn't have to reinstall unless things go horribly pear shaped.

Could i make a 20GB partition from my current partition and use it for Vista? What i'm saying is can i make an additional 20gb partition from my current 80gb without reformatting?

Yes you can, just be very careful not to muck up your active partition (the partition that Windows boots off) or you may get the error.

NTLDR is missing.

Press Ctrl+Alt+Del to restart.

 

[FragTek]

I've used PartitionMagic numerous times to do what you're talking about and never had a problem. The biggest thing you will run in to is an accidentally overwritten MBR, but that's a pretty simple fix if you accidentally over-write it and can't boot back in to XP and only Vista.

If I grasp what you're basically asking, is if you can have 2 partitions on your drive for dual booting XP and Vista, correct?

 

[glocktodahead]

I was thinking about doing this with windows and linux, so this thread has been helpful thanks

 

[Ty07allstar]

I've used PartitionMagic numerous times to do what you're talking about and never had a problem. The biggest thing you will run in to is an accidentally overwritten MBR, but that's a pretty simple fix if you accidentally over-write it and can't boot back in to XP and only Vista.

If I grasp what you're basically asking, is if you can have 2 partitions on your drive for dual booting XP and Vista, correct?

That's exactly what i was thinking on doing but have decided not to because i dont want to risk losing my data. I'm just going to wait for the final release to get Vista.