Hard Disk Partition Software

[Munsu]

I've got an old desktop with XP SP3. The hard disk is already partitioned into drive C: and D:. I'm looking for some recommendations for partition programs, so that I can reallocate some of the available disk space in C: into D:.

[Xelbair]

I never tried those, but i heard that Acronis one is good.

[darkshadow]

PartitionMagic is all i've ever used, look into it.

[David75]

If you have a spare disk, cloning first.

Clonezilla is a good option if you have some skills. You can put it on a thumb drive and boot from usb if your comp can.

then there's Gparted.

If you want payware, partitionmagic is a solution, I think there's an old version that is free, I don't know if it could have pbs with XP SP3.
Anyways, cloning is a first so that you have a carbon copy of the drive before anything wrong could happen.

[Board of Command]

I recommend GParted live CD. It's free in case you feel guilty about having to pirate the other stuff.

[Munsu]

GParted was also recommended to me by someone else. Already got by bootable cd made. Thanks.

[Buffalobiian]

I'm trying to partition my external HDD into FAT32, but you can only partition up to 32GB in XP using the default Windows software.

Can GParted live CD do this?

I know Partition Magic can.

[David75]

Yes Gparted is able to create FAT32 partitions up to 2TB (which is FAT32 limit)

The only problem with FAT32 is that you can not have files over 4GB, which is a problem sometimes...

But I guess FAT32 is required for an external drive that will connect to a *nix/*nux sytem, or a mac or a PS3 (*nux like... if I'm correct)

[Buffalobiian]

Awesome. I initially converted all my drives to NTFS to overcome the 4GB file size limit, but then ran into too many compatibility issues, so I'm trying to revert some of them back.

[David75]

Awesome. I initially converted all my drives to NTFS to overcome the 4GB file size limit, but then ran into too many compatibility issues, so I'm trying to revert some of them back.

As with any powerful tool, just be cautious not to lose data.
I have one rig where 2 disks are the same model and their identification only differs by one digit. So to be safe, I unplug any non useful to the task disk and launch the live session.
Because at times, you may inadvertly switch who's who, who does what etc...
That's my approach, others will probably be less cautious than I am.

[Buffalobiian]

Has anyone had weird display problems with gparted? I booted it up, and the display is way too big. Everything is off the screen etc, and changing the other options through "forcevideo" doesn't seem to work.

[David75]

Has anyone had weird display problems with gparted? I booted it up, and the display is way too big. Everything is off the screen etc, and changing the other options through "forcevideo" doesn't seem to work.

If I remember correctly, you have a choice of resolution from the first bootscreen, and then another one later.
I never had any trouble with default settings, or using other settings.

Also, I tend to load Gparted or clonezilla in ram, but I do not think that will help.

I guess that for some reason linux default drivers are glitchy with your GPU

[Buffalobiian]

I guess that for some reason linux default drivers are glitchy with your GPU

That must be it. When default visuals didn't work, I was left with having to manually select VGA settings, which involved:

-screen resolution
-driver
-colour depth



I tried a variety of screen resolutions, and all it did was increase or decrease the size of the screwed up image without actually fixing it up.

Colour depth was available up to 24bit, and that didn't help.

The available drivers to pick from were Ex, vesa/versa?, nv and ati. Having a NVdia 9800GTX+, nv would seem an obvious choice, but it seems that nv is what's screwing things up. I never got around to trying ati, Ex doesn't boot, and vesa fixes it.

It's a nice little program now that I can see what I'm doing (and working out that you have to double-click items rather than the now-more-common single-click.

Screenshots:

broken image:
http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/1085/p8250457.th.jpg (http://img193.imageshack.us/i/p8250457.jpg/)

fixed image:
http://img156.imageshack.us/img156/9350/p8250458.th.jpg (http://img156.imageshack.us/i/p8250458.jpg/)

[David75]

Happy that it works for you.

You could say that patiently waiting for the live session to boot and install is a bit overkill for just creating partitions... but since it works well.
Since most computers can boot from usb, a gparted or clonezilla usb key really is the thing to have for those having multiple rigs and many harddrives.

I have yet to fully understand how I can use ultimatebootCD for my needs, that is my next step in being a computer geek. I guess I'll go with a usb bootable one.

[Buffalobiian]

I have an SSD with 2 partitions, both with programs on them. I wish to merge the two partitions together so it's one giant C:\ drive with all the programs working. Which of the above software, if at all, would allow me to do this in the least fussiest way?

I'd imagine that this would involve the software crawling through the registry and changing every F:\ location to a C:\ one. Assuming that a software is able to do this, how would it screw up? Is it an "all or nothing" response where none of my translocated programs would work I'd need to reflash the disk with my previous image? Or would some links in somelocations stuff up because they were missed by the disk-software, and so a program could crash even though another wouldn't?