partitioning

[Andrew Pratt]

I made a critical error when I setup my hard drive in that I have a single large (20 gig) partiton thats formated to NTFS since I'm running Win2K. In hindsite it would have been better to have several partitions so that I can run things like Partition Magic etc on the FAT32 partition. So this brings up my question...is there any software that will run under NTFS and win2k that will alow me to redo the partitions? I wonder about creating a boot disk of one of the newer versions of P. Magic and trying that?

[JonMarsh]

Scratching my head about that one. If you really want to keep your "existing configuration", the only straightforward way that comes to mind is to use DriveCopy to clone your current HD to a second larger one, and don't select the automatically resize option, so that it isn't expanded. This will give you some free space. Then use the free space to create a FAT32 partition- you should be able to do this from 2000, but if need be you can use a WIN98 startup disk, too. This should be a primary FAT32 partiiton. You will have to have a WIN98 startup disk; this will give you access to your CDROM drive from a "DOS" type environment, since low level programs like partition magic and system commander can't be run from NT or 2000.
Then, install System Commander 2000 from the CD-ROM. It will setup mult-boot, and also will support re-sizing partitions, including both NT and WIN2000 NTFS partitions.

I realize that depending on what software you have lying around, this may not be a very useful answer for you; it's all stuff that I have on hand and I'm familiar with, and know it will work. If you really have a lot of setup work put into you 2000 configuration, and if you build PC's frequently, this may be worth the effort. Otherwise, it would be less expensive to back up data file structures to CDR's, and just re-install, after re-partitioning. If you have a lot of work put into your setup, then the expense of following the above recommendations may be more worthwhile to you.

There aren't any programs that will do this kind of low level disk work under NT or 2000, because the fundamental design of the OS is to prohibit that kind of activity, because it constitutes a security problem, for one thing. The OS just allow direct access to hardware, or low level access to file function.


Regards,

Jon




Earth First!
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We'll screw up the other planets later....

[Andrew Pratt]

Jon yeah I figured thats what was going on win win2k. I do have driveimage (or is it copy) anyway its PowerQuests product and I've got P.Magic but its an older version. I guess I could do a reinstall fairly easily...its just such a pain