Stealing hard drive space from myself (rebalancing two partitions)?

Drez

So I have a 1TB HDD which right now is partitioned nearly in the middle. On one partition, I have a fresh new installation of Windows 7 Home Premium and on the other I have Windows XP.

Now that I'm confident I have a relatively stable installation of Windows 7 here, I'd like to leech back some of the free space the Windows XP partition is not using. Right now the total space is partitioned in a ratio of 45:55 in favor of WinXP. I'd like to make that more like 75:25 or 80:20.

And when I say "easy" I don't mean "boot into a linux installation and use gparted." I'm lazy. Is there an easier way? I thought Windows 7 had a tool for this?

Another possible FUTURE option (one I am not ready for - I still like Windows XP for certain things, though the number of things I prefer Windows XP for is decreasing daily): Expunge Windows XP and merge that partition into this one. Is that possible/easy?

Thanks.

Infidel

Computer Management under Administrative Tools, go to Disk Management in there.

Right click the partition, use Shink Volume and then Extend Volume as desired.

Drez

Infidel wrote: »

Computer Management under Administrative Tools, go to Disk Management in there.

Right click the partition, use Shink Volume and then Extend Volume as desired.

Ahh nice. Thank you! I thought there was something.

Hypothetically speaking, let's say I have 50 gigs free on that partition and try to shrink it by 100 gigs. Does an error get thrown up? What happens?

Infidel

It won't let you choose an amount more than it can perform.

And if you're trying to "merge" the partitions sometime later, you'll just copy the data to the one, delete the one you don't want, and extend the remaining one to the full size.

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Infidel

Yeah, that's what I mean by the amount it "can perform" instead of saying free space. It can only shrink off free space off the end, if you are highly fragmented then much of your free space might be "trapped" in the middle of files and not reclaimable by partition resizing alone.

Smart partition utilities can do this defragmenting in place, but the built-in Windows one doesn't. Nothing a defrag first can't work around though.

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Infidel

Even the third-party defrag did that? It's not that surprising when the Windows one has a lot of "lol unmovable!" stuff at the end but in most setups I've seen it's not an issue after another's defrag.

But yeah, if there's data left towards the end of the partition you'll be limited by that.

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Drez

Well. I guess it's not a big deal really. If I ever wanted to fully reclaim it, I could just reinstall Windows 7 I suppose. In fact, I think I'd rather do that if I ever get to the point where I want to fully abandon WinXP. The migration tool more or less trivializes reinstalls.

Thanks for the help

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cooljammer00

Hmm, I'm actually trying to do something similar. My capture card and its software seem to not want to work in 7, so I'm going to partition my hard drive for an XP install. Just glad to know that it's not the end of the world in terms of disk space.

jclast

Infidel wrote: »

Computer Management under Administrative Tools, go to Disk Management in there.

Right click the partition, use Shink Volume and then Extend Volume as desired.

Is this possible at all in WinXP? I'm in computer management, but when I right-click on a partition (one is where WinXP lives and the other is just storage) I don't see shrink or expand volume.

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Geek Lord

http://www.partition-tool.com/

This application worked fine for me under WinXP when I wanted to absorb one 60GB partition at the end of a drive into two partitions at the beginning and middle of the same drive.

It should be able move the files it needs by itself (before Windows boots) to reclaim the required free space and shrink the partition then extend the desired partition into that free space

Here is what it did for me in one operation:

Legend:
xxxx : used space
==== : free space
---- : empty space

Step 1: Empty partition 3, to be deleted
                                            vvvvvvvvvvvv
|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx==||xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx==||==========|
Partition 1 220GB      Partition 2 220GB      Partition 3 60GB

Step 2: Delete partition 3
                                            vvvvvvvvvvvv
|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx==||xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx==||----------|
Partition 1 220GB      Partition 2 220GB      Empty space 60GB

Step 3: Move partition 2 to end of drive
                      >>>>>>>>>>>
|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx==|----------|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx==|
Partition 1 220GB                Partition 2 220GB

Step 4: Extend partitions 1 and 2 into empty space
                     -----><-----
|xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx=======||xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx=======|
Partition 1 250GB          Partition 2 250GB

Drez

Cool. Thanks.

Drez

Sorry to necropost, but I suppose it's better than making a new thread since all the information is still here.

I'm about ready to do this, but the problem I'm encountering is what Infidel and McDermott were talking about above. I have 216 gigs free on my WinXP partition, but Windows 7 will only allow me to shrink it by 10 gigs and it tells me that there is 0% fragmentation.

The free version of partition-tools only works on 32-bit operating systems, and this is Windows 7 64-bit. My WinXP installation is 64-bit as well.

Infidel

The limit is because Windows refuses to move those files when it is running and it insists on having them there when it defrags.

You should try a linux live boot cd and use gparted or such tools to fix things "offline" instead of within Windows.

Drez

Infidel wrote: »

The limit is because Windows refuses to move those files when it is running and it insists on having them there when it defrags.

You should try a linux live boot cd and use gparted or such tools to fix things "offline" instead of within Windows.

Can gparted do this? I know I successfully used that once...

edit: Wow, I am blind. I didn't see you wrote "gparted" there. I'll try that, thanks.

Topweasel

Drez wrote: »

Infidel wrote: »

The limit is because Windows refuses to move those files when it is running and it insists on having them there when it defrags.

You should try a linux live boot cd and use gparted or such tools to fix things "offline" instead of within Windows.

Can gparted do this? I know I successfully used that once...

edit: Wow, I am blind. I didn't see you wrote "gparted" there. I'll try that, thanks.

Gparted as worked decently for me on these types of jobs. One application that has always worked for me is Acronis Disk Manager.

Drez

Topweasel wrote: »

Drez wrote: »

Infidel wrote: »

The limit is because Windows refuses to move those files when it is running and it insists on having them there when it defrags.

You should try a linux live boot cd and use gparted or such tools to fix things "offline" instead of within Windows.

Can gparted do this? I know I successfully used that once...

edit: Wow, I am blind. I didn't see you wrote "gparted" there. I'll try that, thanks.

Gparted as worked decently for me on these types of jobs. One application that has always worked for me is Acronis Disk Manager.

I've heard of Acronis as well. Didn't get around to doing this today but I will tomorrow. Thanks all!

meeker

I really have to know, why would you want to split a 1 tb drive in half? Why not split it in thirds, OS take up little space, most space is taken up by media. Put the media on a third seperate partition and then if you ever have to reinstall, you are not mucking with your media partition.