(Repost from Gen Hdwre) Is there a Freeware partition resizer?

[Phibian]

I have a 30 GB HD with one partition on it. I'd like to downsize that partition and create a new one (to create space to Drive Copy my existing 6.4 GB boot drive so's I can install a new, larger boot drive...)

Does that make sense?

Any suggestions?

Humbly yours,

The Phib

 

[Zepper]

I'm assuming from your message that you will have 3 drives: the 6.8, the 30 and whatever the new boot drive will be.
. If that's correct, why not just get the partitioning software that goes with the new boot drive, hook the 6.8 as secondary to it and use that software. It will partition the new drive and copy your old boot drive onto it into whatever size primary partition you might want. If you have the least clue about what you are doing, you can make the free software do anything the paid packages can do.
. The software you get with the major mfr's drives these days is commercial partitioning and data txfer software (often from Ontrack) that you get to use for free for buying their drive. All you need is one drive on your system of their brand to use the software to partition and copy among all your drives.
. Since you likely have at least two diff brands of drives, DL and try both/all softwares. I have all the latest software from all the majors in my tool kit - a good tip for any tech that might read this thread.
. If those not good enough, you can get Partition Magic v.8 or Partition Commander v.? for less than $30. with a little smart shopping.
.bh.
:moon:

 

[lbmcleod]

If its an OEM drive you won't get any OEM software!

There are several DOS solutions which are free with Linux distros, which are supposed to be used to (carefully!) resize partitions before the installation of Linux, but you can jujst use them to resize partitions. I wil post some ftp sites up soon with downloads of stuff for Linux.

 

[sciencewhiz]

I've used Ranish Partion Manager: http://ranish.com/part/ many times with no problems. Partition Magic is still better at resizing in "harder" situations, but RPM is a good place to start.

I like it better then fips (which is what I think lbmcleod is refering too)

 

[lbmcleod]

yup fips is its name ive never really tried any others except for partition magic, here are those linux ftp sites if you want it:

ftp://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/tools

FIPS 2.0 is in there

 

[Phibian]

Thanks to all of you for your help. I agree that the best solution is to buy the new drive first and use the software that comes with it. I was just beeing lazy and cheap.

-Phib

 

[Zepper]

If you buy a retail drive the SW will come with, if OEM you'll need to DL it. I would DL it anyway to be sure you have the latest version.
Plus most of them have some other drive utils that you can DL at the same time.
.bh.
:sun:

 

[Phibian]

My WD 30GB drive is OEM and only about 2 years old. D'ya suppose there is SW out there for that? (I'm off to check on that myself right now.)

-Phib

 

[KF]

I'm not sure why people are missing Zepper's point. The same sofware they supply in the retail boxes of WD, Maxtor, and Seagate is free on their sites. The software checks for one drive of the designated manufacturer, that's all.

Although the software copies partitions, it doesn't resize existing partitions. In order to resize partitions, as long as you have a blank drive, you copy the partitions to the blank. Delete and remake partitions on the drive that needs new sizes. Copy the partititions back.

Partition Magic is usually simpler to use and you don't need a blank drive, although you do need a substantial amount of unused space.

 

[Need4Speed]

parted is GPL

 

[sciencewhiz]

Originally posted by: Need4Speed
parted is GPL

but doesn't run in dos. He'd need to burn a Knoppix CD or something similar.