Partitioning of hard drive C: or D:

Hello,

I have my Win ME system on drive c:
and I keep my user files on drive d:
and I was just wondering if there is
a way to make 5 small new partitions
maybe 800MB each on one of these drives
without upsetting the files that are already
contained on these drives.

--
Sincerely,
gmv
address munged, no emails
too many spams & Scams & Viruses

On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 14:21:11 GMT, "gmv" wrote:

Hello,

I have my Win ME system on drive c:
and I keep my user files on drive d:
and I was just wondering if there is
a way to make 5 small new partitions
maybe 800MB each on one of these drives
without upsetting the files that are already
contained on these drives.

Partition Magic will split up a partition, but ALL of the files on that
partition must total less than the size of the largest new (subdivision
of) that partition. So, you could temporarily move files to the other
currently existing partition if it has enough free space, and as you've
planned, have 800MB remaining on the extended partition (D.

However, it's advised to make a backup before such an operation, so
providing the backup is verified viable, restorable, you don't necessarily
need to shuffle around the data or use Partition Magic. Instead, having
made a backup first, you could use FDISK to delete the logical drive in
the extended partition, then create the multiple smaller logical drives.
So, either way the backup is the key if it's valuable data.

I was just wondering if there is a way

You can do this relatively safe using for example Acronis PartitionExpert or
PowerQuest PartitionMagic (both are commercial products). There's also a
freeware tool named Ranish Partition Manager, but it requires a lot of
knowledge about the partitioning stuff.

HTH,
Moon.

What you are saying here is that it is not possible to
split up a 40GIG hard drive to have 5 each 1GB partitions and
have the big main one be 35GB.


"kony" Typed in message ...
On Mon, 29 Mar 2004 14:21:11 GMT, "gmv" wrote:

Hello,

I have my Win ME system on drive c:
and I keep my user files on drive d:
and I was just wondering if there is
a way to make 5 small new partitions
maybe 800MB each on one of these drives
without upsetting the files that are already
contained on these drives.

Partition Magic will split up a partition, but ALL of the files on that
partition must total less than the size of the largest new (subdivision
of) that partition. So, you could temporarily move files to the other
currently existing partition if it has enough free space, and as you've
planned, have 800MB remaining on the extended partition (D.

However, it's advised to make a backup before such an operation, so
providing the backup is verified viable, restorable, you don't necessarily
need to shuffle around the data or use Partition Magic. Instead, having
made a backup first, you could use FDISK to delete the logical drive in
the extended partition, then create the multiple smaller logical drives.
So, either way the backup is the key if it's valuable data.

If you have more than 35 gig of space used on your current C drive.
Then the answer is No.
You would have to move things around,, and then also have enough free space
on the drive to create the additional drive that you propose ( 5+ gigs)
Partition Magic will do what you wish, provided the above requirements are
met
though the disclamier prior to creating new partitions advises to have
good backups.
Its software, things can go wrong.
Fdisk is a good thing to use when prior to installing your OS.
Or the partitioning tools available on nt, 2000, xp
And something to give consideration to,on future installs

There's no safe way to do it without reformatting and repartitioning your
harddrive.

--
DaveW



"gmv" wrote in message
...
Hello,

I have my Win ME system on drive c:
and I keep my user files on drive d:
and I was just wondering if there is
a way to make 5 small new partitions
maybe 800MB each on one of these drives
without upsetting the files that are already
contained on these drives.

--
Sincerely,
gmv
address munged, no emails
too many spams & Scams & Viruses

I have two seperate hard drives and after thinking about it
will only repartition my second hard drive which is d:
Here is the stats for the drive:
Western Digital
37.2GB total
12.0GB used
25.1 GB free

According to what you say Partition magic will
form those 5 new partitions i want to have
without affecting the 12.0GB used.
But if I go and try to use Fdisk instead
it will wipe the whole drive clean and I will
have to reload that 12GB after using FDISK ?

The trouble here is that Partition Magic is expensive.
Since I do not want to buy any new software to do
this is there a freeware program you can recommend
or is Fdisk or my Western Digital HARD DRIVE installation disk the
only alternatives ?




"Andrew" Typed in message ...
If you have more than 35 gig of space used on your current C drive.
Then the answer is No.
You would have to move things around,, and then also have enough free space
on the drive to create the additional drive that you propose ( 5+ gigs)
Partition Magic will do what you wish, provided the above requirements are
met
though the disclamier prior to creating new partitions advises to have
good backups.
Its software, things can go wrong.
Fdisk is a good thing to use when prior to installing your OS.
Or the partitioning tools available on nt, 2000, xp
And something to give consideration to,on future installs

Fdisk will destroy all data on D: , yes.
Backing it up to cd or moving it to C: as suggested earlier might be your
best bet provided you have the free space on C:
Then you could use Fdisk to partition D without worry


Not sure of the WD software, and someone else might know of a free third
party partitioning utility to suit your needs.

Good Luck

Your ideas are well taken, I will copy everything to my
C: drive then use Fdisk to do what I want.

Thank you for your time.


"Andrew" Typed in message ...
Fdisk will destroy all data on D: , yes.
Backing it up to cd or moving it to C: as suggested earlier might be your
best bet provided you have the free space on C:
Then you could use Fdisk to partition D without worry


Not sure of the WD software, and someone else might know of a free third
party partitioning utility to suit your needs.

Good Luck