resizing NTFS partition after installation

[maxgravitt]

I recently installed Mandrake 10 beside an XP installation to play around with it and get used to it. I now realize that I like it much better than XP and I would like to shrink the NTFS partition to make room for more space in Mandrake. What is the best tool to use for this? I tried parted, but it doesn't support NTFS. I originally shrank the partition using the Mandrake install, but I don't want to have to re-install and wipe out my applications and data.

 

thanks!

[Guest mickeymaluko]

I recently installed Mandrake 10 beside an XP installation to play around with it and get used to it.  I now realize that I like it much better than XP and I would like to shrink the NTFS partition to make room for more space in Mandrake.  What is the best tool to use for this?  I tried parted, but it doesn't support NTFS.  I originally shrank the partition using the Mandrake install, but I don't want to have to re-install and wipe out my applications and data.

 

thanks!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

hello mate as u see I'm a noob too but I hv done it b4 with partition magic :) some say its safe other just think its nonesence.. so I'll leave u my oppinnion to follow at own risk lol

It worked for me..

[maxgravitt]

Thanks for the info. I was hoping to find some free software that could do it. I will give this post a little more time to see if there are other answers. If not, I will have to weight the cost of Parition Magic against reinstalling Linux.

 

I guess my question is, if I reinstall Mandrake 10 and resize the partitions, will the reinstall overwrite my existing applications and data?

[RobF]

I'm pretty sure I used QTParted v.0.4.4 twice to resize (in this case shrink) Windows XP ntfs partitions, to create free space that can then be made available for ext3 or reiserfs formatted partitions for Linux. Shrinking your ntfs partition may be the easiest part. To make the freed up disk space available to Mandrake may be more involved. It may require backing up your Mandrake system (both / and /home partitions), deleting the existing Mandrake partitions, creating new partitions in the combined free space and then reinstalling Mandrake.

 

There may be some esoteric command line utility available for Linux gurus that allows you to resize, move, add to, format etc., your partitions without destroying any of the data that resides in those partitions. I vaguely recall once having come across such a thing - or perhaps it's just wishful thinking.

 

QTParted can be found on the SystemRescueCD-x86 v.0.2.14, the Knoppix CD v. 3.4 and the Mepis-2004-b05-en-fr CD, all of which are bootable live CD's whose ISO's can be downloaded from the net and then burned to CD (SystemRescue is the smallest, 100 MB). Or you can install it under Mandrake as an mdk.rpm package but I seem to remember that the latter version didn't work as well for me as did the versions on the above mentioned live CD's.

 

Just keep in mind that if you install it under Mandrake to make the partition changes then once you COMMIT the changes, all of your MDK incl. QTParted will be gone, and you've got no more QTParted to make any further changes. Also the partitions to which you make changes should be unmounted but the partition in which you run QTParted will have to be mounted.

 

See my post in the following thread

 

http://www.mandrakeusers.org/index.php?showtopic=16523

[aRTee]

Why not trying to use diskdrake?

Just make sure you have backups of anything dear to you (Murphy's law: as long as you have backups, you normally won't need them - and the inverse is also true), both on the windows and linux side of things.

 

Then run diskdrake, for instance from Mandrake Control Centre (configure your computer), hardware, hardware (yeah, twice the same, only just noticed, fun), then click on hda or hdb on the left, and click 'run config tool' at the right bottom.

Or, give the command

/usr/sbin/diskdrake

and give the root password (cli is soo much easier.. ;) )

[AussieJohn]

Rule Number 1.

 

Make certain you defrag your Windows OS IMMEDIATELY BEFORE doing any repartitioning of Windows.

XP in particular, deliberately places data randomly near the end of its partition as a means of discouraging any reduction to its partition size. Defragging doesn't necessarily mean that ALL data will be moved back to the beginning of the partition but most of it will and there is a good chance that all of it will . Any other Windows OS are just usually badly fragmented.

 

Note that Partition Magic is an EXCELLENT tool for recreating partitions and I have NEVER lost a Bit of data or had an OS damaged by using it. I am still using the same old version I bought 5yrs ago, so once you have it you don't really have to keep upgrading it.

 

Because of the region it operates in, it tends to be extremely conservative in doing its thing so if it is in doubt, it does not proceed and tells you why. When I have had totally messed up hard drives, I have not been able to get Partition Magic to delete all of the partitions and reformat. The Linux CDROM Install/upgrade couldn't get far enough along to be able to delete and reformat either so finally I have had to resort to using the Windows blind steamroller to do it.

 

A question to those that might know. What is the advantage of using NTFS in a Windows OS over Fat32 ???. It is reported to be more secure............(on the most insecure OS on the planet ?????)

It seems more like it is intended to be deliberately non backwards compatabile.

This observation stems from all the problems I see here at MUB regarding anything NTFS. I have never used NTFS in W98 or W2000, only fat32 so I have never ever had troubles between Windows and Mandrake.

 

Cheers. John

[aRTee]

John, just as on linux ext3 is to be preferred over ext2 since it is a journaling fs, for windows(-only) users ntfs should be preferred over fat32.

 

One error on a fat32 partition can have you lose all data, happened to a colleague of mine with a filled 120GB fat32 partition... no fun.

 

ntfs is really a step up, unless you want to be able to read and write your data from linux,... well, captive ntfs is working nicely, so even that is not too problematic anymore, and reading has been fine since quite some time.

 

Oh, and on partition magic, I agree, it's worth it - although I also never lost any data with diskdrake - have used nothing else in over 3 years.

[SoulSe]

Wow, all these danger. You'll have to just delete that NTFS partition completely. No really, there's no other option...

 

:P

 

Diskdrake should work fine, just make sure that you have your data backed up - resizing NTFS partitions is a tricky business and could easily lead to data loss.

[jmanjeff]

Go here and Download Partition Magic 8.0 Free Trial

[william]

I'm with SoulSe. It's a very dangerous procedure. Back up your photos, mp3s, videos, documents, .xinitrc file, XF86Config-4, etc and go for a new install. Probably, the time (depending of the specs of you box) u'll spend trying to do the job with partition magic, qparted and fdisk (not sure if they do it, the only option would be a complete partition reformat), Acronis partion expert, patition manager and whatever will justify the choice for a new whole install.

Good luck!!