How To: Repartition Your Hard Drive For Free Without Formatting or Losing Data
How To: Repartition Your Hard Drive For Free Without Formatting or Losing Data
Posted 08/21/2008 at 10:00am
| by Justin Kerr
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Partitioning your hard drive has never been easier. Free options, including the Windows install disk, make this once monumental task a fairly simple two-click experience that many of us don’t spend nearly enough time thinking about when we first install our OS’s. It can sometimes be difficult to anticipate your storage needs up front, and many users just assume they are stuck with decisions they made long ago.
A typical user could have many reasons for breaking up a hard drive into multiple volumes, but partitioning your drive after installing an OS is typically a destructive proposition -- one that usually involves backing up your data, formatting, and starting clean. Commercial solutions such as Norton Partition Magic has existed for years and allows you to preserve your data while resizing volumes, but what if you’re working on a limited budget (or completely without one)? That’s where GParted comes into play. This free and open source disk partitioning tool was designed for Linux, but luckily for us Windows users, it comes bundled in a live CD or USB version called Parted Magic which takes care of the Linux requirement.
In this guide we will look at how to use the interface to resize, delete, or create new partitions, all without losing your data or starting over. This will come in handy if you made your Windows partition too large or too small, or if you’re happy with Windows XP, but want to give Vista a spin. Backups are still heavily advised, but with our help, and a bit of luck, you won’t need them. Read on!
What you'll Need:
* A PC With At Least 1 Disk Drive and 300 Megs Of RAM
* A Backup of Your Data (Just a Precaution!)
* 30 Minutes For Each 100 GB of Hard Drive Space Resized (Estimate)
AND
Parted Magic CD ISO
Free, Mirror #1 , Mirror #2, Mirror #3
ISO Burning Software
Free, InfraRecorder
OR
Parted Magic USB
Free, Mirror #1 , Mirror #2, Mirror #3
1. Use Your ISO Burning Software to Create a Bootable CD or USB Thumb Drive
To begin, we must convert our newly acquired iso file to a bootable CD. You can use either your existing CD burning software, or a free alternative such as InfraRecorder. Once this is completed the CD should be moved to the bootable optical drive on your PC. For the USB drive version simply unpack and copy the files over to your USB thumb drive. Make sure you have a backup of your important data and restart your machine.
Having trouble getting your system to boot from the CD/DVD or USB drive? Read below. Otherwise, skip to step 2.
Some computers are not set up to boot from the CD/DVD drive or USB. If your system fails to boot into the Parted Magic options menu (shown below) then there may be a few configuration issues you will need to review. You either need to invoke the boot selection menu (the F-key to access this should be shown at the top or bottom of your screen immediately after power up). A trip to the BIOS will otherwise be required to make a permanent change. Once you enter the BIOS, look for an option called “boot order”. In most cases you use the + or – key to advance the device of your choice up or down the priority list. Upon completion of the boot order change, make your way over to save option and reboot.
2. Boot Into Parted Magic
Select option #1 – Default settings (Runs from RAM / Ejects CD). After selecting this option, you will see the OS copy itself into your system memory and boot into the front end interface. Once it has fully finished booting, the CD tray will eject the disk and is now fully operating from RAM.
3. Use The Built in Partition Imager to Backup Your Files (Optional)
Click the Icon of the wrench and hammer and select Image Partition
The default Partition Imager interface is a bit clunky if you're accustomed to a sleek GUI. If you own an alternative solution such as one of the free suites offered by most hard drive manufacturers, feel free to use that instead. To navigate through the interface, use the arrow keys to select different options and the TAB key to move between fields. This will allow you to create a sector by sector clone of your volumes just in case something goes wrong with the partition. Keep in mind that you’ll want to save the images to a hard drive that you aren’t resizing. A USB hard drive does the trick quite nicely if you have one that's big enough. We prefer this method because we can backup my data and physically unplug the device, thereby removing it from harm’s way.
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Comments are closed on this article
aso chudi
January 15, 2012 at 3:03am
Hey this is great idea, good write-ups seamlessly entertain the reader and communicate the value of the deal. I can suggest this tips to my content writer. Thanks.
bolod
December 27, 2011 at 4:06am
Thanks for taking the time to discuss this, I feel strongly about it and love learning more on this topic. If possible, as you gain expertise, would you mind updating your blog with more information? It is extremely helpful and beneficial to your readers.
musafir
December 23, 2011 at 9:23am
I love to surf and my initial source for information is the blogs which have always helped me in my education. This blog is one of them.
preacher1010
February 18, 2011 at 7:20pm
User Beware,
Since i wrongly deleted my HDD partition due to the frakked up unfriendly user interface of Parted,
I have never used it since.
Acronis is my only choice. Its not worth the risk.
Text-based UI belong to the 80's.
" /dev/sda1 " , "/dev/sda2 " - leave all this bullshit to the Linux worshippers.
PhoneyVirus
September 04, 2009 at 7:54pm
I have a copy of this, every Poweruser should have a copy in his/her toolbox.
MdX MaxX
August 31, 2009 at 3:57pm
Here's a heads up to anyone doing this. The article says GParted requires 30min for each 100GB of Hard Drive space repartitioned. I don't know where this estimate came from, because when I did this, GParted broke a 100GB chunk off my Drive and made it a new partition in less than 20 seconds. It was just as fast when I merged that chunk back with the main partition.
Zoandar
July 23, 2009 at 11:36pm
I downloaded the version 4.3 Parted magic ISO, and used first Nero 8 and later Alcohol 120 to make discs of the software. However, the Sony notebook I am rebuilding won't boot from either of them. I can boot from other bootable CDs, like Drive Image, but not from these new Parted Magic discs. Did I miss something? What has to be done to make them bootable?
yogurt80
April 28, 2009 at 9:00am
Hmmmm... I'm confused. I used parted majic yesterday, it took all day. I have a 500 GB HD, and with 2 partitions- a 30GB for my OS, and a 470 for music and thngs. I wanted to move 20 GB from the large partiion to my OS partition. I moved 20 GB from the begining of the 2nd partition, but how do I add itto the first partition? now ha 20GB of fre space set between ttwo partins, but I don't know what to do wth it.
alakazahm
April 27, 2009 at 11:12am
I followed the exact guidance here and it appeared to have worked perfectly, however, when I use Disk Manager in Vista to check the new partition layout: Old: 500 GB drive, three partitions, 25, 50, 325 (where Vista was using 22 of the 25 GB of the OS partition hence the need to act to increase the OS partition size), New: 50,50,295, appears perfect, right?! Maybe wrong:
When using Windows Explorer, the C: drive still shows 2.74 GB free of 25 (vice what should be 27.7 GB free). Any ideas anyone?! I need to install SP1 and don't want to act until Windows Disk Manager and Windows Explorer agree..arrgghh!
DavidWitteried
January 04, 2009 at 2:43pm
I tried the ISO image verstion of Parted Magic but it will not see my RAID 0 array. How can I make it work with my RAID array? I am using the motherboard controller on a ASUS Striker II Formula motherboard.
David Witteried
Christian Hart
September 29, 2008 at 2:52am
Another reason this article is so timely: while Partition Magic is still a breeze to use, last time I checked, it isn't supported in Vista. Because Symantec remains a graveyard where old, good software is purchased and then allowed to die, I'm not hopeful they'll update it.<sigh> I'm still using XP but the days seem to be numbered for at least 2 software products I've depended on for years.
webgrunt
September 08, 2008 at 4:20pm
Remember to back up your data before doing this, in case a power outage or sudden hardware issue occurs when the partition is being changed.
Psychotech
August 26, 2008 at 8:24pm
I,ve been using Partition Logic for a couple of years now. It looks very similar. It is also free.
watuzi
August 24, 2008 at 8:39am
Thanks Justin, I'm gonna try this on my junk pc as an experiment. Can you do a howto on cloning your OS hard drive into a bigger, newer hard drive? My current pc is getting full and I don't want to do the reformat/reinstall thingy. It's too much of a hassle.
frankstanley
August 22, 2008 at 5:03am
Worked perfectly, I never even knew this was possible before!
mikepa
August 21, 2008 at 10:01am
This a great find ....
I agree that an article on keeping data in a seperate partition on Vista would be usefull. Moving My Docs to D: was easy with XP, but is nigh impossible to do perfectly in Vista (way to go MS!).
Talcum X
August 21, 2008 at 7:22am
FIPS partition splitter( yes, that's redundent). it was shareware, but it was also pre win95. I dont kow if it has evelved to include Fat32 or NTFS or just faded off into obscurity. But it worked just the same. Slick DOS based util. that I had in my arsinal for years.
***********
Every morning is the dawn of a new error.
Pixelated
August 21, 2008 at 7:15am
I agree that this is a great alternative and well done tutorial.
Speaking of Partition Magic, that's all PowerQuest's IP that Nortoin aquired when they bought them out. Don't be fooled Norton makes terrible products and when they run through the rest of PowerQuest's ideas it's back to making garbage products.
Marcus_Soperus
August 21, 2008 at 5:15am
This is an outstanding tutorial, and especially so because it doesn't shy away from the "here's what do if things go wrong" aspect.
I used to be a big Partition Magic fan, but found myself frustrated that the program wouldn't support the biggest hard disks on the market. Do you know if Parted Magic can work with the current crop of 500GB-1TB (and climbing) drives?
I'd also like to see a follow-up discussion of how to use a second partition for data storage in Windows XP and Vista. I've been using one partition for Windows/apps and a second one for data for many years, but I suspect that some readers might not know how to do it.
--------------------------------------------------------
It's amazing how illogical a business built on binary logic can be.
Justin.Kerr
August 21, 2008 at 4:24pm
And yes it works great with larger drives. Biggest I have tested it with is a 750 GB but i'm sure 1TB wouldn't be a problem.
PhynaeusClaw
August 21, 2008 at 8:21am
I agree it was a great article. Here's one question though. (Either for Marc or Justin)
Other than organizational preferences, what is the point of partitioning a single hard drive into an OS partition and a data partition? (Assuming you are only running one OS.)
Marcus_Soperus
August 21, 2008 at 9:01pm
I've seen my share of hard disk disasters over the years, including disk crashes, corrupted file systems, and I even restored a disk image to the wrong logical drive one time. By keeping my data on a separate drive, not only am I free to fiddle around with the system drive, my data is also safe from disasters.
It's amazing how illogical a business built on binary logic can be.
Justin.Kerr
August 21, 2008 at 4:23pm
Yeah, if you have large files you change often (photoshop or video editing) it's good to contain that to a seperate partition to avoid fragmenting your primary windows volume. It also allows you to format and wipe out your OS but since you keep all your document, music, etc on a seperate drive it's easy to reinstall.
sirphunkee
August 21, 2008 at 9:03am
it makes OS defrags and reinstalls much much easier and quicker
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