Repartitioning Help Needed

[eatmangos91]

Hi, I have windows 2k, and i am planning on partitioning my HD so I can run vista aswell.

Is there any way to repartition my HD without loosing all my data?

 

[Win2kpatcher]

Yes if you use something like Norton Parition Magic it can accomplish this with ease. I thought there was a freeware utility called "gparted" that accomplished the same tasks..I think...can someone who has used it verify?

 

[eatmangos91]

I have *cough* acquired norton partition magic, and it seems very easy to use. how much space do you think I should leave for vista? the HD is 130GB, and i have used 30GB so far for 2k. I will primarily use vista i expect, so i was thinking perhaps 40/90 to vista?

thanks for help

 

[Win2kpatcher]

I have *cough* acquired norton partition magic, and it seems very easy to use. how much space do you think I should leave for vista? the HD is 130GB, and i have used 30GB so far for 2k. I will primarily use vista i expect, so i was thinking perhaps 40/90 to vista?

thanks for help

aghh very good.... ;-) lol.

It really is personal preference and depends on how you like to organize things..i.e. some people like to have one partition for the OS only and another sperate one for the programs then another for data...so in theory you would need a relatively small OS partition if all it would have is the OS, service packs, patches etc etc..since programs would not reside on the same partition..

If you are like me though and like the OS and programs on the same partition I would make it a little larger...40GB is good..if you started installing massive video games you could just install them onto your data partiton to save space.

I just made my XP partition 60GB and install everything on it including games..I have all my documents pointed to my data partition and keep them on there this way if I screw up my OS I can just ghost another image over it and not lose anything at all.

 

[eatmangos91]

thanks for that.

in terms of having different partitions for programs and the os, etc. I have 2k on the C drive atm with all my programs and data. if i made a drive for vista called, say, I drive, would i be able to access the programs on c drive while in vista? ro would i have to be in 2k to see the C drive?

if not then i guess i would make a large vista partition and move everything over to there, as that would probably be the main OS. Eventually i will delete the 2k bit, but i want it atm in case something dosnt work with vista.

 

[eyeCpc]

The Linux drive tool known as the Gnome Partition Editor has several releases with some platform independent called GParted live for cd. The 0.3.3.0 release was the latest platform independent version that allows you to resize NTFS and Fat partitions as well as create or delete them.

You won't be needing GParted since you already have Norton's software for this. Vista has noticable thing seen about the new version when trying to dual boot with 2000 there or XP on other systems. It attaches itself to the first primary on a drive as well as placing the new boot loader on the first physical hard drive installed on the system.

It sort of proprietizes itself that way. You would probably have to plan out the second partition for 2000 and later install Vista on the first primary to see it work. When trying to dual OS with XP Pro here the Vista installer refused to copy the installation files to a second partition created for it. XP Pro was then moved to another hard drive here.

You are better planning to have Vista on the first and install programs on the same partition. If you decide to later remove 2000 and delete that primary the Vista primary can then be resized or the vacated 2nd primary can be made into a backup/storage partition. If you make 3 or 4 partitions and install programs to other then the OS primary for each and rearrange partitions later the program folders on the second partition for each OS are then useless.