Resizing NTFS partitions? 1

[cpjust]

Hi,
I've got a machine with 3 NTFS partitions and I want to have at least 1 FAT32 partition for my Ghost images.

From what I can tell, I don't think there's any way of converting from NTFS to FAT32 (at least not a way I'd trust), so I was wondering if there's a way of resizing an NTFS partition?

I know Partition Magic does it (or claims to), but I've had a few bad experiences with Partition Magic & NTFS. Are there any other programs (preferably free) that can do it without errors?

 

[vacunita]

Depends on whether you want to preserve the information on the partition or not. You could simply get a Win98 boot disk and recreate the partition and then format it FAT32 if data is not important.

If you want to preserve the data, Windows comes with a built in file system changer, although I can't vouch for it.

You could also try some of the tools, from your Hard Drive manufacturer, they usually have free tools for these kinds of tasks.

I'm not aware of any other free software that would be able to do it while preserving the data on the partition.



----------------------------------
Ignorance is not necessarily Bliss, case in point:
Unknown has caused an Unknown Error on Unknown and must be shutdown to prevent damage to Unknown.

 

[cpjust]

Do you know what the program that comes with Windows is called? The only ones I know are format & fdisk, and they're a little to destructive for what I'm trying to do. ;-)

If nothing else works, I can always copy all the data from E: to D:, reformat E:, then copy everything back. But I was just hoping for an easier way.

 

[Freestone]

Not free, but Acronis Disk Director will resize NTFS partitions. And I think vacunita is referring to the CONVERT command, but that only converts FAT or FAT32 to NTFS, not vice-versa.

 

[firewolfrl]

I resize all the time with partition magic.
resizing a Vista drive is easy. The vista drive manager can resize and is the only thing I would recommend for a Vista NTFS partition due to boot issues.
Acronis is very good for copy and resizing XP/2000/2003 NTFS partitions and imaging

due you have room in your case for a cheap old FAT32 hard drive?

as you are making this for ghost. What is the size of the partition you are copying? What is the size you want the FAT32 Partiton? you may hit some DOS size limitations.
you are almost better off using a program that is not limited to FAT32 for imaging a drive for backup.

 

[cpjust]

as you are making this for ghost. What is the size of the partition you are copying?

Actually, Ghost doesn't have a problem with that. If it can't fit it all into a 2GB file, it spans the image over several files. My C: drive at home is 12.5GB and Ghost compressed it into 5 files.

At least it sounds like Vista has one good thing going for it. ;-) As for my XP box at work, given the importance of the data, I think I'll just copy E: to D:, then reformat E: as FAT32. Better safe than sorry...

 

[cpjust]

OK, I've run into a strange problem. I deleted the E: partition, and when I tried to create a new one, the only format option I get is NTFS??? Where did the FAT32 option go?

I booted into DOS and fdisk didn't see any extended partition, even though there is one. Also, Partition Magic 7 won't run and gives an error code 3.
Could the RAID 1 configuration be causing problems with fdisk & Partition Magic?

 

[NARSBARS]

First, use a 98 bootdisk and fdisk/mbr.

Partition Magic 7 is obsolete. I can't remember the exact limit maybe 137 gig, but it topped out and crashed regualarly until Norton purchased it. I think the Norton version tops at about 250 gig.

If you have a Maxtor or Seagate disk download the tools from the website, Maxblast or Seatools and you should be able to fix your disk.
P.S. The download versions are better than the versions shipped with the disks.

And yes, take the disk off a RAID config if you are having problems, fix, and then return to the array.

NARSBARS

 

[linney]

Unable to Delete a Partition or Logical DOS Drive Using the Fdisk Utility

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q261473/

Partition Zapper

http://www.meixler-tech.com/pzapper/

http://www.google.com/search?q=Dele...artitions+When+FDISK+Won't&rls=com.microsoft:

 

[firewolfrl]

actually I have an old partition magic 8 version from before Norton
I have not had any limitations on drive resizing
I just resized a 500 gig Seagate the other day on my secondary computer

it does have issues if there is anything not quite right with the MBR of any disk it is reading

that and its errors on drive geometry.

other than that it seems to work fine


I have to say I do like Partition Commander 10

http://shop.avanquest.com/usa/prod.php?pid=1958

the program does works in Vista.
though I have had some issues with it...but, that was during a time period when I was having ram stability issues so that may of been my issues.

 

[cpjust]

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I installed the Windows version of Ghost and was able to save the image to the NTFS drive. I also used Windows Backup to backup the C: drive in case there's something wrong with the Ghost image (I've never used the Windows version of Ghost and don't really trust it). There's also some data in the MS SQL database on the C: drive that I'd like to keep, so I was thinking of upgrading from XP Pro to 2003 Server R2 instead of installing 2003 from scratch (if that's possible?).

Also, since I wasn't the one who configured the RAID (and have never used RAID before), I'd rather not mess around with the RAID settings.

I'm still pretty confused as to why I'm not seeing an option for FAT32 in the Windows Format GUI? I could have swore I saw it there in XP before...

 

[Freestone]

XP is limited to creating FAT32 partitions a maximum of 32GB. My guess is you are trying to create a partition larger than this limit, hence only the NTFS option. XP will support sizes greater than this, it just won't create them.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314463

The article says "during installation" but I have found the limit to be imposed after installation too.

 

[cpjust]

F#@K! What the hell is wrong with Microsoft?? There's obviously no technical limit preventing them from formatting FAT32 > 32GB, so why piss off customers for no reason?

Maybe I'll try creating a 32GB partition and see if it'll let me format as FAT32... Thanks.

 

[firewolfrl]

Oh! heck
I have a NAS device that formatted a 500 gig drive with no issues FAT32.

but, then I don't use the native format...I use third party