Manually Resize NT partitions - can it be done?

[Ragthorn]

Sorry for the cross posting, but I really need and answer to this.

I've seen alot of mention of Partition Magic and similar disk utilities
being able to resize NTFS partitions, but can you do it "by hand"?

The main reason I ask is that I don't have the funds available for PM, and
all the freeware utilities won't touch NTFS, only FAT (12/16/32) or ext2
(and maybe HPFS). The second reason I'm asking is that I need to expand my
system partition as it is only 502MB, and getting cramped.

At the moment my partitions are (6GB SCSI):

C: - 502MB NTFS
free space ~500MB
Extended partition 3096MB all Logicals are NTFS
all the rest is empty.

I have asked a few people whether it is possible, and had mixed replies, but
what I would like to do is something like:

1. Create a small ~400 MB partition after the Extended partition, and
install a bare-bones NT (no service packs etc.), mark this new partition as
active, and reboot into it.

2. Once in the 'emergency/temporary' NT system, Backup/Copy/Move the entire
contents of the original C: system partition.

3. Delete the first partition (C: 502MB NTFS), and create a new partition
which will cover the it AND the free space before the Extended partition,
giving me a new partition of ~1GB.

4. Restore/Copy/Move the full NT installation (from the original C:) into
the new larger partition. Mark it as active in Disk Administrator, and
reboot back into it as my main system.

5. Live happily ever after with a system partition large enough to install
a service pack every now and again (do I ask for too much....).

Is this possible, or will I be left with a 1GB non-bootable NT system?

If you have an answer (that doesn't suggest a commercial product that I
can't afford) please e-mail it to me. I know this is against Netiquette,
but I don't have access to Newsgroups at work at the moment (Novell 3.11 Y2K
problem with the TCP stack, and the major reason why I need to get the NT
box fully operational).

Cheers, and thanks in advance.

[Bjorn Landemoo]

It might work if you have installed SP4 on your original NT installation,
but there might be problems booting from a primary partition that starts
more than 2GB from the beginning of your hard disk, see this MS Knowledge
Base article:

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q192/1/04.asp

If you do get your second NT installation bootable it will probably work.

Best regards

Bjorn
--
Bjorn Landemoo - bj...@landemoo.com - http://landemoo.com/
Microsoft MVP - Windows NT

[J...@nospam.com]

On Fri, 5 May 2000 15:50:32 +0200, "Ragthorn" <zlbdaw**@**zoo.upe.ac.za> wrote:

Yes it is called deleting the partition (and the Data) and redoing it. PQ Magic
3.05 and above will do it very easy and if you look around you should find the
older 3.0x and 4.0x version cheaper than current 5.0. I have seen 3.x for under
20 bucks at times

JR

+>Sorry for the cross posting, but I really need and answer to this.
+>
+>I've seen alot of mention of Partition Magic and similar disk utilities
+>being able to resize NTFS partitions, but can you do it "by hand"?
+>
+>The main reason I ask is that I don't have the funds available for PM, and
+>all the freeware utilities won't touch NTFS, only FAT (12/16/32) or ext2
+>(and maybe HPFS). The second reason I'm asking is that I need to expand my
+>system partition as it is only 502MB, and getting cramped.
+>
+>At the moment my partitions are (6GB SCSI):
+>
+>C: - 502MB NTFS
+>free space ~500MB
+>Extended partition 3096MB all Logicals are NTFS
+>all the rest is empty.
+>
+>I have asked a few people whether it is possible, and had mixed replies, but
+>what I would like to do is something like:
+>
+>1. Create a small ~400 MB partition after the Extended partition, and
+>install a bare-bones NT (no service packs etc.), mark this new partition as
+>active, and reboot into it.
+>
+>2. Once in the 'emergency/temporary' NT system, Backup/Copy/Move the entire
+>contents of the original C: system partition.
+>
+>3. Delete the first partition (C: 502MB NTFS), and create a new partition
+>which will cover the it AND the free space before the Extended partition,
+>giving me a new partition of ~1GB.
+>
+>4. Restore/Copy/Move the full NT installation (from the original C:) into
+>the new larger partition. Mark it as active in Disk Administrator, and
+>reboot back into it as my main system.
+>
+>5. Live happily ever after with a system partition large enough to install
+>a service pack every now and again (do I ask for too much....).
+>
+>Is this possible, or will I be left with a 1GB non-bootable NT system?
+>
+>If you have an answer (that doesn't suggest a commercial product that I
+>can't afford) please e-mail it to me. I know this is against Netiquette,
+>but I don't have access to Newsgroups at work at the moment (Novell 3.11 Y2K
+>problem with the TCP stack, and the major reason why I need to get the NT
+>box fully operational).
+>
+>Cheers, and thanks in advance.
+>
+>