IS there a way to shrink an NTFS partition so a new partition can be made?

Question

Hi, I have 2 500 gig drives raided for speed. They have one partition that uses the whole 1 tb. I currently have xp running and about 400 gigs free. Is there a way i can shrink the current partition by 300 gigs and make that into a new partition? I want to dual boot with xp 64 bit and i want to keep it on a separate partition. Any one know of software (hopefully freeware) that can split my existing partition into 2 smaller ones?

Thanks

Answer 1

Gparted is a great solution to this.

I've used it plenty of times. It's a free Linux program that can be run by booting from the disk that you create.

Answer 2

get " Hirens Boot CD " burn to disk boot from it and use Partition magic to resize your drive

You will not lose any files etc.

Answer 3

You can use a Linux tool to do it, (gparted mentioned above) for windows 2000 (beginning of NTFS format availability) - Vista. If you have Vista, use your install disk and the tool included in there. There are tutorials available on Microsoft help, or you can Google it and will turn up stuff as well.

The Linux method is a bit complicated, but if you search XP / Vista dual boot configuration, there is a tool listed in a few of the sites with step by step ways of doing it. I suggest doing it that way, as it is normally necessary to do if you have only one hard drive to dual boot.

Unless you really need the XP 64 bit operating system, you should not bother with it. Last I heard it was very unstable and near impossible to get drivers and software for because it has to be 64-bit software, and most 32-bit software does not work. If you want 64-bit support on a 32 bit system, use windows Vista. It will support a 64-bit processor, and run 32 bit software. Also, you can use a 32 bit operating system on a 64-bit system, but you loose speed doing it.

hope that helps.

Answer 4

no you have to delete the partition and create 2 new partitions you can't make it smaller.