Resize NTFS partition (free)???
 

I am running Win XP Pro on a single 80GB partition, using NTFS. Now I want to install Linux on the same drive without re-installing all my programs (it usually takes me about 2 months until I get everything working the way I want to again). My own files are backed up, I'm just being lazy about re-building my windows system. So, what I want is a product that will let me reduce the 80GB partition down to about 60GB and create a second 20GB partition at the end for Linux, without doing a complete re-format.

There seem to be 3 or 4 commercial products such as Partition Magic. I can't seem to find any free ones that will handle NTFS. For the price of Partition Magic I'll just buy a second drive if I can't find anything else.

Any suggestions welcomed! (thanks)

check out ranish partition manager:
http://www.ranish.com/part/

oops, it doesn't do NTFS

In that case, I'd suggest buying Partition Magic.

if you are going to consider buying partition magic, you may just want to buy a second hard drive. according to pricewatch you can get a 30gb drive for about the same price as partition magic.

I've been too chicken to try out the freebie partition resizers. I've used Partition Magic as well, but I've had it fry things too.

Two words of advice:
- If you use Partition Magic, MAKE THE EMERGENCY DISKS
- Back up, back up, back up, before starting.

Partition Magic has been solid for me. But I'd recommend the second HDD as well in a pluggable bay. Less time and aggravation IMO.

Weird...I just used Partition Magic today on a test machine. Had to increase a partition from 2 to 19 GB. Don't ask why...long story. At any rate, PM works as advertised. Prior to starting, back up, of course.

But also: defrag. this will help make sure that all your data is together, and with XP, should most likely move it down to one end. Keep in mind, tho, that sometimes disks (or is it Windows) will place some data right in the center of the drive. Why? Faster access; the read head doesn't have to move as far.

Just some things to keep in mind. If your data is backed up on another machine or on CD, then no worries.

Ive lost data to partition magic, I was try'n to resize a drive too. backup (but if you could, why would you need to resize w/o just repartitioning?)

sucks

you could also use ghost to image your original drive to the new one. just specify the target partition size as 60GB. then install linux or whatever on the remaining 20GB

Go for the second hard drive, and make sure you create a Linux boot disk. That way you won't have to mess with grub. Boot off the floppy for Linux, boot off of hda for Windows.

Thanks for the feedback, folks. Sounds like there's no free lunch in this case. By the way, Peetster, you can dual boot into WinXP and Linux without using the floppy every time, even though Linux cannot write LILO to the MBR on a NTFS disk. Many sites on how to do this, but this one has worked for me:
http://classes.csumb.edu/CST/CST434-.../DualBoot.html

To keep using the XP bootloader, and have Linux, go grab BOOTPART.

It will copy the bootsector from the Linux boot partition off onto a file that the XP bootloader can use.