Once in a blue moon, you might find yourself in the situation where you need to slice up that huge hard drive (or maybe a smaller solid state drive) into multiple partitions. Partitions can make your data easier to manage by keeping logical types of data separate. For example, my computer is setup as follows:
- 128GB SSD:
- C Drive (Operating System)
- D Drive (Programs – mainly games)
- 1.5TB HDD:
- E Drive (Data)
- F Drive (Swap Partition)
Now this isn’t your “run of the mill” sort of setup, most people would just have one gigantic “C Drive” if we happen to buy a ready made computer from a retail outlet. One of the challenges is that with “out of the box” computers is that it can be inconvenient or impossible to repartition a drive with the included tools.
Whilst Windows 7 does have the most mature disk partitioning functionality of any prior Windows operating system, it can only shrink partitions to the desired size as long as there aren’t any “unmovable files” in the way. Unmovable files may be things like system files (i.e. the stuff comprising Windows), swap files (a place for data stored in RAM to be temporarily swapped to disk if RAM needs to be freed up) or other critical files.
That can really throw a wrench in the works.
Luckily, there is a way around it by using a great utility called Parted Magic. It comes in a LiveCD (which is basically a Linux OS that boots entirely off a CD or DVD and loads completely into RAM) and includes a raft of disk utilities including the all important GParted. GParted is similar to a piece of software called Partition Magic (from which “Parted Magic” gets its name). Back in its day, Partition Magic was the number one disk partitioning software that could repartition your drive without having to lose all your data.
I won’t reinvent the wheel with a guide on how to create the LiveCD or how to use GParted as there are already great ones on the Parted Magic website.
Of course, before using any utility that will make modifications to your hard drive, you really should backup everything beforehand. Whilst under normal conditions the software should work fine you should not take unnecessary risks with your data where possible.
So next time you need to do some disk repartitioning, give Parted Magic a go – it might save you a stack of time and effort!
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