Best free partition mgmt software

Hi,
What free partition management software would you recommend?

Right now my entire HD is C: so I'd like to split it in two and start storing my data on the new partition.

Thanks.

 

You could try the GParted LiveCD.

 

I used Windows own partition manager after a new XP install. This site has good instructions as well as general partition information. http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives.htm

Here is a description of moving My Documents and a few other folders.
http://www.windowsbbs.com/showthread.php?t=49222

 

Calling Wilders experts.

What would you say is the best freeware partition mgmt software to use to take a hard drive that is all C: and partition it so that it is half C: and half D:?

Multiple recommendations welcome but only ones that you actually "recommend" please.

 

This seems to be recommended by Brian K, EASTER and Hairy Coo. I haven't tried it yet because I haven't needed it. I did notice my wireless PS/2 mouse didn't work. I have not yet tried it again with a plain mouse in my PS/2 port.

http://partedmagic.com/index.html

And this indicates that it can resize a partition. http://partedmagic.com/docs/gparted.html

 

Theres a brand new Alpha version already availabe for download by PARTED MAGIC, seems the developer is going ahead with further development of this CD.

All i can offer is that it rescued 2 completely lost partitions lately due to it's testdisk PROGRAM implimented in it. Not even the high dollar ERD Commander or PARAGON were of any use to locate them.

This one i have locked away just for such emergencies in the future. It saved me from wiping my drives by a hair-tooth, a last resort that came thru like a champ.

 

Thanks guys. I'll check those out.

 

Nice find. Thanks Innerpeace, kudos to Brian K, EASTER and Hairy Coo as well. Have been very happy with BING, but this seems like a great lil` tool, with perhaps a few more options, to add to the arsenal. Grabbing the ISO and USB as well.

 

pepperer,

Parted Magic will be fine for your usage. A concern is..

http://partedmagic.com/docs/gparted.html

Since you won't be moving data, go ahead. But as with all partitioning, have a backup.

It's free. It's not what I use.

 

Theres many MUST HAVES!! CD's, and you can surely count this one in that mix.

In all my windows experience i never seen where all my ER cd's failed miserably and nearly drove me to wipe out the disk, and i was a hair-tooth from that untill i run PartedMagic (Linux) and let TESTDISK "search deeper" feature surface my lost partitions. It 100% recovered them!!!

Now that's real progress!!

 

Thanks, but I don't deserve any of the credit. I merely posted what some folks have "suggested".

@ Brian K, I hope I didn't upset you by mentioning your name. I did use the words "seems to be recommended", but perhaps my words were a bit strong. I was only going by your post here. I only mentioned the names I did because I certainly consider all three users as experts .

 

innerpeace.

No problems. I do recommend it for most situations. I've resized the OS partition on computers several times and for partitioning an empty HD it is superb. It's just the concern about moving partitions.

 

I guess I don't understand. What's the difference between resizing a partition and moving one? I'm trying to resize one, right ? Because I'm trying to make room to create a D: on my hdd.

 

The "move" refers to moving the start of the partition boundary and this involves moving data. There is usually very data towards the end of a partition so only slight data movement if you resize from the end of the partition.

Let's say you resized a partition by shifting the start of the partition rather than the end, then Parted Magic could cause problems.

 

This obviously has to be treated with caution. I managed to corrupt my partitions and remembered seeing this post, but using Testdisk did not help. It recovered one partition and corrupted the primary. Fortunately I had images and rebuilt on another disk.