HD partition question

[Beirut]

I have a 75Gig HD and I'd like a 20 gig partition on it for one of my flightsims. Could one of y'all explain to me, in kindergarden English please, how I may go about it.

Thank you.

[TosaInu]

Is it a new HD Beirut? 75 gig you say, flightsim, so you have a WD Raptor?

Control panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management There's an Storage icon in the left column, select the Disk Management. Can't help you further as I got the service disabled. It's pretty easy point and click.

[Beirut]

Is it a new HD Beirut? 75 gig you say, flightsim, so you have a WD Raptor?

No, it's a POS Chickenhawk. Had it for a few years now.

Control panel/Administrative Tools/Computer Management There's an Storage icon in the left column, select the Disk Management. Can't help you further as I got the service disabled. It's pretty easy point and click.

Point and click. Good stuff. I'll look into it. I want a 20 gig partition to hold only FS 2004 so all the files are nice and cozy together, I want to max my FPS with a tidy install.

Thanks Tosa.

[Xiahou]

If the HD is already partitioned up and in use, things could get a bit more complicated. If it's a blank drive or has unpartitioned space, it's all good.

[Beirut]

If the HD is already partitioned up and in use, things could get a bit more complicated. If it's a blank drive or has unpartitioned space, it's all good.

I haven't done anything with the disk. It's one big fat 75G open space.

I'm into the stuff Tosa recommended, but I'm trying to figure out if I want a logical partition or a dynamic partition or if I want the Ghost of Christmas Past to appear and pound the snot out of me. I don't know.

Any advice will be most graciously accepted.

[Xiahou]

Shouldn't be too bad in that case. Does this help at all?

[Beirut]

Shouldn't be too bad in that case. Does this help at all?

Yes it does. Thank you.

"Step 1: Say out loud, 'I am not an idiot. I am not an idiot.' Step 2: Approach computer. Do not show fear. Step 3: Repeat Step 1."

[Xiahou]

Yes it does. Thank you.

I just love it when a plan comes together!

[Beirut]

I just love it when a plan comes together!

Hey! I had his autograph back when I was in high school. A chick friend of mine at school did some movie and tv extra stuff. She got the gigs because her dad worked for the CBC. Anyway, when I found out she'd be working near (under?) G.P., I asked her to get his autograph for me and she did.

[Blodrast]

You van also always play with Partition Magic. The pro of using it is that you can pretty much do whatever you want with your hdd, whenever you want. That is definitely point and click, and it offers you the most functionality that I've ever seen under windoze.
Since I said "the pro", you may have already guessed that there may be a con. And there is. I've had it crash and die on me, ****** up the data, twice, on two different systems, different circumstances. Out of the blue, tru' microsoft style. I've also used it several other times without having that happen to me.

So if your disk is clean, you may go with something simpler - although, in this case, you also have nothing to lose even if PM crashes :P.
So it's up to you.

Good luck!

(Thanks for the help, but only the stars when swearing please - Beirut)

[sapi]

gparted is widely regarded as the best choice if you wish to do this seriously (but back up all data on the affected drive, as always, before proceeding)

It's free too

[drone]

gparted is widely regarded as the best choice if you wish to do this seriously (but back up all data on the affected drive, as always, before proceeding)

It's free too

https://forums.totalwar.org/vb/showp...&postcount=105

[Blodrast]

hey, not fair, I thought we were only talking windows proggies!
Naturally, Beirut, if you really want the most you can get from partitioning disks, I would recommend linux. That's how I've always partitioned all my drives. BUT, as with other things linux, things tend to be not extremely user-friendly.

Never tried gparted myself, always been a fan of fdisk (although I think I have played with parted at some point).
However, a weird thing I've noticed is that some of the friendlier ones (i.e., ones with a GUI), are less flexible, and offer you less functionality, than some of the unfriendlier ones. Disk druid is a classic example of that. So it's all up to your personal taste in the end.

So, in conclusion, sure, if you are willing to use Linux, by all means, do use one of the (many) utilities available to partition your disk.

[sapi]

@bloodrast - i've read nice things about gparted, including user friendlyness ;)

I am wondering why you've even considered a distinction between windows and linux partitioning tools. you never partition from within an OS so it really makes no difference what mini-os they use to present the ui

[Xiahou]

you never partition from within an OS

Sure you do- in fact that's what Beirut did. Depending on circumstances, you can't always from within your OS, but people can and often do. If you want to do non-destructive repartitioning, then you have to use other self-booting progs.

Hey! I had his autograph back when I was in high school. A chick friend of mine at school did some movie and tv extra stuff. She got the gigs because her dad worked for the CBC. Anyway, when I found out she'd be working near (under?) G.P., I asked her to get his autograph for me and she did.

Small world eh?

[Blodrast]

If you're not trying to partition the disk that the OS is residing on, I see absolutely no problem whatsoever doing the repartitioning from within an OS.

If you're repartitioning the disk that the OS is residing on, yes, things can get trickier, and slightly riskier, but it's still quite doable. Even then, if you're not partitioning the partition that the OS is residing on, it might be ok (although you may need to reboot).
Partition Magic, for example, does exactly that - moreover, it can even repartition the partition that the OS is residing on (hehe, but remember my experiences with PM... however, it can do it.).
I don't know if fdisk can do it, I'm not even sure it's possible under linux.

And thanks for the gparted tip - functionality AND user-friendliness, that has to be a first for a linux proggie!

edit:

If you want to do non-destructive repartitioning, then you have to use other self-booting progs.

hmm, I've been trying to think of any such self-booting proggie associated with a partitioner, and can't think of one. Can you give me an example, please ? Or were you referring to booting into some (whatever) mini-OS (e.g., a linux boot cd), and doing the repartitioning with the tools that you can access from there ?

[sapi]

Most partitioning tools are self-booting with a mini-os

The one i got with my seagate drive is, and so is gparted, from what i read...

[Dave1984]

So is it possible to remove a partition from Windows XP? I've "inherited" a laptop that someone has partitioned and it's annoying the hell out of me because I haven't got the space on either half of the partition to install a game, but I have the space on the hard drive as a whole.

[Blodrast]

Yep, PM for instance does that. But do a backup before, as other people already recommended.

[drone]

Most partitioning tools are self-booting with a mini-os

The one i got with my seagate drive is, and so is gparted, from what i read...

You can download a gparted ISO image and boot from CD. That's what I did.