If you find yourself wanting to install a different operating system (Linux, for example), but your Windows partition is using your entire drive, plenty of software is available to assist you in repartitioning tasks. Most of the software that works well is closed source, however, and very expensive, especially if you plan on using it only a few times. But one live, open source Linux distribution on CD, Knoppix, makes partitioning a fast and simple process.
Back Up Your Data!
Before beginning, you would be wise to back up your data. Although partitioning is typically a safe process (if done correctly), it's still a good idea to back up your drive in case something should go awry. This is your warning!
Defrag, Defrag, Defrag
This is very important, so do not skip this step. Defragmenting ensures that your data is not spread out over the entire span of the partition. Defrag your drive several times, either with the Windows built-in defragment tool or a third-party piece of software. I've found twice to be sufficient, but more times may be necessary, depending on the last time you ran defrag on the drive.
Obtain and Burn Knoppix
Now that all the prerequisites are out of the way, you can obtain the Knoppix ISO image from knoppix.net and burn the image to a CD. Restart your computer with the Knoppix CD and press Enter when presented with the splash screen. Booting will take a few moments, because this is a live operating system running off a CD, not your hard drive.
Use QTParted to Do the Heavy Lifting
After Knoppix boots up completely, open up the KMenu and the Run Command selection (in the lower-left side of the screen) to start the application QTParted. In the command field, type sudo qtparted and then click Run to launch the program. QTParted is a GUI for the utility "parted," an open source Partition Magic clone for Linux.
After QTParted starts, your devices are displayed under the disk section on the left side of the screen. With the system shown below, there is one IDE hard drive, so /dev/hda is displayed as the partition where Windows is installed. Depending on your setup, your selections may vary. To start working with the partition that you want to resize, click on your desired partition to the left. It may take a few minutes for the utility to gather information about your device.
In the right side of the window, you will now see a graphical image of the layout of that particular partition, as well as a detailed description of the file system underneath. To bring up the resizing window, right-click on the partition and select &Resize. Here's a screen shot to demonstrate.
You can use the green slide image or the fields to adjust the desired size in GB or MB. Obviously, you can only downsize the partition to the minimum of the total space already used on the drive. Once you've selected your sizes, click OK. The utility will process your request. Then, the new file system layout will be displayed, showing you the new size of the NTFS partition and the total free space left on the device. Double-check your selection and click on File -> &Commit at the top of the QTParted menu to commit the changes. A general warning is displayed asking for your permission to continue. By default, Knoppix does not mount hard drives that it locates during startup, so unless you've intentionally mounted a drive, you can safely click Yes to continue.
The process of resizing can take a considerable amount of time, depending on your system speeds and the sizes of your selections.
What to Do Next
From here, the possibilities are up to you. You can safely install Linux or another operating system in a dual-boot environment or run VMWare under Linux to boot up Windows directly from the hard drive. Not only can you use Knoppix with the goal of resizing in mind, but also you can use it to create new partitions of types EXT2, EXT3, FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, and more.
Why bother paying for expensive software when Knoppix can handle resizing and so much more? Go resize your NTFS drive, and enjoy installing your favorite flavor of operating system.
Resources:
http://www.knoppix.net
http://qtparted.sourceforge.net
Max Hetrick is a PC Support Analyst/Specialist who holds a certification as an MCSA. He also has experience with installation and maintenance of Linux operating systems from the PC to server levels. Max can be reached at
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