Windows 7 Partitioning Drive C:\ in Windows 7, safe or not?

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

When I bought my computer I got 2 1 TB drives.
I installed Windows and all my software on drive C:\ all my data is on Drive D:\.

Almost 2 years later I've only used 102 GB of Drive C:\ but Drive D:\ is a little over half full.

I'll probably never run out of space on it but I'd like to partition Drive C:\ into 2 drives so I can use it for storage too.

I know how to do it I've done it with other drives and never had any problems but...

I have 2 questions.

Is there any chance that doing this on my Windows drive will screw up the Windows installation?

And how will this effect my Acronis backups?
If the new C:\ drive is a different size will it still restore the OS to the smaller partition from my existing backups made when the drive was all in one piece?

Or is there any chance that I could screw up Windows and have Acronis not restore it to the smaller partition.

I just went through this with Ghost not working, I don't want to do that again.

Thanks for the help

Mike

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[Joe S]

It shouldn't cause a problem with Windows but anytime you change a partition you can have problems. This PC came with one 750 G drive. It was for Vista originally and it had a system restore partition. I used Windows to shrink partition and create a new one for data. I allowed 100 G for system probably more than needed but plenty of space for anything like video editing or anything that needs large temp files. I don't know what affect it would have on saved system images. It will probably depend on the software. Try asking over on the Acronis forum and see what they think.
Joe

 

[Medico]

I have done this many times. Use Partition Wizard Home or EaseUS Partition Magic (both free editions) to do this. These are much better than Win 7's Disk Manager. The Win 7 installation should not be touched because it is located on the first part of the HD (I would do a clean up and defrag before you start then create a new Image.) I set my Win 7 OS partition at 75 GB and only use about 26 GB. I have Win 7 Ultimate, Office 2010 Pro complete install and many other apps. My data is all located in a seperate partition.

After you have partitioned the C Drive, create another new Image of the new smaller drive. On my system I have:

C Drive - Win 7 with all apps
D Drive - All Data (for both OSes)
W Drive - Win 8 DP with all apps.

I include C and W in my Images so I can restore either from the Image. The new partitioning apps are very good. I have even had them move my OS without any loss of anything.

By the way I use Acronis True Image Home 2011 on my PC and 2010 on my wife's PC. Never had a problem with either version.

 

[Saltgrass]

If you have a known good backup image you can restore, you can do just about anything you want. And if I remember from my Vista days, Acronis will restore to different size partitions. As long as you do not have more data in one of the backups than the new partition will hold, you should be fine.

I differ from Ted slightly in that I would use the Windows Disk Management to shrink the partition. It will tell you how much you can shrink the partition, and for some reason I feel it knows more about the filing system that some others. But overall, moving the trailing edge of a partition usually goes without problems. But if you were thinking of moving the leading edge, be wary.

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Well it sound pretty safe and I do have a fresh backup, in two locations so I'll give it a go.
I'm using Acronis 2012 which just came out.

I bought Acronis 2011 a short time ago and I got an e-mail a couple of days ago saying there was a new version and allowing me to download and upgrade it.

I cleaned up both of my drives and backed them both up to one of my external drives since then.

 

[Joe S]

This is a little off the subject but how do you like the Acronis 2012? I still have 2010 and have seen a lot of complaints about 2012.
Joe

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I'm not sure yet, I just upgraded from 2011 and I don't really notice any difference yet.
I only started using it a month ago so I'm not that familiar with it to start with.

Mike

 

[MikeHawthorne]

Hi

I did the partitioning and didn't have any problems.

Tomorrow I'll reorganize my files and move some of the stuff that goes together onto the new drive, It's been a long time since I had a B drive.

Mike

 

[Medico]

Like I said, the new apps with Win 7 work surprisingly well. I have even partitioned and had the partitioning app have to move my entire OS (When I deleted the revovery partition and added this space to my C Drive, the recovery partition was in front of the C Drive and hence the OS needed to be moved forward in the new partition) No problems at all. I was VERY pleasantly surprised.