Windows 7 Re-partitioning/moving O/S?

[dkperez]

I recently picked up a new laptop. It came with W7 Home Premium 64-bit on a single partition. I want to do one of two things:

1. Repartition the 500GB disk so the O/S and programs use 60-70GB and have the rest available for "data" - the problem is the W7 partition tool won't let me get this partition down to less than 270GB, I presume because there's a file or files that can't move...

2. Use the second 500GB drive I installed and copy the whole O/S to a properly sized partition on the other disk, then change so the system boots off the other disk.

3... I suppose there's a third option to re-install the O/S, but that's a last resort since they don't provide O/S disk(s) any more.

I don't care which way I go (of 1 or 2), but if I'm going to re-partition I need some 3rd party software... I've used EASUS Partition manager, but the free version says it WON'T work with W7 64-bit. Anyone have a pointer to another good option?

If the better way is to copy the O/S, can someone point me to software that'll let me copy and make a bootable O/S? I THOUGHT I used to just do xcopy, but I vaguely recall that doesn't work any more? Pointers to a free utility to do this?

 

[Joe S]

Some of this maybe due to to the Page File and Hibernate file hiber.fil There is a post here deleting it. You may have to try the 250 gig and move all your data then resize the partition.
Joe

 

[ickymay]

I can highly recommended >> partition wizard << which i have used many times with no problems, it may also allow you to reduce the windows partition more than windows will ?

be aware moving or creating partitions isn't totally trouble free so be prepared for a fresh install if you get a major problem ?

 

[dkperez]

Unfortunately, I can't get the CHKDSK to run on the "C" partition. I can set it, and it insists that it needs to reboot. During the reboot I get the message that the check has been scheduled, than it instantly says "Disk checking has been canceled)........ I absolutely didn't cancel it, nobody else is here, NOBODY has touched a key..... But it instantly gets canceled.......

Partition Wizard won't resize the partition without the chkdsk running.......

What's going on?

 

[ako]

try this for the w7 partition tool to work, defrag first before trying the shrink disk option..

 

[ickymay]

type chkntfs /D into an elevated cmd prompt window and press return to turn on automatic dskchk on all drives then run partition wizard and reeboot, if that does't work then it's possible something like the touchpad is turning off dskchk and you would need to find a way to initiate it before the timeout ?

 

[fjgold]

Try Parted Magic a Live CD that has amongst other tools Gparted a linux based partitioning tool.
It runs from a CD independent of the OS, you boot to it and do what you want from it.
The interface (GUI) looks a little like Partition Magic 8 from Norton but it's free and works with all filesystems. It can shrink your Win7 partition down to the size you want and allow you to format the free space to any FS you want. I suggest NTFS.
Your other option to create two partitions on another drive won't work if the partition
you try to clone your OS to is smaller than the original partition.
None of the cloning tools that I know of can do that.
I use Clonezilla to create images of my OS partitions.

Example: I can and have created an image of my Win 7 partition with Clonezilla and restored it to a spare drive for backup purposes in case of drive failure.
Win 7 is installed on a 23,069.9 MB NTFS partition, although Clonezilla only actually copies the used part of my partition (10 GB) it will only restore to another partition if it is exactly 23,069.9 MB or larger.

Anyway a defrag is in order before using any partitioning tool to shrink a partition.

Parted Magic can be had at the link below.

------>>> News <<<<------
Read info about it and D\L the latest .iso and burn to CD using directions there.
Boot to it an fire up Gparted and do your resizing there. Format the remaining space to the FS of your choice.

If you're interested Clonezilla can be had at link below.

------>>> Clonezilla <<<-----

Again read the documentation and D\L the .iso and burn to CD.

This is a great tool to have when you get setup like you want.
Just create an image of your Win 7 install and store it on your data partition and on an
outside device as well.
In case you bork your Win 7 install, like get a virus or something, use Clonezila to restore the image and be
back to the point you created the image.

I create new images of all my OS partitions every other week or before I do something potentially risky. If disaster occurs I can restore my system in minutes.

Both tools are open source and absolutely free.

 

[dkperez]

I ran a defrag....... Even though the system insisted the disk was ZERO percent fragmented... STILL can't get chkdsk to run......

Tried CHKNTFS and it won't run either. It doesn't do anything at boot.........

I tried booting safe mode with command prompt. STILL won't run chkdsk.......

I don't know what's going on with this thing, but right now it's using THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY GIGABYTES to hold an operating system and three programs...... And I can't shrink it...

I"m going to try the CD version of Partition Wizard, but this is getting ridiculous........

 

[ickymay]

I ran a defrag....... Even though the system insisted the disk was ZERO percent fragmented... STILL can't get chkdsk to run......

Tried CHKNTFS and it won't run either. It doesn't do anything at boot.........

I tried booting safe mode with command prompt. STILL won't run chkdsk.......

I don't know what's going on with this thing, but right now it's using THREE HUNDRED AND FIFTY GIGABYTES to hold an operating system and three programs...... And I can't shrink it...

I"m going to try the CD version of Partition Wizard, but this is getting ridiculous........

download install and run this excellent little tool >> WinDirStat to view your hard drive useage

 

[dkperez]

OK, recognize that although it's not particularly early, I'm a bit behind on sleep and thus, probably having an extraordinarily dumb morning, but although it's cute, and makes a screen of nifty colors and all, and I enjoyed watching the little pacman things running around, WHAT does WinDirStat do for me?

I ran the bootable version of Partition Wizard....... It can't move the partition 'cause it says there's an error. It grays OUT the "check disk" section so it CAN'T FIX THE ERROR. Chkdsk won't run - I presume 'cause there's an error.......

Nothing appear to know WHAT the error is, or be able to fix it, but they all appear to know there is one... This has now gone from ridiculous to bizarre......

I'm starting to think it'd be faster to burn an O/S disk, find out how to get the activation code for this laptop, and create a new O/S partition on the second disk......

 

[Adamsappleone]

You said it's a recently purchased laptop, if so, the COA sticker with the activation key should be on the bottom of the laptop.
You did not receive a recovery disc w/purchase?
If not, you can download a system recovery disc from here;
Download Windows 7 System Recovery Discs — The NeoSmart Files

Then use ImgBurn to burn the .ISO file to DVD. Burn at a slow rate.
The Official ImgBurn Website

This is a torrent file;

1. Download the appropriate .torrent file from above that corresponds to the version of Windows 7 you have installed.
2. Download and run Download -
3. Open the .torrent file you downloaded with µTorrent. (File -> Add Torrent)
4. Select where you want µTorrent to save the 7 Recovery Disc.
5. Wait for it to download.

 

[dkperez]

Well, as usual, I'm having a REALLY stupid day...... I KNEW there was a tag with the key, and LOOKED at the bottom of the laptop AND DIDN'T SEE IT.............

I don't know WHY I didn't see it, but I didn't...... Dragged it out of the case just now and there was the tag, big as life....................

And, yeah, I made all the recovery disks and such, but I think I'd rather do an install from a clean DVD.

I'm just going to install a new version on the second disk and be done with it!

 

[fjgold]

I'm just going to install a new version on the second disk and be done with it!

Probably not a bad idea, I'm always leery of resizing partitions with data\OS's on them.

Parted Magic with Gparted can do your partitioning.
I know that the Win 7 DVD is supposed to be able to partition before install but I prefer
to use something like Gparted to partition and reformat.
70-80 GB for win 7 is great. That will leave a lot of space for data.

I personally like about 23 GB for Win 7 and XP.
My 500 GB drive has Win 7, XP and 4 Linux distros installed on it (multiboot) with a 170 GB Fat32 partition with shared data (all my mp3's for instance) shared between Windows and Linux and a same sized NTFS partition with data and programs from Win 7 and XP shared on it.

The OS partitions are ~22 GB apiece.

 

[dkperez]

I should have just done this in the first place! Pulled the system disk out of the system, so it HAD to install on the new drive (making SURE I don't do anything extraordinarily dumb), and the new O/S went on in nothing flat.... I've only gotten a couple programs installed, so rebuilding is no biggie. I'll go download all the stuff from Toshiba put on the stuff I want.......

I did all the partitioning ahead of time, so I've got things set up.... The data drive will now be a 500GB drive with images on it. I'm primarily doing database design and image processing so my O/S - program partition is usually 60-70GB 'cause between the database products, and image processing products I eat a LOT of space...

It DOESN'T solve the problem as it should have been - by resizing th eoriginal partition, but it'll give me a clean install, which is probably better.