Hi there. Hopefully somebody can help me out. I apologise before I start as this is really a windows question, but (as you will see) I wish to use opensuse (or a similar live cd linux distribution) for the solution, as (I believe) it is better. Right then, I have split the partition with windows installed on it by shrinking it, using the windows disk management tool, but am not happy/convinced that it has shrunk it as much as can be. I have made a backup of windows using the windows backup utility. In times of yore I have had problems with backups using their own propriety standard (and greatly suspect that windows also does this) and that the backup will not copy back onto the smaller partition as it could be a straight sector-by-sector image of the partition. Having said this I’m sure I couldn’t select the image option and it did a straight file copy, but then this tells me that it won’t have backed up the boot sectors. I am aware of fdisk to partition drives, but obviously need other tools for backing up, restoring, formatting and boot sector copying.
Clonezilla is a decent linux live distro for disk imaging, though I’ve not used it for windows partitions myself as I use norton ghost
PartedMagic is a good live linux disk for managing partitions but not limited to partitioning
You’re right by the way, I’ve found myself that windows disk management utility doesn’t usually usually shrink partitions as much as they can be shrunk
I used “gparted” (from the PartedMagic disk) to shrink my Windows partition.
That mostly went well, though there were some strange minor error messages in Windows on booting. So, in Windows, with an Adminitrator command prompt, I did:
chkdsk c: /f
(that’s from memory - best check the documentation). That runs the disk check on the next boot. Thereafter, windows has booted cleanly.
On 09/03/2012 01:26 AM, doubleoseverin wrote:
>
> Hi there. Hopefully somebody can help me out. I apologise before I start
> as this is really a windows question, but (as you will see) I wish to
> use opensuse (or a similar live cd linux distribution) for the solution,
> as (I believe) it is better. Right then, I have split the partition with
> windows installed on it by shrinking it, using the windows disk
> management tool, but am not happy/convinced that it has shrunk it as
> much as can be. I have made a backup of windows using the windows backup
> utility. In times of yore I have had problems with backups using their
> own propriety standard (and greatly suspect that windows also does this)
> and that the backup will not copy back onto the smaller partition as it
> could be a straight sector-by-sector image of the partition. Having said
> this I’m sure I couldn’t select the image option and it did a straight
> file copy, but then this tells me that it won’t have backed up the boot
> sectors. I am aware of fdisk to partition drives, but obviously need
> other tools for backing up, restoring, formatting and boot sector
> copying.
>
> Thanks for all your help beforehand
>
>
A few thoughts, maybe try this:
Put the windows drive onto another computer running windows, either
attached by cable to the motherboard or as a udb-attached drive.
Boot that computer with a Linux live CD like Knoppix or gparted CD.
Mount the partition in question. Delete hiberfile.sys and pagefile.sys.
Reboot the computer into the alternate windows (not the windows you want
to shrink)
Defrag the windows you need to shrink, using the defrag utility in the
windows that you booted to.
Shrink the windows you need to shrink, using the shrink utility in the
windows that you booted to.
Boot to the Linux live CD again and use GParted top shrink the windows
partition further.
Put the drive back into the original computer and boot with fingers crossed.