The new hard drive arrived (after a c*ck-up) for my mate's Packard Bell computer and the recovery DVDs we created worked well. However, the original configuration was two partitions on the hard drive whereas we now have one.
Is there any gotcha's or any particular problems in using Windows 7's own disk manager to shrink that partition and create a second, or is it better to go back to first principles and format the drive, and create the two partitions at that stage?
TIA
Last time I tried to use Disk Manager to do that, it wouldn't touch the drive it was running from.
I've used the Paragon software, often avaialble on cover disks...although I spent 30 quid on it - well worth it. Lots of functionality, including backup, cold restore from a (provided) Linux bootable CD, including access to network shares...
I used the free version of eaeus partition manager to split the single drive of my win7 systems with no issues:-
If you happen to have one of the linux live cds then gparted should do it. I always keep puppy linux on a usb stick for doing things like this.
IIRC Win7 will create 2 partitions by default. The first one is small, but it's a system partition. Don't touch that one.
It doesn't, however some manufactures recovery disks do.
I just installed Win 7 on a virgin hard disk.
It created a small system partition (marked as such) as well as the one for the C: drive.
Well it didn't on either of mine and there is no reason to. What version did you install?
Whenever I've done a clean Win 7 install it has always created the small
100MB partition. However, this is a Packard Bell recovery DVD situation and it does not create said partition.
Thanks folks, once again the knowledgeable folks of this group have come up trumps :-)
Windows 7 Professional with SP1, DVD image newly downloaded from Microsoft (about two weeks ago).
In message , Dave Smith writes
I've used the Windows 7 manager to create second partitions on a couple of machines recently and it went without a hitch. Both machines here were Windows 7 Professional, and both had the 100Mb hidden partition. I've always left it there as I thought it was related to the boot management. I've now seen the site that Adrian C pointed to, and see no reason to remove it.
I am, of course, no expert. Just someone who usually manages to encounter any problems that exist.
Yes, it's quite useful. Unfortunately I often seem to want to resize the main partition first!
I have had a look and some sites do say win7 installs winRE by default. It appears that if you use the manual method of creating partitions it doesn't install it. I can't see anyone letting the installer use al of a modern disk for C these days, So if a user creates a ~100GB C partition and the rest as D and then installs to the C partition it wont create any winRE space. That would be why I never see it as I never let an OS auto partition a drive.
I did some checking and it puts winRE on a small partition if you let it auto partition a drive. I never let it so I have never seen it.
Its nothing to worry about unless linux buggers it up.
It's only important for Bitlocker, anyway.
Neither do I...except this machine is built out of leftover parts. The hard disk is sufficiently large for a C: but not worth partitiong further, so I let it auto partition.
The machine is only for use running the IC programmer and a couple of other things. I didn't have to pay for anything, even Windows.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.