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http://www.petri.co.il/the-ultimate-guide-to-hard-drive-partitioning.htm
Disk partitioning divides the data storage space of a hard disk into separate areas referred to as 'partitions'. Partitions are usually created when the hard disk is first being prepared for usage. Once a disk is divided into partitions, directories and files may be stored on them. Because of later changes on the computer and operating system, often an administrator or power user will be faced with the need to resize partitions, create new partitions in the unallocated space, and sometimes even undelete partitions that were previously removed or deleted. Hard disk partitioning tools will allow you to create additional partitions from existing ones by resizing the existing partitions and creating empty, un-used space on which you can create new partitions. The most important aspect of such tools is their ability to do this without losing your data that is currently on your existing partitions. Such tools allow you to create and format these new partitions.
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it is still much much faster to run your diagnostic tools from the CDROM drive, rather than wait for the tool to load from the floppy drive. Consolidate as many diagnostic tools as possible into one bootable CD. Run Ultimate Boot CD from your USB memory stick. A script on the CD prepares your USB memory stick so that it can be used on newer machines that supports booting from USB devices. You can access the same tools as you would from the CD version. When you boot up from the CD, a text-based menu will be displayed, and you will be able to select the tool you want to run. The selected tool actually boots off a virtual floppy disk created in memory. UBCD contains a ton of tools including: CPU Tests, Memory Tests, Peripherals Tools, CPU Information, System Information, Benchmark Tools, BIOS Tools, Hard Disk Installation Tools, Hard Disk Diagnostic Tools, Hard Disk Device Management Tools, Hard Disk Wiping Tools, Hard Disk Cloning Tools, Hard Disk Low-Level Editing Tools, Partition Tools, Boot Managers, File Tools, NTFS Tools, Anti-Virus/Malware Tools, Network Tools, DOS Boot Disks and Linux Boot Disks.
2. GParted Live
The purpose of GParted is to allow the individual to take a hard disk and change the partition organization therein, while preserving the partition contents. GParted is an industrial-strength package for creating, destroying, resizing, moving, checking and copying partitions, and the file systems on them. This is useful for creating space for new operating systems, reorganizing disk usage, copying data residing on hard disks and mirroring one partition with another (disk imaging). GParted Live is a small bootable GNU/Linux distribution for x86 machine. It enables you to use all the features of the latest versions of GParted. GParted Live can be installed on CD, USB, PXE server, and Hard Disk then run on an x86 machine. Note: Take care when using GParted on Windows XP/Vista installations. Read here for more information: Update to "resize-windows.txt" - Draft to discuss (Page 1) - Documentation - GParted forum Using GParted to Resize Your Windows Vista Partition The How-To Geek You can also get GParted on various distributions such as the SystemRescueCD, listed below.
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3. System RescueCD
SystemRescueCd is a Linux system on a bootable CD-ROM for repairing your system and recovering your data after a crash. It aims to provide an easy way to carry out admin tasks on your computer, such as creating and editing the partitions of the hard disk. It contains a lot of system tools (parted, partimage, fstools, ...) and basic tools (editors, midnight commander, network tools). It is very easy to use: just boot the CDROM. The kernel supports most of the important file systems (ext2/ext3/ext4, reiserfs, reiser4, btrfs, xfs, jfs, vfat, ntfs, iso9660), as well as network filesystems (samba and nfs). System tools included with SystemRescueCd GNU Parted creates, resizes, moves, copies partitions, and filesystems (and more). GParted GUI implementation using the GNU Parted library (see previous post). Partimage saves / restores partitions to an image file on another partition or to another system. FSArchiver flexible tool to save/restore a filesystem to a compressed archive. File systems tools (for Linux and Windows filesystems): format, resize, and debug an existing partition of a hard disk Ntfs3g: enables read/write access to MS Windows NTFS partitions. sfdisk saves / restores partition table (and more). Test-disk tool to check and undelete partition, supports reiserfs, ntfs, fat32, ext2/3 and many others Memtest+ to test the memory of your computer (first thing to test when you have a crash or unexpected problems) Network tools (Samba, NFS, ping, nslookup, ...) to backup your data across the network Get your copy SystemRescueCD
4. TestDisk
TestDisk is a powerful free data recovery software! It was primarily designed to help recover lost partitions and/or make non-booting disks bootable again when these symptoms are caused by faulty software, certain types of viruses or human error (such as accidentally deleting a Partition Table). Partition table recovery using TestDisk is really easy. TestDisk has features for both novices and experts. For those who know little or nothing about data recovery techniques, TestDisk can be used to
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collect detailed information about a non-booting drive which can then be sent to a tech for further analysis. Those more familiar with such procedures should find TestDisk a handy tool in performing onsite recovery. TestDisk can: Fix partition table, recover deleted partition Recover FAT32 boot sector from its backup Rebuild FAT12/FAT16/FAT32 boot sector Fix FAT tables Rebuild NTFS boot sector Recover NTFS boot sector from its backup Fix MFT using MFT mirror Locate ext2/ext3 Backup SuperBlock Undelete files from FAT, NTFS and ext2 filesystem Copy files from deleted FAT, NTFS and ext2/ext3 partitions. Get your copy of TestDisk here.
6. Partition Logic
Partition Logic is a free hard disk partitioning and data management tool. It can create, delete, format, defragment, resize, and move partitions and modify their attributes. One cool feature about it is that it can copy entire hard disks from one to another. Partition Logic is free software, based on the Visopsys operating system. It boots from a CD or floppy disk and runs as a standalone system, independent of your regular operating system. It is intended to become a free alternative to such commercial programs.
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Its worth noting that the current (as of March 2009) version of Partition logic has the following limitations: Does not work with some SATA hard disks, no hardware support for non-USB SCSI hard disks Supports only DOS/Windows-style MBR partition tables (used on nearly all IBM PC-compatibles) No support for Sun or BSD disk labels, or EFI/GPT tables used on Itanium and Intel Mac platforms Most important: Cannot format partitions as NTFS (however, it can resize NTFS) Cannot resize FAT or EXT filesystems No hardware support for serial mice or for PCMCIA
7. SwissKnife
SwissKnife allows you to create, delete and format partitions on your hard disk drives in one smooth, simple process. While the product has been tested up to 400GB, it should support hard disks of up to 2048GB. SwissKnife allows creation of FAT32 & NTFS partitions. FAT16 option is provided for compatibility. Supports Internal interfaces such as IDE and SCSI and External interfaces such as Hi-Speed USB, Parallel port, PCMCIA, USB On-The-Go, Firewire, SATA interfaces etc. Creates Fixed and Removable Disk Format types. Latest version adds support for NTFS and features resizable windows. Upon completion, the drive icons will be dynamically updated on your computer. Key Features: Formats faster than the OS (click on chart for details) Allows change of cluster size during Full format or Quick Format Divides a single hard drive into one or more partitions Supports Hi-Speed USB, PCMCIA, SATA, SCSI, USB 1.1, and FireWire external drives Supports Fixed and Removable disk formats Supports FAT, FAT32 & NTFS systems Allows creation of a single partition of up to 2048GB of FAT32 or NTFS file systems. Full format or Quick Format of existing partitions Selective partitions can be modified for optimum flexibility
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Note: EaseUs Partition Master Home Edition ONLY supports 32 bit Windows systems. If your computer is running 64 bit Windows systems, please check the Professional or Server editions which are not free. Get your copy here:.
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Get eXtended FDisk here. Do you have other recommendations? Contact me and Ill be happy to upload them to this page! Related Articles The Ultimate Guide to Installing Windows 7 The Essential Guide to Creating and Cloning Virtual Machine Images Setting up Windows Vista to multi-boot Windows 7 Ultimate Quick Guide to the New Aero Features in Windows 7
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