[Resolved] Creating Partitions?

[The Hobo]

I'm going to do my scheduled format of my computer soon, but before I reinstall everything, I want to create a small 5-7 gig partition.

Can I do this through fdisk or do I need any other kind of utility?

[Cander]

yes. or you can get Partition magic and do it before your re-format.

[The Hobo]

Originally posted by Cander
yes. or you can get Partition magic and do it before your re-format.

Will I loose any data with Partition Magic?

[Cander]

AS far s I know, P Magic does a good job of maintainin your data. You may still want to backup anything you need and not use P Magic until your are ready to re-format.

[siyan]

PM will be 99.9% safe, just run chkdsk /f and scandisk beforehand to make sure.

FDisk is rather limited as I believe it only wipes partitions, edits the table, and preps the FS. (IE it will kill your data)

[Pirate]

Originally posted by The Hobo
Will I loose any data with Partition Magic?

If you are creating new partition , why should you loose your data ? I always create new partitions with none errors . If you are moving your partition then , it won't be damaged but you have to backup first . I had all kinds of troubles while using PM . One more thing to use PM rather others , I made a risk and converted one of my partitions from FAT32 to NTFS . No loose of data at all . I hope this help !

[wrack]

Originally posted by The Hobo
I'm going to do my scheduled format of my computer soon, but before I reinstall everything, I want to create a small 5-7 gig partition.

Can I do this through fdisk or do I need any other kind of utility?

If you have the backup of all ur data then all u need to do is just put the 2000 or XP disk (I assume that u will install 2000 or XP) and it has a built in partition program to manage ur disk. But with this u will loose ur data.

My suggestion is to go with what I just told. But if you don't want all ur data restored then go with Partition Magic.

If you don't want to use then there is another DOS based app which is a really good dos based partition manager. See the attachment if you are a fan of dos based formatting.

Cheers...

[The Hobo]

Thanks for all the information.

[siyan]

Originally posted by Pirate
I made a risk and converted one of my partitions from FAT32 to NTFS . No loose of data at all . I hope this help !

Thats not really a risk at all. FAT16-->FAT32-->NTFS are completely reliable conversions.

You don't even need 3rd party stuff to do it...just use convert /ntfs.

[parksie]

Beware though. Converting to NTFS can often mess up the sizing information, so that it *works* and there's no danger to your data, it'll just fragment far more easily.

Best to format as NTFS if you're going to use it.

[siyan]

heh...good point. i'd do a totally fresh format on this machine (one partition has gone from NTFS to FAT32 and back via PM and convert.exe) but i only use it for another 3 months so meh...

[The Hobo]

Everything seemed to work out well. I just used fdisk for now. But when I get a little money, I think I'll go pick up Partition Magic for future needs.

Thanks again, guys.