Partitioning

[glomedia]

I was under the impression that you can partition or re-partition your hard disk in Windows and it won't erase anything. However, someone I know ran into trouble with data loss by doing this and had to buy Partition Magic to try to fix things. What's the true story?

What is the safest way to partition my hard disk? Is Partition Magic the best tool for allowing partitioning if I want to keep the present contents of my hard disk intact?

[Steve R Jones]

Partition Magic is the best safest way to do it AND keep your data.

The sad part is that you can purchase an additional NEW 80 gig drive for the same price of Partition Magic..

[Vernon Frazee]

Originally posted by glomedia
I was under the impression that you can partition or re-partition your hard disk in Windows and it won't erase anything. However, someone I know ran into trouble with data loss by doing this and had to buy Partition Magic to try to fix things. What's the true story?

Microsoft KB: How to Use the Fdisk Tool and the Format Tool to Partition or Repartition a Hard Disk

Important Considerations Before You Use the Fdisk and Format Tools

...

When you run the fdisk command to create, delete, or change a partition, all of the data on that partition is permanently deleted.

Note that you can view current partition information without deleting your data.

...

[System42]

Fdisk really isn't that tough to use if you follow a good tutorial. I'm no guru by any stretch and I use it now. Mainly because I wanted to learn something as opposed to buying programs to do everything for me.

'Course, before that I went to a local computer show and was able to pick up an older version of Partition Magic for a lot less than the newest version. Real easy to use and never lost a bit of data.

One caveat. IMO, do one partition change at a time. Less chance for errors.

Good luck,