Resizing Partitions! (Windows or Linux)

A common issue when people are trying to install Operating Systems or at least configure their hard disk partitions is resizing each drive. As far as Windows XP, Microsoft does not allow that operation inside the Computer Management/Local Space Management (only available in Vista and Windows 7). But there’s a little software utility (a small OS) called gPart that can fill the job!

gPart is short for guessing partitions, so it does some magic in helping you configure everything. I used it to resize Windows system partition (a primary/logical partition of the hard disk where you have a Windows installed), here’s some tips:

1) Boot on Windows and de-fragment the partition (important, as if you shrink you have to be aware that all data must reside in the new smaller area – thats what de-fragmenting is for)

2) Burn the ISO of gPart (i.g.: using InfraRecorder) and boot from CD (acess BIOS with F12 and choose CD/DVD boot)

3) Use gPart to partition and resize the disks at your free will.

4) Boot again in Windows twice, to make sure it writes again its new partitioning tables (this is just to avoid complications)

Of course, this can be done in various Linux installation processes or using Linux Live CDS (such as Ubuntu Live CD) but even for those that have absolutely nothing to do with changing from Win -> Linux, gPart can be a helpful tool to resize partition under Windows version from XP below.

have fun!