recovering space

[Sephiroth]

i want to get rid of my old linux partion on my main PC. however i want to keep the drive partioned and i dont want to reinstall windows. Fdisk will not get rid of it because it does not know how and the partion does not show up as drive D: Anyway tell me how to fdisk or format this partion so i can recaim more space for windows. or any freeware programs that will do this for me

[elbryan42]

Try partion magic. It SHOULD work. One of it's features is resizing partions when you still have data on the drives (and not killing the data). I personally haven't used this feature, so I can't tell you how reliable it is. It works for my friend though.

[Sephiroth]

yes that would work but one problem i have to PAY for it. I am not going to nor do i have the funds to buy that program. I want a FREEWARE program that will alow me to recover the space. however if they have a shareware version that i can use once please give me a link

[fraggle]

use cfdisk, it comes with linux

[Zaldron]

Try partion magic.

Wait for deadnail's response. You just wait.

[elbryan42]

Zaldron: I never said it worked for me. I think Partition Magic only works for some people. I always get my friend to resize my partitions, since he's been using pm since back in the early 90s. I said it was a choice, but not necessarily a good one. Resizing partions with data on them is always risky. Unless you know exactly what to do, your risk of losing data is higher.

So Sephiroth, if you want to be REALLY safe, back up the data, which is always good just in case the hard drive fails (I accidently dropped my hd down the stairs... don't ask). Then wipe it, repartition, and throw the stuff back on.

Or you could risk losing data by repartitioning with the data still on there.

I await your response.

[Lüt]

Try partion magic.

Wait for deadnail's response. You just wait.

That's cause the numbnut was using some stupid Windows version - you're supposed to boot to PC Dos and use it from a boot disk.

[elbryan42]

I have a dos boot disc copy. my friend's dad made it. has everything on it you could need. (mouse, etc.), and is a lot smaller in space than if you were to let pm make the disk for you.

[Peter Heinemann]

There is a freeware tool called "Partition Resizer" available. It lets you resize partitions without loss of data. It is a dos only app that can be run from an unlocked floppy disk.
ftp://ftp.tuwien.ac.at/pc/dos/msdos/diskutils/presz133.zip

Also on www.bootdisk.com there is a special tool for getting rid of linux partitions called "AEFDISK 1.7"
http://www.bootdisk.com/dosfiles/aefdsk17.zip.
I have no experience with it, so read the manual.

www.bootdisk.com is a great resource for all kind of tech stuff and this page has a Doom design. Just scroll though their archives.

But for heaven´s shake read the manuals before doing anything, I have used one of this apps only once on my sucky Pentium1 PC I bought just for ZDoom on ebay, blah, blah, blah... :)

[fraggle]

i want to get rid of my old linux partion on my main PC. however i want to keep the drive partioned and i dont want to reinstall windows. Fdisk will not get rid of it because it does not know how and the partion does not show up as drive D: Anyway tell me how to fdisk or format this partion so i can recaim more space for windows. or any freeware programs that will do this for me

Boot into linux using a boot/rescue disk (or you may be able to use your existing installation - linux does not update its internal record of the partition tables until you reboot). You need a console or a command shell to do this. Start cfdisk and delete the linux partition(s). Then select the free space and do "create partition" and create a FAT partition (FAT16 or FAT32 will do) in the free space. Reboot to windows and you should see you have an extra logical drive D:. You should be able to format this using the normal windows format program.

[deadnail]

Go here and download the latest version. This program will do any partitioning/resizing/formatting you need it to. It is freeware and MS-DOS based but I used it just fine from a window in 98SE. Just close it and restart it after a major change... and when everything looks good, reboot Windows so it can catch up. =)

BTW, Lüt, when I 'borrowed' PM I only got the Windows version. It is such a worthless fucking piece of shit I don't even know why the fuck it exists. I'm more likely to fix my harddrive with Minesweeper for Chrissakes, that program is totally fucking useless. Perhaps the MS-DOS version, I dunno, fucking works, but you couldn't tell that from the Windows version at all.