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I am planning on partitioning my hard drive and installing linux on one drive. I have a lot of valuable files on my computer that I don't wish to lose.
I don't have a cd burner and I don't know of any servers I can upload my files.
Are there any programs that can do the partition and I can still keep my files? I do not wish to pay money either, but if it comes to that I will.
Programs such as Partition Magic will retain your existing partition and simply create one with your free space. If you do go with such a solution, however, it is still highly recommended that you find a way to back up your information. Any large operation, such as repartitioning, has a risk of going wrong, and so it would be a good idea to have a copy of your information on a CD or other removable medium, just in case.
AJ
Depending on the FS, you could try FIPS ( http://www.igd.fhg.de/~aschaefe/fips/ ), it's free, but like adven said back up would be smart. Or you could go the Partition Magic route, but that'd cost you a few smacker-oonies.
Wow, I have been informed that PM is free, kewl.
Defrag, then run partition magic, make the partition outa your empty space, then move your files over...nothing lost....you can then format the other part, and your files will still be there :)
Magic isn't it!
- Noia
If i were you; and my file system was fat (32 or 16) (i think that what i'm going to tell you wont work with NTFS ); I would definitely first defrg my disk and then use FIPS. Why? because i have used both FIPS and Partition MAgic 5.0 (PM5); and lost some data with PM5. On the other hand; every time i used FIPS i had no problems at all... besides FIPS is free (it comes with your linux distrubution inside the dosutils directory) and you wont mess up with it.
Hope my pice of advice was of some use..
regards.
ampm2003
I recommend a program called BootIt Next Generation. Found here http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html
I used it to partition my hd to get ready for linux and had no troubles at all.
Salut!
if you have important files you cant afford to loose dont do it if you cant back them up. even partition magic screws up on rare occasions. Take the money you would spend on partitionmagic and go to a computer fair and buy a second hard drive. you should be able to pick an older one up for 10 bucks or so. all the partition resizers mentioned will work well most of the time and although ive never seen symantec screw up ive heard of it happening.
Here's a thought of a way to "test" an OS without having to worry about partitioning it. I use Connectix's Virtual PC to install differen't OS's like Redhat 8.0, Sun Solaris 7, Windows 98, Windows 2000, etc. It's nice because the program makes a file which within this program is an actual computer/hard drive. The only space that is used on your hard drive is the amount of space that it takes for you to install the OS and any other software you use.
I love it, because I don't need to play with partition and crap. Sure graphic wise it is not as fast, and you do need kind of a fast computer to use it since you lauch the software from within Windows (or at least that's the OS I have installed on my physical computer). Though for palying with things like redhat and Solaris in command line mode, you don't need anything super powerful.
Plus another advantage is you can take that computer/hard drive image file to any computer that has Virtual PC, and it will still work exactly the same way. Because whenever the OS is installed, all teh hardware is installed in a generic format.
Plus I have a computer that I use as a file sharing computer, has an 80GB hard drive. I have like 20GB's worth of images, and just move one over to my main computer when I want to play with it (since it's not often anymore). That way I can save space on my main computer.
For more information, check out Connectix's website: http://www.connectix.com/index_win.html
Whatever you do, dont use Partition Magic.
I have a friend who trusted in the software and lost his data.
If ya can backup, then use whatever you want.
Just say the "Partition Magic" Word :)
The best bet is partition magic, You can even use it to convert files from FAT32 to NTSF without any data lose :)
Its a great program You gotta check it out!