Partition of Magic --> Questions about safety

I have a new Dell M1710 notebook with a previously unused 4.7 GB partition.
It would be nice to have a single partition as I have no need for a separate
5 GB space. Presumably, this was created for media functions that I do not
need.


Does anyone have experience with these partition programs that can work on
the fly? I would prefer not to take the drive out of the computer.


thanks in advance



******************
Promote Renewabe Energy
www.CarbonFund.org

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:51:35 -0600, "SoCal" <>
wrote:

>I have a new Dell M1710 notebook with a previously unused 4.7 GB partition.
>It would be nice to have a single partition as I have no need for a separate
>5 GB space. Presumably, this was created for media functions that I do not
>need.
>
>
>Does anyone have experience with these partition programs that can work on
>the fly? I would prefer not to take the drive out of the computer.
>
>
>thanks in advance
>
>
>
>******************
>Promote Renewabe Energy
>www.CarbonFund.org
>
>
I have Partition Magic ver 8, and have used it on my desktop computer
since Win XP came out, and I've never had any problem with it. But
I've never tried changing the partition layout on a laptop, just my
desktop.... On the desktop it's successfully deleted and/or created
partitions on PATA, SATA, and USB connected PATA drives. I also have a
small (6 GB) notebook drive (2.5 inch) salvaged from an old notebook
computer that I have installed in a drive enclosure that connects via
USB, and PM works flawlessly on that too.
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

But have you been able to get it to work on the active partition that
contains the operating system and the application itself -- running.


"Charlie Hoffpauir" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:51:35 -0600, "SoCal" <>
> wrote:
>
>>I have a new Dell M1710 notebook with a previously unused 4.7 GB
>>partition.
>>It would be nice to have a single partition as I have no need for a
>>separate
>>5 GB space. Presumably, this was created for media functions that I do
>>not
>>need.
>>
>>
>>Does anyone have experience with these partition programs that can work on
>>the fly? I would prefer not to take the drive out of the computer.
>>
>>
>>thanks in advance
>>
>>
>>
>>******************
>>Promote Renewabe Energy
>>www.CarbonFund.org
>>
>>
> I have Partition Magic ver 8, and have used it on my desktop computer
> since Win XP came out, and I've never had any problem with it. But
> I've never tried changing the partition layout on a laptop, just my
> desktop.... On the desktop it's successfully deleted and/or created
> partitions on PATA, SATA, and USB connected PATA drives. I also have a
> small (6 GB) notebook drive (2.5 inch) salvaged from an old notebook
> computer that I have installed in a drive enclosure that connects via
> USB, and PM works flawlessly on that too.
> Charlie Hoffpauir
> http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

I use PM on my laptop on the running partition regularly. When you do
that, it informs you that it will need to boot the computer to apply
the changes and then writes out a little "batch" file that gets
invoked upon computer boot-up (and then boots the computer). Then,
when the computer is booting, it goes into a special mode that runs
the batch file before booting completely up. When it is done the
computer boots again and then comes back to normal mode.

However, I wouldn't be anxious to combine the partitions together. PM
is reasonably safe for doing so, but it does occassionally fail.
Maybe 5 times in the 1000's of times I've moved partitions around.
However, such a failure is often catastrophic when it does occur and
you lose the partition you were working on. Not real nice, when you
only have 1 partition and that contains everything of value.

A better choice would be to use the spare partition as a place where
you keep data, especialy if you have data you modify a lot and want to
keep backed up. If you have your programs on one partition and your
data on another, if one of the partitions go bad, you only have half
as much lost and needing to be restored.

Just some advice....

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 18:13:56 -0500, Chris F Clark
<> wrote:

>I use PM on my laptop on the running partition regularly. When you do
>that, it informs you that it will need to boot the computer to apply
>the changes and then writes out a little "batch" file that gets
>invoked upon computer boot-up (and then boots the computer). Then,
>when the computer is booting, it goes into a special mode that runs
>the batch file before booting completely up. When it is done the
>computer boots again and then comes back to normal mode.
>
>However, I wouldn't be anxious to combine the partitions together. PM
>is reasonably safe for doing so, but it does occassionally fail.
>Maybe 5 times in the 1000's of times I've moved partitions around.
>However, such a failure is often catastrophic when it does occur and
>you lose the partition you were working on. Not real nice, when you
>only have 1 partition and that contains everything of value.
>
>A better choice would be to use the spare partition as a place where
>you keep data, especialy if you have data you modify a lot and want to
>keep backed up. If you have your programs on one partition and your
>data on another, if one of the partitions go bad, you only have half
>as much lost and needing to be restored.
>
>Just some advice....

I agree with Chris... I have used PM on the C drive of my operating
computer (lots of times) but only to physically make the partition
size larger. And I always have a complete spare drive available "just
in case". I use Acronis TrueImage and clone the entire hard drive that
the OS is on, so if anything goes wrong, I can just replace the entire
drive. I do have a notebook computer, and have also used PM on that to
create a data partition. But since I was unable to have a complete
backup drive on the notebook, I was very nervous when I made this
change..... and to make sure I eliminated as many variables as
possible, I made sure I had a fully charged battery AND ran the
notebook on a UPS AC line while the changes were being make.

One thing that willl surely corrupt the process is to lose power
during the changes.
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

Partition Magic (no "of") generally works. But every once in a while [a
low single digit percentage, I'd guess] it doesn't, for reasons known
only to God, so it's wise to make an image backup before using it.


SoCal wrote:
> I have a new Dell M1710 notebook with a previously unused 4.7 GB partition.
> It would be nice to have a single partition as I have no need for a separate
> 5 GB space. Presumably, this was created for media functions that I do not
> need.
>
>
> Does anyone have experience with these partition programs that can work on
> the fly? I would prefer not to take the drive out of the computer.
>
>
> thanks in advance
>
>
>
> ******************
> Promote Renewabe Energy
> www.CarbonFund.org
>
>
>

It can't do that in that manner, and doesn't claim to. To change the
boot partition, you boot from the Partition Magic CD (which is bootable)
and do the repartition with Windows not running. You have to be able to
boot from a CD.


SoCal wrote:
> But have you been able to get it to work on the active partition that
> contains the operating system and the application itself -- running.
>
>
> "Charlie Hoffpauir" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 14:51:35 -0600, "SoCal" <>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> I have a new Dell M1710 notebook with a previously unused 4.7 GB
>>> partition.
>>> It would be nice to have a single partition as I have no need for a
>>> separate
>>> 5 GB space. Presumably, this was created for media functions that I do
>>> not
>>> need.
>>>
>>>
>>> Does anyone have experience with these partition programs that can work on
>>> the fly? I would prefer not to take the drive out of the computer.
>>>
>>>
>>> thanks in advance
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ******************
>>> Promote Renewabe Energy
>>> www.CarbonFund.org
>>>
>>>
>> I have Partition Magic ver 8, and have used it on my desktop computer
>> since Win XP came out, and I've never had any problem with it. But
>> I've never tried changing the partition layout on a laptop, just my
>> desktop.... On the desktop it's successfully deleted and/or created
>> partitions on PATA, SATA, and USB connected PATA drives. I also have a
>> small (6 GB) notebook drive (2.5 inch) salvaged from an old notebook
>> computer that I have installed in a drive enclosure that connects via
>> USB, and PM works flawlessly on that too.
>> Charlie Hoffpauir
>> http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/
>
>

That also works, but it's dangerous. Partition Magic actually modifies
the boot sector to boot to DOS, make the change, and then reverses it's
own modification of the boot sector so that the system again boots to
the original OS.


Chris F Clark wrote:
> I use PM on my laptop on the running partition regularly. When you do
> that, it informs you that it will need to boot the computer to apply
> the changes and then writes out a little "batch" file that gets
> invoked upon computer boot-up (and then boots the computer). Then,
> when the computer is booting, it goes into a special mode that runs
> the batch file before booting completely up. When it is done the
> computer boots again and then comes back to normal mode.
>
> However, I wouldn't be anxious to combine the partitions together. PM
> is reasonably safe for doing so, but it does occassionally fail.
> Maybe 5 times in the 1000's of times I've moved partitions around.
> However, such a failure is often catastrophic when it does occur and
> you lose the partition you were working on. Not real nice, when you
> only have 1 partition and that contains everything of value.
>
> A better choice would be to use the spare partition as a place where
> you keep data, especialy if you have data you modify a lot and want to
> keep backed up. If you have your programs on one partition and your
> data on another, if one of the partitions go bad, you only have half
> as much lost and needing to be restored.
>
> Just some advice....

On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:54:03 -0500, Barry Watzman
<> wrote:

>It can't do that in that manner, and doesn't claim to. To change the
>boot partition, you boot from the Partition Magic CD (which is bootable)
>and do the repartition with Windows not running. You have to be able to
>boot from a CD.
>
>
>SoCal wrote:
>> But have you been able to get it to work on the active partition that
>> contains the operating system and the application itself -- running.
>>
>>

I think we aren't communicating well...

PM WILL operate on the "boot partition" of a drive.... I've done it
several times. That is to say, I've increased the size of the logical
C drive of my computer (and correspondingly reduced the size of
another partition of the same physical drive). To do this, PM
"reboots" the computer, but it does NOT require you to boot from a CD.

It seems correct to say that Windows is NOT running, as PM boots into
a DOS OS to make the change, so in that I completely agree with you.
But the "DOS boot up" is made without using a CD. In truth, I have no
idea how it does that.
Charlie Hoffpauir
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/

Re: "But the "DOS boot up" is made without using a CD."

It can be done both ways.


Charlie Hoffpauir wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Jan 2007 19:54:03 -0500, Barry Watzman
> <> wrote:
>
>> It can't do that in that manner, and doesn't claim to. To change the
>> boot partition, you boot from the Partition Magic CD (which is bootable)
>> and do the repartition with Windows not running. You have to be able to
>> boot from a CD.
>>
>>
>> SoCal wrote:
>>> But have you been able to get it to work on the active partition that
>>> contains the operating system and the application itself -- running.
>>>
>>>
>
> I think we aren't communicating well...
>
> PM WILL operate on the "boot partition" of a drive.... I've done it
> several times. That is to say, I've increased the size of the logical
> C drive of my computer (and correspondingly reduced the size of
> another partition of the same physical drive). To do this, PM
> "reboots" the computer, but it does NOT require you to boot from a CD.
>
> It seems correct to say that Windows is NOT running, as PM boots into
> a DOS OS to make the change, so in that I completely agree with you.
> But the "DOS boot up" is made without using a CD. In truth, I have no
> idea how it does that.
> Charlie Hoffpauir
> http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~charlieh/