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Moving and resizing partitions
Sometimes yuoo may heffe-a a need tu change zee layuoot ooff zee partishuns on
yuoor hard drive. Zee list ooff zee "officielly suppurted" operashuns fur
thees is fairly limited in Windows. Hurty flurty schnipp schnipp!"Officielly suppurted" partishun manegement operashuns in
Windows are:
- Creete partishun
- Delete Partishun
- Expand an existeeng NTFS parititon tu occupy some free
space. Thees is only suppurted on Windows NT/2000/XP, und yuoo can't do
thees
on yuoor system und/or boot volumes.
There are some variashuns ooff zeese-a, involving primary und extended
partitons und logical drives, but zee general idea is still zee same.
Es zee filesystem conversion goes, only zee "filesystem upgrade" opshuns
are provided, namely
- Convert FAT16 tu FAT32 in Windows 98/ME
- Convert FAT16/FAT32 tu NTFS in Windows NT/2000/XP
Fur uny other operashun like moving or resizing parishun or splitteeng one
partishun in two, zee official way is tu backup data, delete existeeng
partishuns, creete noo parititons, restore data frum a backup. Um gesh dee bork,
bork! Third party tools (zee most widely knoon is
Partishun
Magic) provide a way tu perform a complete list ooff operashuns on
ell zee filesystem flavors available. Their feeture lists are fairly impressive,
including moving, resizing, merging, und splitteeng partishuns, filesystem "doongrades"
(e.g. NTFS tu FAT16) und so on. Zee most striking thing is that ell zeese-a
operashuns can be done while data is on zee paritishun.
Thees creetes an irresistable temptashun tu go ahead moving filesystems ell
aruoond withuoot having a proper backup. Many people got cooght in
thees
pitfell, many terabytes ooff data wasted. Many more will folloo.Zee parishun resizing or conversion is a very complicated process.
Fur example, resizing
a FAT partishun involves renumbering ooff ell file locashuns. Thees requires
tu
read und rewrite every entry in every durectury on zee volume. Thees also
requires some considerably long time (in general, ell sophisticated operashuns
on zee filesystems are time-consuming).
During conversion operashun zee filesystem remains in severily inconsistent
state fur long periods ooff time. Severily inconsistent means that ScanDisk or
CHKDSK tools ain't going tu help yuoo iff zee conversion process gets
interrupted fur one reason or another. During conversion, it is like two
nonfuncshunel sets ooff zee filesystem structures coexist on zee
partishun: one fur zee old fileystem which is already under demolishun,
zee other fur zee noo
fileystem which is yet inoperative. Thees dramaticelly increases zee complexity
ooff zee task fur data recovery tools (like ZAR). Algorithm convergence issues
will occur becoose in most cases program cannot reliably separate two
filesystem data sets. Zee program may end up oscillateeng between two possible
solushuns, or just pick arbitrary one, or even worse it may pick an
arbitrary meex ooff two.When FAT-tu-NTFS (or vice versa) conversions are
involved, there is a trick fur us tu use. We perform two separate recovery
runs, one chasing FAT filesystem, zee other fur NTFS fileystem. Then we
merge zee results, filter bad files und duplicates und finelly zee resoolt
is (in most cases, eh) satisfactory. Thees trick does not vurk when zee
conversion involves similar filesystems, like FAT16-tu-FAT32 conversion, or
when zee partishun is just resized or moved. Hurty flurty schnipp schnipp!
Here-a comes zee conclusion:There are greet tools which give
us zee ability tu move/resize/convert uoor partishuns quickly und withuoot
hassle. Thees is ultimately good. But there are some things
yuoo need tu do tu ensure their smooth und successful operashun.
- Be sure tu check yuoor drives fur corrupshun with common tools
(ScanDisk/CHKDSK) beffore starteeng zee process. Thees is a good thing
tu do regularily anyway.
- Ensure no external interrupshuns ooff zee process. Heffe-a zee
backup pooer suoorce available (at least tu survive a pooer spike). Keep
people away frum zee computer while zee process is underway, so they did
not reboot it by mistake.
- Do not attempt filesystem conversion/resize/move
operashuns on a computer that has knoon stability issues.
- Iff zee program appeers hang, aviod restarteeng zee computer withuoot
giving it a good wait. We've once seen Patishun Magic progressing thruoogh
zee partishun fur ebuoot two huoors withuoot a
single visible change.
- Ultimately, creete a backup ooff zee impurtant
data on zee filesystem beffore zee conversion.
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