I'm trying to dual boot Windows XP Tablet & Kubunto 6.06 on my laptop/tablet PC. Now I need to split my disk up into several partitions, 1 for Windows and Linux ext3, Linux swap, and a FAT32 shared partition so I can easily share files between the two OSes.

Now my problem begins with Windows. I need to move all the files in the existing Windows partition (the entire hard disk) to the FRONT of the partition so then I can go in and resize the Windows partition.

When I defrag, I'm currently looking at 98% of all my files at the front of the partition & a stupid pesky 2% at the back and refuse to move.. it's seperated by almost 20 gigabytes of free space!!! Are there any freeware utilities that can move these stupid ^%#@#$ files next to all the other files so I can freaking partition my stupid drive???

I've ran this useless Windows Defrag about 20 times in a row and the stupid files seem to be moving twards the END of the stupid partition!!! It also tells me some files can't be moved & it doesn't tell me which freaking ones!!! I'm about ready to just back-up everything, use my recovery disks to format & install Windows, then partition & install Linux then go back and re-install all my stuff.

This is really starting to get frustrating...

[N]F

This post has been edited by nightfox: Jul 21 2006, 08:51 PM

woah you lost me at kubunto... Well it seems to me like you already know wat you have to do. Could you explain wat Kubunto is? I also have a partition on my old dell comp. It has Windows ME and Windows Xp. Wat exactly is a partition anyway and can i get rid of it?

CyberReaper, you should probably post in a new topic if you have questions.

Heard of Kubunto several times already and decided to look it up...it's actually just another Linux version out there.

A partition is basically just an allocated amount of space. You can get rid of it, but it will most likely get rid of the data in it as well...unless you merge it - I think it will create a sub folder in that case. If you still have questions on this, create a new topic and post in it instead.

nightfox, for Windows XP, I assume it is using NTFS and not FAT32 right? If FAT32 is ok, take a look at Partition Resizer. If you are using NTFS instead for Windows XP, then try out Partition Manager and see if that program can handle resizing NTFS partitions. It listed Windows XP as one of the operating systems there, so hopefully it will be able to do that also.

Yeah, it's NTFS. Except I can't resize a partition that still has files at the end of it, can I?

[N]F

This post has been edited by nightfox: Jul 21 2006, 10:24 PM

I'm not sure. I don't think I ever encountered a problem when there were files at the end of a partition. Or maybe my partitioning program moved them for me during the partition process. I use Partition Magic though...

Did you back everything up already? If not, I highly recommend that you do so now. I never trust the partitioning programs (free or paid) to always work perfectly. So if something goes wrong, my important data won't go down the drain with it

See if that Partition Manager program will work for you. If it doesn't, then give NTFS Resize a try. This one sounds like it should be able to handle the resizing without any problems.

lol, ok. I'll give it a try. And I plan on backing up everything. I don't even trust Windows. It can't even keep my laptop battery charged when it's even plugged into the wall so why should I trust it with my data? I'll just go and use my other laptop to download and burn it for later because I'm still having too much fun! Without running windows, the performance of my laptop has GREATLY improved.

[N]F

actually you can resize an NTFS partition, but it's just Kubuntu doesn't have that ability yet. However, the SuSE Linux installer disc comes with a partition shrinker and all that

O, and yes, it can shrink NTFS partitions.


xboxrulz

This post has been edited by xboxrulz: Jul 22 2006, 01:25 AM

lol, I know. I love SuSE as well. Except Kubuntu is the ONLY Linux distro that will actually WORK on my laptop (USB ports currently aren't working in the Live CD version... worked on my mom's comp though, but the graphics card wasn't detected properly and was at a very low res) and I think the USB problem might be a little isolated problem. Once I get my partition resized and Kubuntu installed, I'll have to see if they work.

[N]F

if it's a dynamic disk then you should be able to easily resize.

re-sizing a partiton doesnt just chop the end off, it moves the files too.

just find a partiton re-sizer that supports ntfs.

or better yet, next time you install windows, use fat32, linux support for using, and re-sizing fat32 is excellent.