The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    free partitioning software

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by trvelbug, Mar 25, 2011.

  1. trvelbug

    trvelbug Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    929
    Messages:
    4,007
    Likes Received:
    40
    Trophy Points:
    116
    whats a good free partitioning software that will allow me to change partitions of my 500gb drive without having to format it?
     
  2. maximinimaus

    maximinimaus Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    468
    Messages:
    635
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    MiniTool Partition Wizard 5.2 Home Edition
    Easeus Partition Master 7.1.1 Home Edition

    I'm using the standalone version by MiniTool.
     
  3. trvelbug

    trvelbug Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    929
    Messages:
    4,007
    Likes Received:
    40
    Trophy Points:
    116
    thanks. i ve never partitioned a drive, so im guessing you run this tool once, it sets the partition and you dont run it again and its non-resident. am i right?
     
  4. shakennstirred

    shakennstirred Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    647
    Likes Received:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    30
    if using win 7 it has partitioning software built in
     
  5. trvelbug

    trvelbug Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    929
    Messages:
    4,007
    Likes Received:
    40
    Trophy Points:
    116
    oh i didnt know that. can i partitioned a disk that already has content? how do i go about doing this?
     
  6. maximinimaus

    maximinimaus Notebook Evangelist

    Reputations:
    468
    Messages:
    635
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    Yes, therefore I use the standalone version. Just boot the CD/DVD.
    You can also partition within Windows 7, but be aware of unmovable data, like pagefile.sys.
     
  7. bryneb

    bryneb Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    9
    Messages:
    256
    Likes Received:
    44
    Trophy Points:
    41
    Easeus Partition Master 7.1.1 Home Edition

    I've used this on a few machines, works great! I hate partitions I want one big drive!!!
     
  8. MidnightSun

    MidnightSun Emodicon

    Reputations:
    6,668
    Messages:
    8,224
    Likes Received:
    231
    Trophy Points:
    231
    GParted is a nice open-source partition editor that I've used a few times, although I don't use partitions anymore.
     
  9. 3Fees

    3Fees Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    541
    Messages:
    970
    Likes Received:
    136
    Trophy Points:
    56
  10. trvelbug

    trvelbug Notebook Prophet

    Reputations:
    929
    Messages:
    4,007
    Likes Received:
    40
    Trophy Points:
    116
    The reason inwant to partition is so i can short stroke my drive a little and gainna little performance.

    Thanks guys so all these software can partition an hdd that already contains data?
     
  11. flipfire

    flipfire Moderately Boss

    Reputations:
    6,156
    Messages:
    11,214
    Likes Received:
    68
    Trophy Points:
    466
    Easeus is pretty good. Gparted is simpler

    Show us your partition table
     
  12. 6730b

    6730b Notebook Deity

    Reputations:
    1,290
    Messages:
    803
    Likes Received:
    1,744
    Trophy Points:
    156
    One more vote for Easeus, has been doing an excellent job for me (& does the job when w7's built-in partitioning does not cope).

    Never failed, but I do backup (or, in special cases, clone) before doing any partitioning work on drives containing data.