Repartition your hard disk on-the-

fly with Windows Vista

By Greg Shultz March 28, 2007, 7:00am PDT

As you know, the Disk Management console tool in Windows XPwill allow you to create a new partition using
any unallocated, or free, space ona hard disk. However, if there is a single partition that takes up the entirehard
disk, you can't use the Disk Management console tool to repartition the harddisk into two or more smaller
partitions. If you want to accomplish this taskin Windows XP, you will have to invest in a third-party console
tool such as PartitionMagic. Of course you can back up the disk, rebootwith a DOS startup disk, and then use
DOS FDisk commandto repartition the disk, but then you'll have to reformat and reinstall, whichis a lot of work.

Fortunately, Windows Vista's Disk Management console toolwill allow you to repartition your existing hard disk
any way you want. Inother words, it will now allow you to shrink, extend, create, and formatpartitions without
putting your data in jeopardy. Of course, before you performany of these operations, you should back up, just
in case.

In this edition of the Windows Vista Report, I'll show youhow you can use Windows Vista’s Disk Management
console tool to repartitionyour hard disk.

Accessing the Disk Management console tool

To access the Disk Management console tool in Windows Vista,you can either right-click on My Computer and
select the Manage command fromthe context menu or you can access the Run dialog box, type
Diskmgmt.msc,and click OK. You’ll then encounter a User Account Control dialog box and willneed to respond
accordingly.

If you use the Manage command method, you’ll see the ComputerManagement console tool and will need to
click on Storage and then on DiskManagement in the Console tree. If you use the Run dialog box method,
you’llsee the Disk Management console tool in a stand-alone configuration, as shownin Figure A, and are ready
to proceed.

Figure A
In the stand-alone configuration, both the Console Tree and Action panesare closed.

Repartitioning
As you can see in Figure A, this example 80-GB hard disk iscurrently configured as a single partition. To divide
it into two partitions,right-click on the dark blue bar and select the Shrink Volume command, as shownin
Figure B.

Figure B
You’ll use the Shrink Volum e com m and to div ide single partition into twopartitions.

When you do, the Disk Management console tool will check tosee if there is enough free space on the disk to
create a new partition. As ifdoes so, you’ll see the Querying Shrink Space dialog box, as shown in Figure C.

Figure C

While the Disk Managem ent console tool is checking for free space on thedisk, y ou’ll see the Query ing Shrink Space
dialog box.

As soon as the Disk Management console tool verifies thatthere is indeed enough free space on the disk to create
a new partition, you’llsee the Shrink dialog box, shown in Figure D. As you can see, the value in the Total Size
Before Shrink box indicates the current size of thepartition and the value in the Size of Available Shrink Space
indicates the maximumsize that you can allocate to the second partition.

Figure D
The Shrink dialog box shows y ou how m uch disk space y ou can allocate to asecond partition.

Understanding the size discrepancy

Chances are that you’ll discover that the Size of AvailableShrink Space can be much less than you would see if
you were to look at theamount of free space displayed in Computer. As you can see in this exampleShrink dialog
box, the maximum amount of space that the Disk Management consoletool can use for a second partition is 7
GB even though Computer shows thatthere is 61 GB of available space.

The reason for this discrepancy is that the size of theavailable space can be restricted by the amount of space
currently allocated toand the location on the hard disk of page, restore, shadow copy, andhibernation files. The
location of the files plays a big part here for the merefact that these files are marked as unmovable and the Disk
Management consoletool is unable to relocate them.

As such, if theseunmovable files are located middle of the total amount of free space on thedisk, only the
amount of free space on the other side of the files willactually be available to the new partition.

The Disk Management Help file briefly mentions that you maybe able to work around this scenario by moving
the page file to another toanother disk and deleting the show copies. However, after disabling the pagefile,
disabling hibernation, disabling the System Restore, using Disk Cleanupto delete System Restore and Shadow
Copy files, and defragging the hard disk, Iwas still unable to get more available space for the second partition.

I’ll continue to investigate this in more detail and see ifI can come up with a native solution.

Once you enter the amount space that you want to haveavailable on the second partition in the Enter Amount
OfSpace To Shrink text box, the value in the Total Size After Shrinkingwill change accordingly. When you click
the Shrink button, you’ll see the mousepointer change to the Busy pointer for a period of time.When the
operation is complete, the Disk Management console tool will updateits display and you’ll see the new partition,
as shown in Figure E.

Figure E
Once the Disk Managem ent console tool finishes, it will show the newpartition as unallocated space.

Establishing a simple Volume

Now that you’ve created a new partition, you’re ready tomake the new partition usable. To begin, right-click on
the partition andselect the New Simple Volume command as shown in Figure F.

Figure F
You’ll use the New Sim ple Volum e com m and to begin m aking the new partitionusable.

The New Simple Volume Wizard will then appear as shown in Figure G. To begin this phase of theoperation,
just click Next.

Figure G
The New Sim ple Volum e Wizard will walk y ou through the steps necessary form aking the new partition usable.

In the first step, the wizard will prompt you to choose avolume size that is between the minimum and maximum
values, as shown in Figure H. When you click Next, you’ll be prompted to choose a drive letter, as shownin
Figure I.

Figure H
The wizard will first prom pt y ou to decide how m uch of the unallocatedspace y ou want to dev ote to the new v olum e.

Figure I

You then m ust choose a driv e letter to assign to the new v olum e.

When you get to the Format page of the Wizard, you canaccept the default values for the File System and
When you get to the Format page of the Wizard, you canaccept the default values for the File System and
Allocation Unit Size and typein a name in the Volume Label text box. You can then save yourself some time
byselecting the Perform a Quick Format check box, as shown in Figure J.

Figure J

On the Form at Partition page, y ou can sav e y ourself som e tim e by selectingthe quick form at option.

When you arrive at the last step in the Wizard, shown in Figure K, just click the Finish button.You’ll then see
the new volume in the Disk Management console tool, shown in Figure L. Once you close the DiskManagement
console tool, you can open Computer and begin using the newpartition just like you would any disk drive.

Figure K
The last page in the wizard prov ides y ou with a quick sy nopsis of theoperation.

Figure L

When y ou return to the Disk Managem ent console tool, y ou’ll see the newv olum e and can begin using it im m ediately .
When y ou return to the Disk Managem ent console tool, y ou’ll see the newv olum e and can begin using it im m ediately .

As you can see, Windows Vista’s Disk Management console toolnow has the capability to resize partitions on the
fly with out destroying yourdata. Of course, if you want to perform more complex partition tasks, you’llwant to
invest in third-party partitioning software.

Have you used the Disk Management console tool in WindowsVista to shrink a volume? If so, please drop by the
discussion area and let usknow what you think about this new feature.