Free (open source?) alternatives to Partition Magic?
 

I tried to use Partition Magic to resize my behemoth NTFS partition, but all I found online were non-functional showcase demo versions. In other words, I could set up everything, but nothing would get commited to the disk - I just got a little popup saying that this is a demo, and I should buy the full version..

I tried 2 different download places and both gave me the same crap... Are there any functional trial versions out there? I don't care if it's like a 30 day trial - I just need to do this once. Any other suggestions? I'm not shelling out 70 bucks for a partitioning software I will use once in a blue moon!

I'm going to try Qparted on Knoppix, but I have read that this software is a wee bit outdated. Hopefully though it will do - my Knoppix is preaty recent.

i haven't had success with parted or qtparted, although others on this site have. but, i have been able to resize my ntfs partition using only free tools, namely, ntfsresize, a command-line tool available on the System Rescue-CD, for example.

Here's the System Rescue home page: http://www.sysresccd.org/
and here's some stuff on ntfsresize: http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html

Yep, QTParted did not work. It complained that my partition is defragmented...

I'll check the tools you mentioned - thanks!

Btw, I thought that qtparted uses ntfsresize to do ntfs stuff... Hmm... Maybe I need newer release than the one included in qtparted?

Anyway, thanks for the tip :)

if your still looking for a fully funcional partition magic one can be found using Ares p2p .
only resize the ntfs partition to give you free space then use linux install to creat partition from the free space

i did read somewhere that qtparted uses ntfsresize to resize the ntfs partitions. still, ntfsresize worked for me where qtparted/parted didn't. if qtparted complained of fragmentation, maybe could defragment the partition with windows tools and try again. even with ntfsresize, you'd have to defragment (with windows tools) at some point to squeeze the data into as small a space as possible. another thing to try is the mandrake installation disk, which, if memory serves, was also successful in resizing ntfs: just begin the installation and abort after the resize.

Recent QTParted and ntfsresize don't need defragmentation and software piracy ;) All QTParted versions use ntfsresize but Knoppix has an older ntfsresize that's why QTParted can't shrink the partition sometimes :(

However if you install the latest ntfsprogs and configure QTParted to use ntfsresize from that package then it will work on Knoppix too without defrag.

See, I think this is the gist of my problems. My partition is compleately defragmented. That is, as much defragmented as windows native defrag tool, and disk keeper lite can do it.

Still, when I look at the graphical image of the disk produced by these tools this is what I see:

The tightly packed mass on the left are mostly my files, data and apps. The bit in the middle is the pagefile. The outstanding line on the right, almost on the end of the disk represents some "unmovable" system files... No defrag tool I have tried dares to touch them...

I have no idea how to move these files, or even what they are and how to get rid of them... I was hoping that some of the partitioning tools could kindoff brute-force these files to move. But now I'm beggining to think that these might cause a problem regardless of the tool I use...

Any suggestions how to fix this? I mean, other than wiping windows clean and starting over. That's my contingiency plan - wipe the drive clean, boot into knopp, resize ntfs, instal windoze, install mandrake... But I would rather try all the other alternatives because it will be a pain in the ass to reinstall all my apps, restore my settings and stuff...

That was actually the first thing I tried. Mandrake resizer only managed to shave off around 1GB off the end of my 120 GB drive which has over 70% of free space avaliable. That's why I'm looking into other tools.

Does Ares come with spyware like Kazza and co. did? I have alergy to spywerized p2p software :p And I feel a little uneasy about pirating as well...

Thanks. I'll try to get a newer version and see if that helps.


Thanks for all the help :D

Use the previouly mentioned SystemRescueCD. It has the latest QTParted and latest ntfsresize.

Mandrake has also a too old ntfsresize. Only ntfsresize 1.9.0 and above can move data around. The above mentioned ntfsresize FAQ lists what distro use what ntfsresize version. Only SUSE 9.1 and QTParted on SystemRescueCD can shrink fragmented NTFS. Or use the command line tool.

Thanks. I'll give that a try.

:)

SystemRescueCD absolutely fweakin rulez!!!!! The newest version of QTPart resized my behemoth NTFS partition with ZERO effort, in mere few seconds!

From there on the install of Mandrake went smoother than smooth! Thanks for the help everyone!

Congrats on the successful work. In the my 2 cents dept, if you want to resize your partitions, the tool I'd recommend is BootIT NG from terabyte. Get it here: http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html It's a great product, and can handle just about any file system out there. -- J.W.

Personaly, I use the Mandrake's partitioner.
Just download the first installation CD (mdk 9.X ot 10.0) , reboot from cd and go to partition editing :)
Very easy to use, and can resize NTFS partitions (sometimes not, cuz of fragmentation)