[friedpooodle]

Is there anyway I could create a new partition without formatting my computer?

I have Windows XP Home SP2. Right now I have 72.4 GB's so I would like to keep 62.4 GB's, and make a new partition with 10.

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right click my comp and drag to manage...click on disk manager and see if your whole HD has already been formatted...if it has then, nope

[nestorey]

right click my comp and drag to manage...click on disk manager and see if your whole HD has already been formatted...if it has then, nope

[friedpooodle]

I'm not sure if the whole drive has been formatted but it doesn't look like it. I'll attach a screenshot because I'm not sure.

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[nestorey]

I've never been very good at explaining things...what i meant to say is if the partition that holds your OS takes up the whole disk then, nope...you have two partitions, one with the OS (72G) and one with IBM something or other...the one with the IBM info on it is yours to do with as you like but you're only going to be able to utilize the 2.whatever GB of that partition. I'm thinking that maybe that partition holds some kind of recovery data so maybe you don't want to mess with it...if you have an XP recovery disk then go to town but once the OS partition has been set there is no way (that I know of) to decrease or increase it's size w/out reinstalling the OS...

[Alex_Harris]

I am sure i have read that you can change partition sizes in the Disk Management area, but I have to admit I have never tried it with partitions that have had data in it because it has been on customers machines. I am not sure if anyone else here can confirm if you can change partition sizes in Windows XP with no loss of data.

[friedpooodle]

Alright, I was planning on formatting this computer anyways. It came pre-loaded with the XP Home disk so I'm going to have to buy a new one (buying XP Professional this time). When I put this in right at the startup, how do I create a partition right away so that I can also use 10 GIGs for trying out Suse (linux os)?

[peterm]

All you have to do is get partition magic and it will repartition your drive without loosing any information

[friedpooodle]

Thank you for your help. I downloaded the program Partition Magic 8.0 - Demonstration Version. I selected "Create a new partition" and followed the steps. Afterwards, it says "4 Operations Pending," and when I click apply, it says something about buying the full version. Can I not create a partition through this program w/o buying the full one?