Resizing Windows partition

[ghall]

I would like to resize my Windows partition to make more room on my Mac OS X partition. What is the best way to go about this without going through bootcamp? How well well does iPartition work?

[jnagel]

you're going to have to reinstall windows. you can't just "resize" a partition. best bet is to make a backup image of your current windows installation and then redo it

P.S. iPartition only works for HFS+ (Mac OS extended file system), not for FAT or NTFS (Windows file systems)

[rogersmj]

You don't have to reinstall Windows (probably). I resize Windows partitions all the time with the GParted LiveCD. Works wonderfully, I just used it earlier this week.

[Bill Gates]

You don't have to reinstall Windows (probably). I resize Windows partitions all the time with the GParted LiveCD. Works wonderfully, I just used it earlier this week.
The real question is whether or not resizing affects the ability to use the Boot Camp Wizard. In the past, after touching my partitions the Boot Camp Wizard would no longer restore the volume to one partition.

[rogersmj]

The real question is whether or not resizing affects the ability to use the Boot Camp Wizard. In the past, after touching my partitions the Boot Camp Wizard would no longer restore the volume to one partition.

That is the million dollar question. I suspect you're right, that any messing with the partitions will piss off Boot Camp. I just searched around on Google for awhile and couldn't find any mention of anyone doing this. If someone wants to be brave and try it...

[sushi]

You don't have to reinstall Windows (probably). I resize Windows partitions all the time with the GParted LiveCD. Works wonderfully, I just used it earlier this week.
I want to verify that you have used GParted LiveCD on a Macintel computer to resize the Boot Camp partition. Is this correct?

[islandman]

I want to verify that you have used GParted LiveCD on a Macintel computer to resize the Boot Camp partition. Is this correct?

I haven't used GParted for Boot Camp, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Do you have a backup? If so, you have nothing to lose.

[ghall]

I haven't used GParted for Boot Camp, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Do you have a backup? If so, you have nothing to lose.

I do not have a backup.

So basically, there's really no easy way to do it?

Does GParted resize the OS X partition as well?

[sushi]

I haven't used GParted for Boot Camp, but I don't see why it wouldn't work. Do you have a backup? If so, you have nothing to lose.
Since you have GParted, please give it a try and let us know how it works. :)

To everyone else on this thread, you might find this thread interesting:

Deleted file in Windows, will no longer boot. (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=3321217)

[bur40win]

I tried resizing my windows partition with no success. I wanted to shrink it and create a third FAT32 partition so that I could share files easier between the OS's, however, if I shrinked the windows partition using GParted then windows was no longer able to boot. I still want to try doing it one more way, but it's obviously a time consuming process (reformat the entire disk, Carbon Copy Clone MacOSX from my backup on an external drive, run boot-camp, install windows, resize the partition, fail again and curse some more)

[sushi]

I tried resizing my windows partition with no success. I wanted to shrink it and create a third FAT32 partition so that I could share files easier between the OS's, however, if I shrinked the windows partition using GParted then windows was no longer able to boot. I still want to try doing it one more way, but it's obviously a time consuming process (reformat the entire disk, Carbon Copy Clone MacOSX from my backup on an external drive, run boot-camp, install windows, resize the partition, fail again and curse some more)
Thanks for the feedback.

I completely understand the time that it takes. I've installed Windows so many times that I have the code memorized -- backwards and forwards! :)

[Spike099]

I got a question... Would it not be possible to make a backup of the windows NTFS partition using disk utilities? Wipe the windows partition, make it smaller than restore the partition using disk utilities of course?

[m1ss1ontomars]

That is the million dollar question. I suspect you're right, that any messing with the partitions will piss off Boot Camp. I just searched around on Google for awhile and couldn't find any mention of anyone doing this. If someone wants to be brave and try it...

Libparted can apparently shrink HFS+ partitions but can't grow them (i.e. make them take up any free space on the drive). Go figure.

[Neruda]

I tried resizing my windows partition with no success. I wanted to shrink it and create a third FAT32 partition so that I could share files easier between the OS's, however, if I shrinked the windows partition using GParted then windows was no longer able to boot. I still want to try doing it one more way, but it's obviously a time consuming process (reformat the entire disk, Carbon Copy Clone MacOSX from my backup on an external drive, run boot-camp, install windows, resize the partition, fail again and curse some more)

Partitions can be resized on the fly using the diskutil resizeVolume command from the terminal. I hesitate recommending this if you are a Unix noob, however, this link contains pretty good instructions (http://www.macworld.com/2007/02/secrets/marchgeekfactor/index.php?pf=1).

Unix is your friend.

[m1ss1ontomars]

Partitions can be resized on the fly using the diskutil resizeVolume command from the terminal. I hesitate recommending this if you are a Unix noob, however, this link contains pretty good instructions (http://www.macworld.com/2007/02/secrets/marchgeekfactor/index.php?pf=1).

Unix is your friend.

That's only for HFS+ partitions.

[chinarut]

I got a pointer to this discussion on Apple Discussions - looks like people have much success with it ( I can't personally verify just yet ) and the steps definitely make sense:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=569724&start=0&tstart=0

[wizkidweb]

If you use the Windows install disk and repair the OS after resizing the partition with GParted, it should work again. I've done this multiple times and it has worked for me.

[touchdownjesus4]

I got a question... Would it not be possible to make a backup of the windows NTFS partition using disk utilities? Wipe the windows partition, make it smaller than restore the partition using disk utilities of course?

If you want to re-size your bootcamp partition use winclone (http://twocanoes.com/winclone/) to make an image of partition. Then use bootcamp assistant to restore and then repartition the disk to the size you want. And then use the winclone to restore the partition with the image you made. Winclone restores the file system and everything that you previously had on your windows system.