Can Leopard resize Bootcamp's partition?

[DaveF]

With Leopard's new Disk Utility, can a Bootcamp partition be non-destructively resize? Or is it still necessary to clone the Windows install, redo Bootcamp, and restore Windows?

I found my Bootcamp partition is too small and will need to be resized eventually (or, rather, games are much much larger than I realized :)). But I really don't want to reinstall Windows to accomplish this.

[wrldwzrd89]

Funny you mention this. I used a tool called Winclone (a Mac app designed for cloning Windows partitions and restoring them) to perform exactly this procedure (increase Boot Camp partition size without reinstalling Windows). You can't do it in Disk Utility, but it's really not that hard.

Convert your Windows partition to NTFS, if it isn't already
Clone the partition (with Winclone) to an external drive
Using Boot Camp Assistant, delete the old Windows partition
Relaunch it and create a new, larger partition
Cancel the install when prompted (choose Quit and Install Later)
Restore the clone you made earlier to the new, larger partition

[srl7741]

Funny you mention this. I used a tool called Winclone (a Mac app designed for cloning Windows partitions and restoring them) to perform exactly this procedure (increase Boot Camp partition size without reinstalling Windows). You can't do it in Disk Utility, but it's really not that hard.

Convert your Windows partition to NTFS, if it isn't already
Clone the partition (with Winclone) to an external drive
Using Boot Camp Assistant, delete the old Windows partition
Relaunch it and create a new, larger partition
Cancel the install when prompted (choose Quit and Install Later)
Restore the clone you made earlier to the new, larger partition

Is Winclone free?

[wrldwzrd89]

Is Winclone free?
Yes, it is. It is distributed as Donationware - this means it is free to use as long as you want but if you want to send a donation to the author as thanks you can.

[kaltsasa]

Ipartition. It's not free ($50) but it works great for this purpose. I used it myself to give me a few more gigs under windows (those gametap games eat up muh space).

http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php

[DaveF]

Thanks.

Does WinClone trigger Windows Authorization system? Or, if all goes well, is it a transparent process? (I have the normal concerns of reinstalling windows, plus a desire to avoid dealing with the Authorization process again.) But I think I'm using FAT32 so I can read and write files in OS X, so I don't want to convert to NTFS.

iPartition could be a good solution. Though $50 for a single use tool also has its downsides.

Well, two solutions, with some tradeoffs. That's better than I had a few minutes ago. Thanks!

[wrldwzrd89]

Thanks.

Does WinClone trigger Windows Authorization system? Or, if all goes well, is it a transparent process? (I have the normal concerns of reinstalling windows, plus a desire to avoid dealing with the Authorization process again.) But I think I'm using FAT32 so I can read and write files in OS X, so I don't want to convert to NTFS.

iPartition could be a good solution. Though $50 for a single use tool also has its downsides.

Well, two solutions, with some tradeoffs. That's better than I had a few minutes ago. Thanks!
I can't confirm on Vista whether it does or not, as I don't use it. I can tell you that the process went without a hitch on a Windows XP Pro install, though. No Windows demanding that it be reactivated or any such things.

[srl7741]

Yes, it is. It is distributed as Donationware - this means it is free to use as long as you want but if you want to send a donation to the author as thanks you can.

Thanks, I happen to be in the same boat as the OP. I'm trying to plan ahead and decide if it's worth it. I made a 60GB partition and 30GB's has been used.
I installed Vista/Office and a few small programs. I was shocked to see how much space they took up. I swear my PC running XP with the same software did not take up that much room.

[hajime]

Ipartition. It's not free ($50) but it works great for this purpose. I used it myself to give me a few more gigs under windows (those gametap games eat up muh space).

http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php

I have not used iPartition yet but I have used idefrag. Teach Supports at Coriolis are excellent!

[Mindflux]

Ipartition. It's not free ($50) but it works great for this purpose. I used it myself to give me a few more gigs under windows (those gametap games eat up muh space).

http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iPartition.php



why not use gparted or partedmagic boot cd's? both are free and handle NTFS/FAT32/HFS+ .

[alam]

the funny thing is that i'm doing the opposite, i want to resize my partition into a smaller volume is that available too? :rolleyes:

[wrldwzrd89]

the funny thing is that i'm doing the opposite, i want to resize my partition into a smaller volume is that available too? :rolleyes:
Actually, you sure can. Winclone, the tool I used, supports this operation as well.

[Sptz]

But is it destructible? Can't I just add more space to the Leopard partition? Do I have to clone the windows installation?

[JNB]

But is it destructible? Can't I just add more space to the Leopard partition? Do I have to clone the windows installation?

You can't resize a BC partition (not without Terminal commands, if even then). I just gave the step-by-step here (http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=5180877#post5180877).

[kaltsasa]

iPartition is nondestructive. 50 bucks does seem a bit steep but they are a solid company and focused on keeping your data safe during these operations. iDefrag works wonders on my media drive, OS X is great at preventing a lot of file fragmentation but with big fat media files and FCP projects my drives get trashed leaving bits everywhere.

[z062007]

if i use winclone, does the partition have to be NTFS or will FAT32 be ok?

[wrldwzrd89]

if i use winclone, does the partition have to be NTFS or will FAT32 be ok?
It MUST be NTFS. WinClone doesn't work with FAT32 partitions.

[Tazy]

I attempted this yesterday and here are my observations...
Previous setup:
- MB with 2g RAM
- 10G of HD allocated to bootcamp running WinXP Pro (FAT32)
- VMWare Fusion Beta

New setup:
- Booted into Bootcamp side of WinXP (not VMWare) and changed file system to NTFS via commandline ('convert c: /fs:ntfs). Note that this requires reboot into winxp.
- Cloned my bootcamp using WinClone
- Used Bootcamp assistant to remove old win partition and created a new one (NTFS format). New size = 20G
- Restored above bootcamp image using WinClone

Observations:
- Had to reboot into winxp via bootcamp (before trying to launch VMware)
- WinXP detected corrupted disk and did its own fix
- Launched WinXP via VMWare (allocated 700MB of RAM for this VM)
- WinXP needed to call home and authenticate. Had no problem doing that.
- First boot into WinXP took a very long time. Subsequent bootup seems to be fine but slightly slow (cannot quantize this)

Question:
Is NTFS WinXP meant to be slightly slow in VMWare? I only use this VM to run IE and my Garmin GPS software. However, it would be nice if I can some dev tools like Visual Studio.

[Neil321]

Is NTFS WinXP meant to be slightly slow in VMWare? I only use this VM to run IE and my Garmin GPS software. However, it would be nice if I can some dev tools like Visual Studio.

Its not the file system that's at fault, try allocating different amounts of RAM & upping to 4GB wouldn't hurt

[dcdavid]

Funny you mention this. I used a tool called Winclone (a Mac app designed for cloning Windows partitions and restoring them) to perform exactly this procedure (increase Boot Camp partition size without reinstalling Windows). You can't do it in Disk Utility, but it's really not that hard.

Convert your Windows partition to NTFS, if it isn't already
Clone the partition (with Winclone) to an external drive
Using Boot Camp Assistant, delete the old Windows partition
Relaunch it and create a new, larger partition
Cancel the install when prompted (choose Quit and Install Later)
Restore the clone you made earlier to the new, larger partition

The discussion refers to adjusting the boot camp partition UPWARDS. Will this same approach work if you wish to mkae a SMALLER bootcamp partition and thereby give back some of the space to the main MAC partition.
Thank you.

[stuff99]

Can you increase the hardrive space on the XP side once you've already installed bootcamp on it?

[sickmacdoc]

Can you increase the hardrive space on the XP side once you've already installed bootcamp on it?

If you take a look at the quoted section in the post right above yours (#20), you will see how that can be done using WinClone.

And just for clarity, you don't install BootCamp on your XP side (or partition). You run the Boot Camp Assistant program in your Leopard installation's Utilities folder in order to install XP (or modify the Windows partition as described in the quote).

[andyiomoon]

I originally set-up a 32GB Fat32 partition for winxp using Bootcamp. I soon realised I needed more space so I used Winclone to copy my winxp partition and then re-sized my bootcamp xp partition to 70Gb. Reinstalling the winclone partition was a breeze but winxp still thinks it has only 32Gb to play with. How do I get it to recognise the new partition size?

TIA

[sickmacdoc]

I originally set-up a 32GB Fat32 partition for winxp using Bootcamp. I soon realised I needed more space so I used Winclone to copy my winxp partition and then re-sized my bootcamp xp partition to 70Gb. Reinstalling the winclone partition was a breeze but winxp still thinks it has only 32Gb to play with. How do I get it to recognise the new partition size?

TIA

Well, that is interesting- did the physical partition size remain at 70Gb? The reason I ask is that on the front page of Winclone, it notes that restoring a FAT32 clone will cause the partition to shrink to the size of the cloned drive which is why they recommend converting to NTFS to restore to an enlarged partition. The FAQs have a lot more info about partition resizing but seem to be down at the moment, so to quote the front page:
FAT Support
When restoring a FAT32 bootcamp partition, you must restore on to a partition that is the same size or larger as the original partition. If you restore it onto a partition that is larger, the partition will shrink to match the size of the original partition, and you will not be able to expand it. If you want the ability to increase the size of your Windows partition, convert it to NTFS. Winclone will then expand the image on restore to take up all the space on the partition.

[andyiomoon]

It does look like the partition has shrunk as you suggested. There is a tool in Winclone for expanding the image to the available space but that was throwing back errors suggesting it wasn't an NTFS partition despite me setting up NTFS in the first place.

I might go through the process again and will report back.

[macH2O]

Funny you mention this. I used a tool called Winclone (a Mac app designed for cloning Windows partitions and restoring them) to perform exactly this procedure (increase Boot Camp partition size without reinstalling Windows). You can't do it in Disk Utility, but it's really not that hard.

Convert your Windows partition to NTFS, if it isn't already
Clone the partition (with Winclone) to an external drive
Using Boot Camp Assistant, delete the old Windows partition
Relaunch it and create a new, larger partition
Cancel the install when prompted (choose Quit and Install Later)
Restore the clone you made earlier to the new, larger partition

Hi,

is it possible to clone from large to small size. I have partitioned a larger size and i would like to release some of them.

Thanks.

[JNB]

Hi,

is it possible to clone from large to small size. I have partitioned a larger size and i would like to release some of them.

Thanks.

Yes, as long as the new (smaller) partition is sufficiently large to hold the cloned image. Use the same steps as outlined above.

[aznguyen316]

thanks worldwizard for the guide. I set up 48gb for my XP partition solely for games but it looks like games are quite large now adays lol so I'm going to up it to mabye 64GB.

I was thinking. I'll have to use a windows installer disc to format the newly created partition to NTFS before I can clone my drive back over won't I? Anyway, I'm imaging my bootcamp partition now..

[thejadedmonkey]

Is it possible to use Disk Utility to shrink the OS X partition (don't even touch the bootcamp partition) and then boot up into Windows, and use the administrator tools to expand the Windows partition into the newly created free space on the drive?

[odoyle81]

props to all the tips on using winclone to change the size of the partition -- it worked beautifully and took almost no time at all!! Thanks for the help - you saved me a ton of time!

@thejadedmonkey:
I haven't tried this in windows in a while, but I don't think you can change the size of the boot partition.. if it was another partition I believe you could, but you can't resize a partition while you are running an OS on it.

[RahX]

when i delete my partition of windows from bootcamp and wanting to make a new and bigger partition, boot camp tells me i have to reformat my entire OSX drive, is there any way around this?

thanks

[Robot-Scott]

Thanks for this guide! :D I would have spent hours trying to figure this out....

[didii]

I have some information, if it isn't already said.. I didn't read the whole discussion :)
I'm currently using bootcamp and as many I have formatted it too small for my games. So I was searching for a solution too (that is in fact in this post).

I read that some had problems with the NTFS-format. The program I currently use is Paragon NTFS. That's $20 and it is even integrated with Disc Utility! If you want to format a disc you can choose formatting it in NTFS-format and it is not that slow at all.
Second is that iPartition is NOT a good program! I used the trial version to test it, but you can't resize a partition from your boot-cd. And I don't have any external drives that are formatted from which I could boot. I think that the other solutions are better. Besides: $40 for just a few features more than DiskUtility is a bit too much, isn't it?

I will test WinClone soon enough. Thanks for the advice. Hope I could help!

Grtz
Didii

[ronaldross]

When I needed to resize the bootcamp on my Mac I tried the stellar partition manager. It first created a bootable DVD then proceeded.

Its nothing more than a cutting cake experience with this software

[balamw]

NOTE: We have an MR guide for this topic now http://guides.macrumors.com/Extend_or_Resize_Boot_Camp_Partition

When I needed to resize the bootcamp on my Mac I tried the stellar partition manager.

I'm not questioning the product, which may well be a fine product, but I do wonder why many of your posts suggest products from Stellar.

http://www.stellarinfo.com/mac-software.php

There is no indication on the Stellar website that it supports resizing NTFS and FAT32 partitions in a hybrid GPT/MBR partition scheme on the Mac platform. I won't add it to the MR guide until we get additional confirmation that it is actually capable of performing the desired task better than GParted Live or CampTune.

B

[janakaquarius]

Funny you mention this. I used a tool called Winclone (a Mac app designed for cloning Windows partitions and restoring them) to perform exactly this procedure (increase Boot Camp partition size without reinstalling Windows). You can't do it in Disk Utility, but it's really not that hard.

Convert your Windows partition to NTFS, if it isn't already
Clone the partition (with Winclone) to an external drive
Using Boot Camp Assistant, delete the old Windows partition
Relaunch it and create a new, larger partition
Cancel the install when prompted (choose Quit and Install Later)
Restore the clone you made earlier to the new, larger partition

Thanks for sharing this knowledge with us.Your posting is really very good.

[didii]

Read edit first!

Is it possible to use Disk Utility to shrink the OS X partition (don't even touch the bootcamp partition) and then boot up into Windows, and use the administrator tools to expand the Windows partition into the newly created free space on the drive?

It's perfectly possible! You won't need to make a backup and no need for extra programs! Here is a method just with the available programs of Mac and Windows. Faster and easier!
If you want a larger bootcamp partition:

Startup in MAC OS X and run Disk Utilities
Select the harddrive and resize it to the size you want
Press apply of course
Startup in Windows
Start -> Run -> Diskpart
Insert: list volume
Insert: select volume # (with # the partition number)
Insert: extend
Normally you should have message that the operation was successful, if not check the number (don't worry if it was wrong, it changes nothing to that volume)
Insert: exit

Now your partition of bootcamp should be larger than before. (Mind: I did it a while ago, could be I forgot something)
The problem I however had was that Mac couldn't resize because there was already data on the drive that should have been for windows. First solution was a defragmentation of my Macvolume, but that didn't work after defragmenting for several hours. So I just reinstalled everything...

If in the other way (Windows smaller partition) do this:

Startup in Windows
Start -> Right click Computer -> Manage
Search for Disk Management
Right click the correct volume -> Shrink Volume
Enter the correct amount and press Shrink
Startup in MAC OS X and start Disk Utility
Enlarge the correct volume and press apply

I never tested this method, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

Hope this helped! Any question just ask :)

EDIT: Ok this method is useless... As englishman says: extending the Bootcamp with windows doesn't work. And if you shrink the Bootcamp partition using windows, it opens space at the end of the HD, so not connected to the Mac-partition. Sorry if I gave anyone false hope...

[englishman]

It's perfectly possible! You won't need to make a backup and no need for extra programs! Here is a method just with the available programs of Mac and Windows. Faster and easier!
If you want a larger bootcamp partition:

Startup in MAC OS X and run Disk Utilities
Select the harddrive and resize it to the size you want




I don't think you can do this to extend (backwards a partition) only forwards so your suggestion won't work.

The Mac OSX utility will only extend partitions forwards on the disk.

[didii]

I don't think you can do this to extend (backwards a partition) only forwards so your suggestion won't work.

The Mac OSX utility will only extend partitions forwards on the disk.

That would be strange... I'm very sure I tried both ways. Extending is 100% sure working. Shrinking is only possible if no data is written on that part you wish to remove.
I'll check it again to be sure.

To be updated.


UPDATE: There's no problem for Mac to extend or shrink his partition. But Windows Disk Manager won't let me extending his boot disk. So I've tried forcing it with a program called Easeus. DON'T TRY IT! After failing to extend the disk, my pc automatically started up in Mac. I couldn't choose anymore with rEFit what partition I'd like to run. And Disk Utilities said that Windows just vanished from my pc.
I restarted, pressed option key and choose to start windows. Apparently that worked, but Windows said there was no Mac partition... Unable to boot in Mac again, I assumed Windows was right and I reinstalled Mac. So now I have Mac back, but when I select to startup in Windows it fails to start..
Good news though: Windows partition is eventually bigger than before!