Need to Extend Windows 7 Bootcamp Partition

[ac2334]

Hello,

I am hoping someone here more computer-savvy than myself may be able to help.

I have a Macbook Pro and have installed OSX Snow Leopard and Bootcamp along with the retail version of Windows 7. So I have just two partitions.

Last week i spent an exhaustive amount of time tweaking Windows 7 and getting it set up just the way I like it. I then of course realized that I would need about 50GB more space.

I used the Windows 7 backup feature to image my installation of Windows 7 and it completed fine and I have since restored form the image so at least I know my hard work has been backed up.

Now, I have tried Winclone but it fails to backup the partition. I have tried to create a new partition via Windows but it screws up the partition scheme for both OS's. I plopped down $50 for IPartition, but as far as I can tell it is not able to work with Windows 7. If I restore the Mac to one partiton and then create a larger Bootcamp partition, upon restoring the Windows 7 image, I have lost all of the additional space that I was trying to gain and my Windows installation has the exact same amoutn of free space as when it was imaged. The additional space goes into "limbo" where Windows can't see it and the Mac sees the space as missing, but with no way to maipulate it.

The bottom line is this: Is there any way that I could successfully enlarge my Bootcamp partition and then restore my Windows 7 image without losing the additional space?

Thank you and please let me know if you need more detail to help answer this question.

Best

[IDANNY]

Paragon Camptune should do the trick. I used it with a bootcamp xp.

Heres the link.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/camptune/

[ac2334]

Originally Posted by IDANNY

Paragon Camptune should do the trick. I used it with a bootcamp xp.

Heres the link.

http://www.paragon-software.com/home/camptune/

I tried Camptune, but it claims to not recognize my hard drive...so I am unable to go forward and need to reboot..

[neilhart]

This is a problem that WinClone resolves (resizing BootCamp partiitons). I have done it several times and I have recently done it on Snow Leopard.

There is a WinClone version 2.2 and it uses ntfsprogs 2.0.0. I suggest that you spend some time and resolve the issue that is inhibiting your WinClone image generation. Then proceed with a known working solution.

neil

[gugucom]

Winclone 2.2 is perfect for this kind of job. You just have to know your way around.

First make sure you set the right preferences. The special compressed image works way faster than the mountable image type. Unless you want to extract particular data files from a mounted image you should always use the compressed image for better speed.

You also should pay attention the tools tab in the main menue. It contains options to expand and shrink NTFS file systems.

If you modify your partition to become smaller you obviously first have to shrink your file system before you create the image. When you re-install that shrunk file system from image you must expand it before you try to boot it. If you don't you will most likely have BSOD. Windows will try to create a desktop and page out file and run out of memory for the shrunk file system.

If you restore an image to a larger partition you need to expand the file system after the installation to take up the whole increased partition.

Another issue that particularly Mac Pro users screw up is the partition table. If you use a laptop with only one drive you must use the Bootcamp partitioning utility. If you use a dedicated hard drive as most Mac Pro users do you can alternatively use the Windows install dialogue to create a partition table. Bootcamp will always produce an Apple conform GUID partition table but Windows will default to a MBR partition table. Winclone is designed to work with Apple GUID tables. So do yourself a favor and use the bootcamp utility even when Windows uses the only visible partition on the drive.

[balamw]

Originally Posted by ac2334

Now, I have tried Winclone but it fails to backup the partition.

Originally Posted by neilhart

This is a problem that WinClone resolves (resizing BootCamp partiitons).

Originally Posted by gugucom

Winclone 2.2 is perfect for this kind of job. You just have to know your way around.

ac2334 maybe you can post the error that Winclone gives you? There are some lingering issues with Winclone 2.2, Snow Leopard and particular image formats that we might be able to help you get around. Winclone should be able to help you.

You could also consider trying gparted live. http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php instead of CampTune. It should be able to resize your Windows partiiton, though you might want to resize the Mac OS partition in Disk Utility first.

B

[nick1516]

I have a question for you guys, I need more space on my windows partition, but I used an OEM disc, how can I increase the size? will it let me use the disc again? If I back up with a hard drive, will I just have to plug it back in to restore my settings?

[balamw]

Originally Posted by nick1516

I have a question for you guys, I need more space on my windows partition, but I used an OEM disc, how can I increase the size? will it let me use the disc again? If I back up with a hard drive, will I just have to plug it back in to restore my settings?

Windows activation won't treat a larger partition or even a new hard drive as a big enough change to require re-activation, so your OEM disc should be fine.

Just note that OEM is not licensed to end users, precisely for this kind of reason.

B

[ac2334]

Thanks guys,

I'm trying hard to narrow down my issue.

One thing I can tell you that I may have taken for granted, is that the current Boot Camp partion Windows Install is restored form a Window sbackup image. It is my understanding that a successful system image restoration puts your computer back to exactly how it was before you created the image, file for file.

Could it be that Winclone is having difficulty backing up a restored image, or should that even matter.

On the bootcamp partition Windows runs fine without hitches..

Still chipping away at this issue..

[balamw]

Open the log window in Winclone and it should tell you more as to why it isn't working. There is an issue with 2.2 and compressed mountable images. Either sacrifice mountability or compression and it works fine.

B