How to partition C in with MS-DOS commands?

  • Thread starter Thread starter SteveH
  • Start date Start date
S

SteveH

Hello

I was having some trouble (please see here):

http://www11.brinkster.com/stevehigham/partition.html

trying to partition my C drive using Disk Management (I have Win XP Home),
so attempted to use the command line DISKPART. These are the results:

C:\>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565

Copyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: STM

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 114 GB 0 B

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

Maxtor 6Y120L0
Disk ID: DEB2DEB2
Type : IDE
Bus : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- ---------
--------
Volume 2 C NTFS Partition 114 GB Healthy System

DISKPART> select volume 2

Volume 2 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> detail volume

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
* Disk 0 Online 114 GB 0 B

DISKPART> create partition volume 2 size=5000

Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565

EFI - Create an EFI system partition.
EXTENDED - Create an extended partition.
LOGICAL - Create a logical drive.
MSR - Create a Microsoft reserved partition.
PRIMARY - Create a primary partition.

DISKPART>

At this point I decided I had done something wrong and thought it best to
post a 'help' message here.

Just one thing: Under 'list disk' (above) it appears that I have no free
space on my C drive, but in fact if I right-click on my C drive and go to
Properties, it shows 100GB as free.

What I am trying to do is keep my C drive for my Win XP Home, but partition,
say, 5GB so that I can install into that portion of my C drive a 120-day
evaluation of Win XP Professional.

Thanks for any advice.

Steve
 
SteveH said:
Hello

I was having some trouble (please see here):

http://www11.brinkster.com/stevehigham/partition.html

trying to partition my C drive using Disk Management (I have Win XP Home),
so attempted to use the command line DISKPART. These are the results:

C:\>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565

Copyright (C) 1999-2003 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: STM

DISKPART> list disk

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
Disk 0 Online 114 GB 0 B

DISKPART> select disk 0

Disk 0 is now the selected disk.

DISKPART> detail disk

Maxtor 6Y120L0
Disk ID: DEB2DEB2
Type : IDE
Bus : 0
Target : 0
LUN ID : 0

Volume ### Ltr Label Fs Type Size Status Info
---------- --- ----------- ----- ---------- ------- ---------
--------
Volume 2 C NTFS Partition 114 GB Healthy System

DISKPART> select volume 2

Volume 2 is the selected volume.

DISKPART> detail volume

Disk ### Status Size Free Dyn Gpt
-------- ---------- ------- ------- --- ---
* Disk 0 Online 114 GB 0 B

DISKPART> create partition volume 2 size=5000

Microsoft DiskPart version 5.1.3565

EFI - Create an EFI system partition.
EXTENDED - Create an extended partition.
LOGICAL - Create a logical drive.
MSR - Create a Microsoft reserved partition.
PRIMARY - Create a primary partition.

DISKPART>

At this point I decided I had done something wrong and thought it best to
post a 'help' message here.

Just one thing: Under 'list disk' (above) it appears that I have no free
space on my C drive, but in fact if I right-click on my C drive and go to
Properties, it shows 100GB as free.

What I am trying to do is keep my C drive for my Win XP Home, but partition,
say, 5GB so that I can install into that portion of my C drive a 120-day
evaluation of Win XP Professional.

Thanks for any advice.

Steve
Click to expand...


What you're trying to do is not possible using the tools supplied with Windows
XP. XP can't shrink an existing partition. You would need to use a third party
program. Here are a few that will repartition your hard drive. Look around those
web sites and I think you'll find that they offer trial versions.

Norton PartitionMagic 8.0
http://www.symantec.com/norton/products/overview.jsp?pcid=sp&pvid=pm80

Acronis Disk Director 10.0
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/

BootIT Next Generation
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm

Right now all of the space on your hard drive is allocated to the C volume. In
order to create a new partition, you need unallocated space. Here's what it
would look like in Disk Management.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/Bb457130.hb-02.1_big(en-us,TechNet.10).gif

How much free space you have on your C drive doesn't matter.

On a side note, when you repartition your HD, you might want to allocate more
than 5GB for XP Pro. Even an evaluation copy will fill up that space quickly.

Good luck

Nepatsfan
 
Many thanks for that Nepatsfan - and for the links. It might be better to
install a new hard drive!!

Cheers

Steve
 
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