Risks in using Partition magic 8

[TanuKi Beard]

Guys, I've been installing some linux distros, testing them out. An now I'd like to get back to windows, using the whole hard drive, so I'm planning on merging partitions with Partition Magic, I've heard of dirty issues regarding Partition Magic. I mean, is it true once I uninstall it after the merging procedure, my hard drive will encounter problem, or let's say there is a fuse in the house and the power goes off, and the PC shuts down, wouldn't that screw the hard drive. Anyways, those are simple rumors, but I'd like to have the true facts from you PC, Techie, pro geeks ;)

[wineo]

Use latest stable release. You won't face any problem. It is almost safe. You can uninstall after using it. If you are so paranoid then don't do number changes at one go. Instead make one change and apply it at a time.

[Colin-uk Veteran]

The worst that can happen is all your data can be corrupted / unaccessible

so always backup your data first.

yes, if a fuse goes in your house, or the process is otherwise interupted then yes, you data will be gone :p

its happened to me before, PM froze at 75% for about 2 hours before I decided to restart, yeah i had to use data recovery software :pinch:

but you should be ok as long as you backup :p

[ranasrule]

use Acronis or Paragon software

[Rytis]

I have always used PM, but after it corrupted my HDD a few times, I decided to search for an alternative. Tried Acronis, and never looked back. I also found it considerably faster, so less chances for power outage to occur during processing :)

[Xahid]

  kernel89 said:

Guys, I've been installing some linux distros, testing them out. An now I'd like to get back to windows, using the whole hard drive, so I'm planning on merging partitions with Partition Magic, I've heard of dirty issues regarding Partition Magic. I mean, is it true once I uninstall it after the merging procedure, my hard drive will encounter problem, or let's say there is a fuse in the house and the power goes off, and the PC shuts down, wouldn't that screw the hard drive. Anyways, those are simple rumors, but I'd like to have the true facts from you PC, Techie, pro geeks ;)

Hey!

I used partition magic many time since from its version 5, & never got any problem.

but the condition you mentioned about "Fuse", power failure, thats really risky, I mean not partition magic, any partitioning software is risk at that condition, my friend had once lost his data due to power failure during the merging of partitions.... with partition magic !

[+BudMan MVC]

If your worried about doing a simple resize.. Why are you doing it?

Your Windows OS is more than capable of deleting the linux partitions and then creating or formating whatever fat/ntfs partition you want in the unallocated space left behind after you remove the linux partitions. For it to use.

If you want to resize the windows partition to fill up the disk, Just use GParted.. FREE BTW

http://mlf.linux.rulez.org/mlf/ezaz/ntfsresize.html

Um and its no rumor?? If you remove power to your machine during disk operations, um yeah there can be issues..

[TanuKi Beard]

All I want to do is simply merge all the partition in to a single one. With PM I realized that when you merge partitions, it ends up becoming a folder on the primary partition. Is there a way to merge partitions without simply creating it as a folder?

[+BudMan MVC]

  kernel89 said:

All I want to do is simply merge all the partition in to a single one. With PM I realized that when you merge partitions, it ends up becoming a folder on the primary partition. Is there a way to merge partitions without simply creating it as a folder?

What partitions do you want to merge?? A linux one and NTFS?? :rolleyes:

Delete the Linux partitions - now you will have UNALLOCATED SPACE!!

RESIZE your windows partition to use whatever portion of the unallocated space you want - all of it if you want. I provided you with a link to everything you would need to resize a ntfs partition.

Or just create new partition(s) on the now free space made by deleting the linux partitions, and format them as either ntfs or fat.. and your windows OS can use them.. Be it as another drive letter, or mounted to a folder on your current drive, etc..

There is no merging involved..

[TanuKi Beard]

I had more then one partition, on for windows, one for Linux, one, that was empty, and an another 2G empty partition. Using Windows Drive Manager, I deleted all of the useless partitions, including the one with Linux, and they all automatically merged, I am now left with 2 partitions. I am formating the second partition at the moment, but as you said BudMan, if I Resize the Windows Partition, taking all of the rest of the unused partitions, I will be left with one?

[+BudMan MVC]

When you deleted the other partitions they did not "merge" anything.. The disk manager was just showing you the unallocated space.. Or maybe the space available inside a extended partition?

yes if you resized the system partition, you would have 1 partition.

yes you can have a partition that is not formated with a file system.. But if this is the case you could not resize.. since there is no unallocated space free on the drive to resize too..

If what you want is 1 drive.. then delete the unwanted partitions - so that disk manager shows "unallocated" space, and resize your system partition.

edit:

Here this might help

See the different partition types.. And the unallocated space (not a partition).. And the extended partition that has FREE space inside it -- you could have multiple partitions in it, etc..

If your drive shows 1 primary partition - and unallocated space, then you can resize it to fill the drive and only have 1 partition.

Edited December 9, 2006 by BudMan

[crimsonhead]

I ****ing hate PM. Nothing but bad experiences with it. Acronis ftw!

[TanuKi Beard]

Okay Budman, I deleted the unwanted partition and it shows Unallocated space, now, I should use either PM or Acronis to resize the Partition with windows installed on it, right?

[+BudMan MVC]

Yes you could use either of those.. Do you OWN THEM?? You actually paid for both of those products?? What do they say about a sucker?? ;)

See my edit for the different types of partitions, and what unallocated looks like, etc..

I would suggest just the Gparted Live CD for resizing ntfs.. Completely FREE and LEGAL!

[TanuKi Beard]

No lol, I only have PM, but I rather purchase Acronis as some say it's safer. But I only want to resize, so I rather move to Gparted Live CD

Edit, BTW, I am now finished, there is only one Hard Drive worked successfully, but I now need to know, if I restart. will I encounter an MBR error?

The reason why I am worrying about this, is because when I restarted my PC a few minutes ago, there was a grub error. So I basically inserted my XP CD and formated one of my drives, and then quickly restarted my PC. And I got the boot menu to choose between WinXP Pro, or Media Edition. Now I only have one partition, so if that error occurs, I can't install windows on any partitions, otherwise I'd be ereasing my WinXP Media Edition Partition. I am not too sure if I can do FixMBR because I don't have a Media Edition CD, but only a recovery disk, and I can't do much with that, I do however have a WinXP Pro CD, but I wonder if I can fix the MBR with that.

Edited December 9, 2006 by kernel89

[+BudMan MVC]

Why do you think you will have a MBR error??

edit: What?? How do you have MCE and XP on the same disk but with only 1 partition? What did you format??

Post a screen shot of your drive(s) and the partitions on them.

[TanuKi Beard]

Don't worry, I restarted my PC, and the booting screen worked, it asked me if I wanted to go to XP Pro or Media Edition, and there is no point in going to WinXP pro, cause it's not installed. But myeah, works fine, and Budman my man, you did a great job helping, simply and perfectly :D THANKS A LOT!!!!

in case you want to see

[+BudMan MVC]

You can remove the xp entry from your boot.ini file

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/289022

How to edit the Boot.ini file in Windows XP

[TanuKi Beard]

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Console‚cup‚ration Microsoft Windows XP" /cmdcons

This is what I get, how do I modify it, to only get the Windows XP Media Edition?

Would this be correct?

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows XP Media Center Edition" /fastdetect

Edited December 9, 2006 by kernel89