Windows Vista Forums
Vista Forums Home Join Vista Forums Windows 7 Forum Vista Tutorials Tags
Welcome to Windows Vista Forums. Our forum is dedicated to helping you find solutions with any problems, errors or issues you are experiencing with Windows Vista. The Vista forum also covers news and updates and has an extensive Windows Vista tutorial section that covers a wide range of tips and tricks.

Go Back   Vista Forums > Vista Newsgroups > Vista installation & setup

Vista - shift a pre-installded Vista?

Reply
 
Old 03-15-2008   #1 (permalink)
Timothy Daniels


 
 

shift a pre-installded Vista?

I have a new Dell laptop with a pre-installed Vista Business,
and I would like to shift or "slide" its partition forward toward
the start of the hard drive by 10GB to make way for a Linux
dual-boot between Vista and Linux. (This is not a "shrink"
operation.) Does anyone know of a utility that can do this with
Vista? Gparted, BootIt NG, and Acronis Disk Director are the
traditional utilities which come to mind, but I've heard of difficulties
with Vista partitions where the partition was created by the Vista
installer. If you've used any of these or other partitions in their
"Vista compatible" versions, please post about it.

*TimDaniels*



My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 03-16-2008   #2 (permalink)
Mick Murphy


 
 

RE: shift a pre-installded Vista?

You can not shrink thevista partition from the front!! Simple as that
Why do you want to put it at the front?

http://apcmag.com/5046/how_to_dual_b...nstalled_first

Here is the way you would normally do it above!
--
Mick Murphy - Qld - Australia


"Timothy Daniels" wrote:
Quote:

> I have a new Dell laptop with a pre-installed Vista Business,
> and I would like to shift or "slide" its partition forward toward
> the start of the hard drive by 10GB to make way for a Linux
> dual-boot between Vista and Linux. (This is not a "shrink"
> operation.) Does anyone know of a utility that can do this with
> Vista? Gparted, BootIt NG, and Acronis Disk Director are the
> traditional utilities which come to mind, but I've heard of difficulties
> with Vista partitions where the partition was created by the Vista
> installer. If you've used any of these or other partitions in their
> "Vista compatible" versions, please post about it.
>
> *TimDaniels*
>
>
>
My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 03-16-2008   #3 (permalink)
John Barnes


 
 

Re: shift a pre-installded Vista?

If you have freespace at the front of the drive add it to your partition and
then shrink the partition. This will come off the back end. You can't
slide a partition that has no freespace. BootItNG has been Vista compatible
since day one and Acronis is now.

"Timothy Daniels" <NoSpam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OTTIgywhIHA.5900@xxxxxx
Quote:

>I have a new Dell laptop with a pre-installed Vista Business,
> and I would like to shift or "slide" its partition forward toward
> the start of the hard drive by 10GB to make way for a Linux
> dual-boot between Vista and Linux. (This is not a "shrink"
> operation.) Does anyone know of a utility that can do this with
> Vista? Gparted, BootIt NG, and Acronis Disk Director are the
> traditional utilities which come to mind, but I've heard of difficulties
> with Vista partitions where the partition was created by the Vista
> installer. If you've used any of these or other partitions in their
> "Vista compatible" versions, please post about it.
>
> *TimDaniels*
>
My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 03-16-2008   #4 (permalink)
Timothy Daniels


 
 

Re: shift a pre-installded Vista?

"Mick Murphy" wrote:
Quote:

> Why do you want to put it at the front?
There is a 10GB Primary partition in the front that
I don't need (the "System Restore" partition), and I'd
rather not waste it. It's *almost* what I need for Linux
(which is to include a couple servers), but not quite. So
I want to "shift" Vista down to fill that area - something
that could be done with pre-Vista Windows OSes via
various 3rd-party utilities.

Quote:

> http://apcmag.com/5046/how_to_dual_b...nstalled_first
>
> Here is the way you would normally do it above!
I've seen that, and it uses the standard Vista
"shrink-from-the-back" feature - not what I want to do.

*TimDaniels*


My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 03-16-2008   #5 (permalink)
Timothy Daniels


 
 

Re: shift a pre-installded Vista?

Have you tried sliding a Vista partition that had been created
with Vista using BootItNG? Take a look at this website before
concluding: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/ .

*TimDaniels*

"John Barnes" wrote:
Quote:

> If you have freespace at the front of the drive add it to your partition and
> then shrink the partition. This will come off the back end. You can't slide
> a partition that has no freespace. BootItNG has been Vista compatible since
> day one and Acronis is now.
>
> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:
Quote:

>>I have a new Dell laptop with a pre-installed Vista Business,
>> and I would like to shift or "slide" its partition forward toward
>> the start of the hard drive by 10GB to make way for a Linux
>> dual-boot between Vista and Linux. (This is not a "shrink"
>> operation.) Does anyone know of a utility that can do this with
>> Vista? Gparted, BootIt NG, and Acronis Disk Director are the
>> traditional utilities which come to mind, but I've heard of difficulties
>> with Vista partitions where the partition was created by the Vista
>> installer. If you've used any of these or other partitions in their
>> "Vista compatible" versions, please post about it.
>>
>> *TimDaniels*
>>
>

My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 03-16-2008   #6 (permalink)
John Barnes


 
 

Re: shift a pre-installded Vista?

Don't understand your point. The MBR isn't affected by the change in the
partition. If you delete your restore partition, you should always make
sure to contact the computer manufacturer as many times you have to make
other changes to the BIOS or MBR or both. Sometimes the system will end up
hanging looking for the restore partition before moving into the boot
process.

"Timothy Daniels" <NoSpam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:%23MwiE25hIHA.5504@xxxxxx
Quote:

> Have you tried sliding a Vista partition that had been created
> with Vista using BootItNG? Take a look at this website before
> concluding: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/ .
>
> *TimDaniels*
>
> "John Barnes" wrote:
Quote:

>> If you have freespace at the front of the drive add it to your partition
>> and then shrink the partition. This will come off the back end. You
>> can't slide a partition that has no freespace. BootItNG has been Vista
>> compatible since day one and Acronis is now.
>>
>> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:
Quote:

>>>I have a new Dell laptop with a pre-installed Vista Business,
>>> and I would like to shift or "slide" its partition forward toward
>>> the start of the hard drive by 10GB to make way for a Linux
>>> dual-boot between Vista and Linux. (This is not a "shrink"
>>> operation.) Does anyone know of a utility that can do this with
>>> Vista? Gparted, BootIt NG, and Acronis Disk Director are the
>>> traditional utilities which come to mind, but I've heard of difficulties
>>> with Vista partitions where the partition was created by the Vista
>>> installer. If you've used any of these or other partitions in their
>>> "Vista compatible" versions, please post about it.
>>>
>>> *TimDaniels*
>>>
>>
>
>
My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 03-16-2008   #7 (permalink)
Timothy Daniels


 
 

Re: shift a pre-installded Vista?

There is no "point". That was not a rhetorical question. I asked
it in order to ger an answer to it. I will not go into the details of
the Vista BCD and partition addressing as I don't fully understand
it myself, but if you read the website that I referenced, you'll see
that Vista is "different". So the qestion remains, "Have you tried
sliding a Vista partition with BootItNG that had been created by
Vista?" The purpose of my question is to locate a partition
management utility (preferably the cheapest) that can actually
move a Vista partition that had been created using the new
partition offsets which are being introduced with Vista? I *could*
just start buying and downloading utilities willy nilly and seeing if
they can work with the new partition scheme, but I don't have the
time or the money to do so. There is also a Catch 22 - the new
partition scheme also affects cloning, and I'd have to make a clone
of my installation before experimenting or risk screwing up my
system.

*TimDaniels*

"John Barnes" wrote:
Quote:

> Don't understand your point. The MBR isn't affected by the
> change in the partition. If you delete your restore partition,
> you should always make sure to contact the computer manu-
> facturer as many times you have to make other changes to the
> BIOS or MBR or both. Sometimes the system will end up hanging looking for the
> restore partition before moving into the
> boot process.
>
> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:
Quote:

>> Have you tried sliding a Vista partition that had been created
>> with Vista using BootItNG? Take a look at this website before
>> concluding: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/ .
>>
>> *TimDaniels*
>>
>> "John Barnes" wrote:
Quote:

>>> If you have freespace at the front of the drive add it to your partition and
>>> then shrink the partition. This will come off the back end. You can't
>>> slide a partition that has no freespace. BootItNG has been Vista compatible
>>> since day one and Acronis is now.
>>>
>>> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:
>>>>I have a new Dell laptop with a pre-installed Vista Business,
>>>> and I would like to shift or "slide" its partition forward toward
>>>> the start of the hard drive by 10GB to make way for a Linux
>>>> dual-boot between Vista and Linux. (This is not a "shrink"
>>>> operation.) Does anyone know of a utility that can do this with
>>>> Vista? Gparted, BootIt NG, and Acronis Disk Director are the
>>>> traditional utilities which come to mind, but I've heard of difficulties
>>>> with Vista partitions where the partition was created by the Vista
>>>> installer. If you've used any of these or other partitions in their
>>>> "Vista compatible" versions, please post about it.
>>>>
>>>> *TimDaniels*
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>

My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 03-16-2008   #8 (permalink)
John Barnes


 
 

Re: shift a pre-installded Vista?

Both Acronis and BootItNG have free trials, so cost won't be your problem
and the disk and partition information is only slightly changed by the new
NTFS used by Vista. The initial boot process is similar in Vista and
addressing is to accommodate both MBR and GPT disks.

"Timothy Daniels" <NoSpam@xxxxxx> wrote in message
news:OX2SXs8hIHA.2540@xxxxxx
Quote:

> There is no "point". That was not a rhetorical question. I asked
> it in order to ger an answer to it. I will not go into the details of
> the Vista BCD and partition addressing as I don't fully understand
> it myself, but if you read the website that I referenced, you'll see
> that Vista is "different". So the qestion remains, "Have you tried
> sliding a Vista partition with BootItNG that had been created by
> Vista?" The purpose of my question is to locate a partition
> management utility (preferably the cheapest) that can actually
> move a Vista partition that had been created using the new
> partition offsets which are being introduced with Vista? I *could*
> just start buying and downloading utilities willy nilly and seeing if
> they can work with the new partition scheme, but I don't have the
> time or the money to do so. There is also a Catch 22 - the new
> partition scheme also affects cloning, and I'd have to make a clone
> of my installation before experimenting or risk screwing up my
> system.
>
> *TimDaniels*
>
> "John Barnes" wrote:
Quote:

>> Don't understand your point. The MBR isn't affected by the
>> change in the partition. If you delete your restore partition,
>> you should always make sure to contact the computer manu-
>> facturer as many times you have to make other changes to the
>> BIOS or MBR or both. Sometimes the system will end up hanging looking
>> for the restore partition before moving into the
>> boot process.
>>
>> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:
Quote:

>>> Have you tried sliding a Vista partition that had been created
>>> with Vista using BootItNG? Take a look at this website before
>>> concluding: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/ .
>>>
>>> *TimDaniels*
>>>
>>> "John Barnes" wrote:
>>>> If you have freespace at the front of the drive add it to your
>>>> partition and then shrink the partition. This will come off the back
>>>> end. You can't slide a partition that has no freespace. BootItNG has
>>>> been Vista compatible since day one and Acronis is now.
>>>>
>>>> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:
>>>>>I have a new Dell laptop with a pre-installed Vista Business,
>>>>> and I would like to shift or "slide" its partition forward toward
>>>>> the start of the hard drive by 10GB to make way for a Linux
>>>>> dual-boot between Vista and Linux. (This is not a "shrink"
>>>>> operation.) Does anyone know of a utility that can do this with
>>>>> Vista? Gparted, BootIt NG, and Acronis Disk Director are the
>>>>> traditional utilities which come to mind, but I've heard of
>>>>> difficulties
>>>>> with Vista partitions where the partition was created by the Vista
>>>>> installer. If you've used any of these or other partitions in their
>>>>> "Vista compatible" versions, please post about it.
>>>>>
>>>>> *TimDaniels*
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>
>
My System SpecsSystem Spec
Old 03-16-2008   #9 (permalink)
Timothy Daniels


 
 

Re: shift a pre-installded Vista?

1) Have you tried sliding a Vista partition, that had been created
by Vista, with BootItNG?

2) Have you read the referenced website?

*TimDaniels*

"John Barnes" wrote:
Quote:

> Both Acronis and BootItNG have free trials, so cost won't be your
> problem and the disk and partition information is only slightly changed
> by the new NTFS used by Vista. The initial boot process is similar
> in Vista and addressing is to accommodate both MBR and GPT disks.
>
> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:
Quote:

>> There is no "point". That was not a rhetorical question. I asked
>> it in order to ger an answer to it. I will not go into the details of
>> the Vista BCD and partition addressing as I don't fully understand
>> it myself, but if you read the website that I referenced, you'll see
>> that Vista is "different". So the qestion remains, "Have you tried
>> sliding a Vista partition with BootItNG that had been created by
>> Vista?" The purpose of my question is to locate a partition
>> management utility (preferably the cheapest) that can actually
>> move a Vista partition that had been created using the new
>> partition offsets which are being introduced with Vista? I *could*
>> just start buying and downloading utilities willy nilly and seeing if
>> they can work with the new partition scheme, but I don't have the
>> time or the money to do so. There is also a Catch 22 - the new
>> partition scheme also affects cloning, and I'd have to make a clone
>> of my installation before experimenting or risk screwing up my
>> system.
>>
>> *TimDaniels*
>>
>> "John Barnes" wrote:
Quote:

>>> Don't understand your point. The MBR isn't affected by the
>>> change in the partition. If you delete your restore partition,
>>> you should always make sure to contact the computer manu-
>>> facturer as many times you have to make other changes to the
>>> BIOS or MBR or both. Sometimes the system will end up hanging looking for
>>> the restore partition before moving into the
>>> boot process.
>>>
>>> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:
>>>> Have you tried sliding a Vista partition that had been created
>>>> with Vista using BootItNG? Take a look at this website before
>>>> concluding: http://www.multibooters.co.uk/ .
>>>>
>>>> *TimDaniels*
>>>>
>>>> "John Barnes" wrote:
>>>>> If you have freespace at the front of the drive add it to your partition
>>>>> and then shrink the partition. This will come off the back end. You
>>>>> can't slide a partition that has no freespace. BootItNG has been Vista
>>>>> compatible since day one and Acronis is now.
>>>>>
>>>>> "Timothy Daniels" wrote:
>>>>>>I have a new Dell laptop with a pre-installed Vista Business,
>>>>>> and I would like to shift or "slide" its partition forward toward
>>>>>> the start of the hard drive by 10GB to make way for a Linux
>>>>>> dual-boot between Vista and Linux. (This is not a "shrink"
>>>>>> operation.) Does anyone know of a utility that can do this with
>>>>>> Vista? Gparted, BootIt NG, and Acronis Disk Director are the
>>>>>> traditional utilities which come to mind, but I've heard of difficulties
>>>>>> with Vista partitions where the partition was created by the Vista
>>>>>> installer. If you've used any of these or other partitions in their
>>>>>> "Vista compatible" versions, please post about it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> *TimDaniels*
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>

My System SpecsSystem Spec
Reply

Thread Tools


Similar Threads
Thread Forum
Question about bit shift .NET General
Right hand shift not working on Dell XPS running Vista Vista General
I know I can ctrl-shift-a, but...... Live Mail
keys & SHIFT keys not working properly in Vista Home Premium Vista General
SHIFT not working-Vista Remote Desktop Client Vista General


Vista Forums is an independent web site and has not been authorized,
sponsored, or otherwise approved by Microsoft Corporation.
"Windows Vista", the Start Orb, and related materials are trademarks of Microsoft Corp.
© Designer Media Ltd

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46