Free Partition (Volume) Creation Software

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Dear members,

On one of our servers at work that's running Windows Server 2003 I'd like to shrink a volume that's been assigned the drive letter 'I' and then create and allocate the space to a new volume, drive letter 'J'. I know there are lots of software packages out there that can supposedly do this, but most of them cost money, and I'd rather not make the investment as this will literally be a one off.

Is there anything that's free that does the same job that anyone can recommend?

Thanks in advance,

Alex

 

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How big is drive I and how much data does it contain?

Would it not be possible to temporarily move the data off this drive (back it up or move to another disk), then delete the partition, recreate it with a smaller size and then restore the data before moving on to making partition J?

 

You want to trust a freeware application, on a production server in your environment? I'd be dubious about trusting it on my own machine, let alone a production business machine.

 

I've used Acronis Disk director suite before, to resize server partitions etc, but it isn't free. Fortunately they have a 15 day trial that may be of use to you.

Trial

HTH

NB

 

2.5TB; 750GB storage space is free and I'd like to allocate this to the J: drive.

 

No, that's why I'm asking the question! However, I'm a massive fan of open source products and many of them put their corporate counterparts to shame. So less of the 'freeware bashing' Ferg!

 

Cool! I'll install this in my test lab environment and have a play.

 

With paid software, you at least have someone to blame when things go wrong ;)

 

No bashing taking place here. I love freeware apps as much as the next guy, I just wouldnt trust a freeware app to do something like that that could result (if not done right) in wiping the entire drive - Not without a substantial recommendation at any rate.

My point (although I never really put it across properly) was that either you should bite the bullet and get in a tried and tested app (which usually means paying for it), or carefully consider what it is you are actually attempting to achieve, and see if there isnt a better way to do it.

 

That is true!

 

Bit of an old thread but I use gparted which is free and based on Linux and Gnome. It's basically a Linux live CD with partitioning software on it. Dead easy to use.