Flexible partitioning?

[Jeshua]

Hi

I've got a Macbook 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 2GB of 667 DDR2 SDRAM and 300GB internal hard drive.

I use OSX for iphoto, itunes, safari and Mail. Everything else I need XP (Games and work software)

My first install went well but I seem to have not given my windows partition enough space. Is there a way I can extend the windows partition into the OSX without creating an additional separate partition or having to reformat one or more of the partitions?!

Josh

 

[karazelle]

You would need to image the Windows partition, but you can non-destructively resize the Mac-partition.
I use WinPE ImageX for this kind of stuff, but that's because I work in a Microsoft shop and use the tool for other needs as well (and its a nightmare to go through it all to make this work for your need, free as it is). Any backup/restore tool for Windows that works on the file level should work though. Latest version of Norton Ghost (9.x) or Altiris home products, as well as the built in backup/restore tool in Windows Vista Business/Ultimate would do it.

The reason you need a backup/restore tool working on the file level is that:
a) you don't want to reinstall, so the tool should maintain system files
b) you probably don't want to reactivate Windows (different sized harddisk isn't enough to trigger reactivation)
c) you don't want the restore tool to artifically create the same small partition and put Windows on it.

After doing this kind of maneuver, on Windows XP you may get into a situation in which the system won't boot. Booting the XP CD again and going to the recovery console and doing a "fixboot c:" should fix it. Vista should cope better, but its boot DVD also has a similar feature bottom left after you choose language settings.