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thequietman
Junior Member
Canada
127 Posts |
 Posted - 27 Jul 2003 : 13:59:07
Is there a way to re-partition a hard drive without erasing all the data on the drive? I assume it would involve moving all data to a specific part of the drive beforehand as well. How does one go about this? I can't seem to find any tools that do it.
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G4from128k
Full Member
USA
873 Posts |
Posted - 27 Jul 2003 : 14:32:22
Its more tricky than just shoving the data into one small area of the HD. Changing the size of a volume changes the logical block size in SCSI (I don't know about IDE). This means that the number of blocks consumed by each file will change and the location, spacing, and wasted space on the drive will change (notice how an identical file has two different sizes on two differently sized drives). In principle one could create software that would do a low-level remapping of the data to synthesize the post-repartitioned configuration of the files, but this would be very tricky. The utility would have to bypass Apple's software and work directly with the disk.Even if you can find such a utility, I would not trust it to work reliably or leave the disk with a reliably repartitioned disk structure. There are too many nasty little variables here with interactions between Apple's software, the drive manufacturer's firmware, the repartitioning utility, etc. You would absolutely want to do a full and reliable backup before attempting this type of repartitioning. And if you have to do a full backup anyway, then you might as well erase the disk and start from scratch. Just my 0.02. If you find such a tool, then I really do wish you success with it! G4From128k by Day: Mild-Mannered Engineer and Trapeze(tm) Artist
by Night: Colonel of Truth, Justice, and the Macintosh Way
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The Balance Of Judgement
Senior Member
Ivory Coast
1006 Posts |
Posted - 27 Jul 2003 : 17:14:57
The easiest thing would be to make a Disk Copy Clone of the hard disk and save that to another device or network location, redo your hard disk then merge that image back.Disk Copy is the free Norton Ghost of Apple Macs. 
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thequietman
Junior Member
Canada
127 Posts |
Posted - 27 Jul 2003 : 17:46:37
Well the whole reason I would like to re-partition without erasing is because I have no way to back up my hard disk. If anyone knows a good way to back up a 40gig HD without another disk at least as big then let me know. A DVD-RAM drive is a bit expensive just for backups, and a lot of files won't fit on CDRs.BTW, does anyone know if it's possible to back up your whole hard disk to an iPod? I think you can but do you have to have the iPod software installed already or can you hook it up just like an external HD and boot from it?
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I want to be unique just like everybody else.
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Derekcat
Junior Member
USA
342 Posts |
Posted - 09 Aug 2003 : 23:59:18
I would think you could use the iPod like that…heh, not that I have [or could] test it
*Dad's iPod*… If I open my window all the bugs will get in… That's just one more reason to use a Mac!
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cory5412
68KMLA Comrade-in-Arms
USA
4679 Posts |
Posted - 12 Aug 2003 : 13:28:42
yeah, Apple's disk utility doesn't really work for this kind of stuff, just the other day I reformatted my TiBook on accident, while trying to convert the smaller partition into "free space"  Official 68k videographer
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Re-partition without erasing?
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