Safe resizing of pre-installed WinXP partition?

[dhave]

I have a T61p with WinXP Pro factory installed on a 160Gb hd. I want to shrink the WinXP partition to free up 40Gb for use by Linux. I will not be booting Linux from this hard drive, as I already have Linux installed on a secondary hard drive that I boot from the ultrabay. (I don't dual boot per se; I boot alternately from the main hd with WinXP or the secondary hd with Linux.)

My question: What's the safest way to shrink the pre-installed WinXP partition without risking the hidden service/recovery partition?

I've used qtparted with good success on Linux partitions and am thinking abut using it now. I would run qtparted from Linux, obviously, and resize the WinXP partition unmounted.

Thanks for any advice.

[Crunch]

I have a lot of experience with partitioning, and when I ran XP, I always used a application called Partition Magic. On Vista, I use Acronis Disk Director 10, which also works on XP.

You don't really NEED to get either one of the above. You can do it in Disk Management, which is part of Computer Management in the Administrative Tools, which you can access from the Control Panel. When you're there, riight-click on the disk, or partition that you want to shrink, and select the amount of GB's you want to shrink it by.

That should do it. HOWEVER, I have never used the integrated Disk Management under XP, or Vista, because I like the additional features that the aforementioned apps give me. But the method I've described for you is exactly how I do it using Acronis Disk Director, and previously on Partition Magic. I happen to prefer Acronis products, which is purely a personal preference, and I am not at all saying that one is "better" than the other.

I hope this helps!

[Brad]

I second the Disk Director recommendation.

I have had good success with Acronis products also.

Brad

[dhave]

Thanks for the advice. I don't believe Disk Management will let me resize a partition in WinXP. That must be a Vista feature.

[killigrew]

Hi, i use gparted to resize my xp and vista partitions.
Its a linux live cd and totaly free

cu

[dhave]

I ended used an old copy of Partition Magic (when it was still produced by PowerQuest) to resize my WinXP partition, then I used qtparted to create a nice new Linux partition.

No problems, though I didn't like the way Partition Magic overreacted to the presence of several "bad" Linux partitions on my alternate hard disk. It was really upset and wanted me to do all sorts of drastic things. It's got a bad case of technological xenophobia, I'd say.

[stkris]

Thanks for the advice. I don't believe Disk Management will let me resize a partition in WinXP. That must be a Vista feature.

Yes it is.

[dhave]

Thanks for the advice. I don't believe Disk Management will let me resize a partition in WinXP. That must be a Vista feature.

Yes it is.

As in "Vista only", right?