Windows XP partition manager

[peter-h]

I need to resize a partition inside a VMWARE winXP VM.

For some weird reason every "win XP" tool online is actually a win7+ one. I spent hours on this and everything seems to be just clickbait

I can resize the VMWARE disk easily but then need to adjust the logical drive size inside that. XP itself cannot resize disks.

Thank you for any pointers...

[antenna]

Back in my XP days, I remember using a program called Paragon Hard Disk Manager, but it was an old version, not what they have available now.  Probably still on my server somewhere, but I don't recall what I paid for my copy (if you know what I mean).  Not sure about the functionality and compatibility of the newer versions.

Another windows disk tool, one that I currently use to image/clone entire operating system disks, is Macrium Reflect.   I am not sure if it would work on windows XP, but it may be worth looking into.  I can't remember if this one resized partitions or not.

I used to keep an XP operating system handy for programming old motorola radios like the m1225, then I learned how to run the old 16 bit stuff on windows 7, so I abandoned it.  Although honestly, the details on how I did it are a bit fuzzy now.  I only mention it in case your XP needs were similar to mine, as it is possible.  I even had the windows 95 calculator working in windows 7 lol

[antenna]

I thought diskpart (inside windows, using cmd) could make partitions bigger if there was free space available.  I don't think it could shrink them, but I sure thought it could make them bigger.

[peter-h]

According to this https://neosmart.net/wiki/diskpart/ it cannot resize.

I'd be happy with any old program - it will get used only once

It is weird that I can't find something online.

[Kean]

An older version of Partition Wizard Free Edition should support XP.  Pretty sure they supported XP until only a few major versions ago.

I have some downloads on my NAS from a while back - e.g. v4.2 from 2010 or v9 from 2015.

Here is a mention of it supporting XP from 5 years ago
https://www.reddit.com/r/windows/comments/g9pyv0/shrinking_windows_xp_c_partition/

[peter-h]

Fab! I googled this thing and found it here http://www.oldversion.com/windows/download/partition-wizard-home-edition-7-0-0-1

And it worked perfectly!

Thank you

[Kean]

Glad to hear!

I bought a few licenses for work about 6 years back, but I've not used it in a while.

[Zoli]

I thought diskpart (inside windows, using cmd) could make partitions bigger if there was free space available.  I don't think it could shrink them, but I sure thought it could make them bigger.

Diskpart is Vista&up.

[wilfred]

Try using Gparted. https://gparted.org/

I can't say I've used it on a VMware disk but It always does what I want and it's pretty easy to use.

[peter-h]

That one states "by booting from media containing GParted Live".

That procedure should work on a VMWARE guest but might not. One can e.g. create a winXP VM by loading a (bootable) XP installation DVD in the VM but VMWARE was kind of written to make that work. That is how you create VMs in any version of Windows: you just need an install CD or DVD.

[peter-h]

Unfortunately I have not been able to restore a Trueimage image to a VMWARE disk. Not with image restore and not with file restore. Probably something simple but... most things are

[macboy]

You can add the vmdk to another VM as an additional disk, and use tools in that VM to resize the partition and filesystem. This is actually preferred, as it is more complex and risky to resize a filesystem containing the running OS. As you know, Windows 7 disk manager can handle this task. I don't suppose you happen to have a win 7 VM handy?

[khach]

PowerQuest's PartitionMagic run on Windows 2000 and Windows XP. Try to find old version in internet archives.
Or look for EASEUS Partition Master free edition older version.