Increasing Existing Windows Partition

Hi Folks,

About six months ago I used Apple Bootcamp to partition my Macbook hard disk and installed Windows XP.

Everything has been hunky dory but now I need to increase the 10gig hd allocation to around 25gb. Is there an easy way to do this without having to re-format? I have about 50gigs free on the OSX so all ok in that department.

All help gratefully received ( though the less technical and jargon-laden the better for an old josser like myself...)

Thanks,
Mike...
Here are my specs:

Model Name: MacBook
Model Identifier: MacBook4,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed: 800 MHz
Boot ROM Version: MB41.00C1.B00
SMC Version: 1.31f0
Serial Number: WQ808H7F0P1
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

Well you're in luck. Paragon Software has a free utility for download that can non-destructively increase or decrease your Boot Camp partition.

It's called "Camp Tune" and can be downloaded from here.

Regards.

i was wondering the same thing im gonna try camp tune and see if it helps

Thanks chscag..... sounds just the ticket.....

Has anybody else used this and if so what has been the experience...??

Even if everyone that posts here has had excellent results (Paragon does come out with some nice software):

You would be well advised to backup prior to making any modifications to the partitions on a drive with data you care about keeping.

Most of the time things go along fine and dandy, but bad things can/do happen.

Thanks Bobtomay
Something not too nice did happen, but I'm hopeful it's only a glitch that will take a little tweaking to fix....?

I downloaded Camp Tune and did all the procedures as outlined. Everything seemed to go off fine and I expanded my Windows partition from 10gb to 30gb.

Rebooted into the Mac HD and that was fine and while there I checked the capacity on my new partition which was showing as the required 30gb.

All great until I rebooted into Windows and got the message "NTLDR is missing, press any key to continue". After reading up on this message it seems to be a problem where a startup file has been moved due to my adjusting the drive. From what I can make out it's the <Windows Root>\system32\hal.dll which is missing, but I'm not 100% sure on this.

I know it's kinda ironic asking for help on sorting out a Windows problem on a Mac forum, but I'm hoping someone can offer some advice!! I've read several articles which have various kinds of fixes, most seem to be about reinstalling the file/s from the XP disc ( which I happen to have ). I just want to find out if anyone else had this problem and how they resolved it....?

Many thanks,
Michael.

It's not "hal.dll" that's missing, it's the "boot.ini" file which must be edited so that the boot loader is pointing to the correct partition. If "boot.ini" is wrong that error will appear every time.

See the following link for help on how to edit boot.ini.

Regards.

Thanks chscag,
You sound pretty sure it's the boot.ini file that needs editing - correct?

My problem is I can't actually get into windows to do anything so would I need to do the edit at the DOS command line prompt?

What do I have to edit and how in order to set the boot loader to the correct partition?

I'm really VERY limited in my knowledge of computers so I'm in your hands! If you can outline the steps I'd need to carry out I'd be hugely grateful...

Thanks,
Michael.

A simple fix is to boot from your Windows disc and do a repair install. Takes a few minutes and all of your personal files are left intact. Essentially replaces most OS files back to their defaults. This a common method used in fixing the hal.dll error.

HI Kash,
I tried using the windows disk to see if I could do a System REstore but I'm only given two real options when I get to the Setup Screen-
Setup Windows XP
or
Repair a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console.

The first brings up I think three partitions - I only have two - OSX and Windows, but I think one is for some necessary files which Windows creates itself (?). It asks me where I want to install Windows, and as I already have it installed I don't see how to progress.

The Repair Console just gives me a message saying "The Recovery Console provides system repair and recovery functionality" and a flashing prompt. I know virtually nothing about DOS commands so I didn't try anything at this point.

How do I do a 'Repair Install' - is it in the Recovery Console, and if so what command/s do I use?

Many thanks,
M.

varney said:

Thanks chscag,
You sound pretty sure it's the boot.ini file that needs editing - correct?

My problem is I can't actually get into windows to do anything so would I need to do the edit at the DOS command line prompt?

What do I have to edit and how in order to set the boot loader to the correct partition?

I'm really VERY limited in my knowledge of computers so I'm in your hands! If you can outline the steps I'd need to carry out I'd be hugely grateful...

Thanks,
Michael.

Click to expand...

If your Windows partition is formatted to NTFS you will not be able to do any editing from OS X without a third party driver. (Paragon NTFS) However, if your Windows partition is formatted to FAT-32 you can easily edit the Boot.ini file since it's a simple text file. However, Boot.ini is a system file and is read only. File permissions will have to be changed first.

It's probably easier for you to follow the advice Kash gave you. I normally do not recommend that since doing a "repair" confuses most people because of the way Microsoft has it worded.

Go to this website and follow his instructions on how to do a repair. They're fairly easy to follow.

Let us know.

Regards.

After frying my brains reading articles and unsuccessfully trying some of the suggestions given I relented and brought the machine to a computer repair centre. The guy there tells me that in his experience expanding a partition always screws up the way things are mapped out on the overall drive, and it takes a lot of working around to try and relocate the 'hex' (?) address. His fix for this kind of problem is to reinstall Windows.

I followed his advice and in the course of doing so expanded the partition to the required 30 gigs....Took a bit of time but glad to report all is up and running fine now....

thanks for all the help...

Glad you got it sorted out even though it required a reinstall. However, I disagree strongly with the computer tech that stated expanding partitions always screws up drive mapping. Screw ups do happen but I have on numerous occasions expanded and contracted partitions with no problems whatsoever. And so have lots of other folks.

Also, a simple editing of Boot.ini would have saved you much misery and headache. I agree that if you do not have the know how or experience to do that type of thing, then perhaps you were better off taking it on in.

I'm sorry we couldn't assist you here but at least you're up and running.

Regards.