Can I create a new partition in c drive with os already installed?

I had a 40g hard drive die and I had it backed up with Paragon backup software. I can get to the backup files but when I try to restore them the program tells me it can't find the target drive. Thru some research, I'm guessing I need to create a 40g partition to restore to. Thru more research I learn that there's usually a "recovery partition" on the C drive that I could resize. Is this true?
My new hd is 160g but when I installed xp pro it seemed to install it all on one partition. Disk manager shows me no other partitions.

So, can I create a new partition on the c drive when I already have xp (and other programs/data) installed?

I also have Aconis True Image Home 2009 which I just used to create a complete backup of my current hd onto an external drive. So I should be ready to try to create the new partition in relative safety.

P4
3ghz
1g ram
win XP pro
sp3

Thanks,
John

 

Thanks. That looks like a useful link that I'll have to study in more depth. I probably won't have time til late tonight or tomorrow night but I'll let you know how it goes.

It occurred to me that while I was thinking it might be problematic to resize a drive that had an os on it, I do have my 500g external drive that might be easier to resize.
I'll read the link and see if I can figure it out.

John

 

Hello & welcome to MG LocaLHero :wave

I have just the software for resizing partitions, I used it to split my 320GB HDD into 3 partitions (XP 32BIT, Windows 7 32BIT & Windows 7 64BIT) from just one XP partition.

EASEUS Partition Master Home Edition: http://majorgeeks.com/EASEUS_Partition_Master_Home_Edition_d5967.html

It's really easy to use & I lost no data using it, I would however suggest you defrag the HDD you will be resizing just to make sure all you're data is in one place when you move it try this: http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

I just have to point out that you could loose data resizing partitions, it's minimal risk especially if you defrag first. In my case it all worked without a hitch, just let it restart as many times as it wants :-D

Hope this helps

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

Thanks for the welcome 2-bit-geek.
I looked at the EASEUS Partition Master program you linked to and it looked like an simpler (at least to understand) solution than the lifehacker link...

So this AM before I went to work I set the computer up to defrag c drive and it did so I was ready to go when I got home early. I tried to do an incremental backup of my hd using Acronis but I must be too dense to understand the program as it didn't seem to give me any options other than a full backup. That took a long time when I first did it on Friday so I just decided to skip it. Mistake.

When I tried to create the new partition with EASEUS Partition Master it sort of seemed to go ok and the last step was to reboot. When it rebooted it started up Partition Master and started thru the process, got 28% along and froze up. Wouldn't respond to anything I did. Finally, for lack of anything else to do, I shut down the computer. Maybe a mistake?

Anyway, now it won't boot at all. When I boot with the Acronis disk it tells me C is still 1 partition so I'm wondering if Partition Master never got the partition part done and started to format C before I shut it down? That would explain why it wouldn't boot I think.

Anyway, now I test Acronis ability to restore from last Friday onto C which may or may not be one partition.....

 

I am sorry to hear that EASEUS failed & messed up you're HDD but it is a risk

Can you explain how you used EASEUS just in case it was something avoidable next time.

:major2-Bit-Geek:major

 

As well as I can remember, I got to a window that allowed me to drag a marker of some kind to delineate a new partition. The odd thing was that I drug the marker to create a 60g partition and instead it seemed to put the 60g partition as C drive. I didn't really care, as I just wanted a separate partition to try to restore my 40g drive to so I went with it.
When I said OK or whatever the option was, it said it would be completed when the computer was re-booted. On re-boot it started a long process (formatting the new partition, I thought) but froze up part way thru.

Sorry I can't tell you more than that but I'm working from memory. What I think probably happened is somehow I was formatting the C partition instead of a new partition created out of the free space. Just guessing. I'm capable of stupid errors sometimes.

Anyway, Acronis worked to restore me back to Friday's status so not too much was lost.
BTW, if you act real fast Acronis can be had for $5 thru this link but the deal probably won't last long:
http://tinyurl.com/nn7pt2

I'll still be working on trying to restore my Paragon back file from my 40g drive one of these days but I'm pretty busy this week.