Partition question

Hi everyone,
This is a 2 part question so here:
1. will resizing a partition reqiure me to format, keep in mind i recently formated that HD and only installed XP (Dark edtion)
2.Im planing on having a duel boot system 1) XP 2)Ubuntu (For now might switch later on to another Linux system, im still trying it out)
but i planing on makin 3 partitions 1.XP 2.Ubuntu 3.all of my stuff such as games,music, movies and so on…
i got a 130 gigs (getting another HD soon but not yet) how should i split it?
i was thinkin XP-15 Ubuntu-15 Misc.-100 but i figure ill u guys first….
Id love to hear your thoughs… Thx
Answer #1
You resize the xp partition..and then you make new partitions with free space..
Answer #2
ya that was the plan, but u didnt really anwser my question…. when i resize the partition does it format the partition? and what size do u recommend should i make the partitions
Answer #3
no..format is format and resize is resize…when you resize the drive you will end up with the first partition with all your data and unallocated space…then you create another partition or 2 from the unallocated space…how big the partition should be…well there no written rule…you make the partition according to what you need to store in it…just make sure it’s ntfs…as you can’t extract or copy files larger than 4 GB on a fat32…
Answer #4
I’ve done this many times with Partition Magic so the answer to your question is …… no, it won’t re-format your current HD. It will simply move all the stuff (installs) into your newly sized-down partition.
Second answer ….. ok, you wanna make 3 parts out of existing one (which is 130gig). Follow the steps:
– Make the first part (the C: drive) to 25gig minimum. I have it as 25gig but my drive is smaller (only 80gig). Your drive is bigger so make the first one 40gig (that’s more then plenty for C drive with WinXP). Reboot your computer after you do this (very important to do this when you’r shrinking the C drive). You will get a warning info prior to re-booting to save your data and all that crap …. just ignore, go click OK to reboot.
– After re-booting, move the slider in PartitionMagic and resize the second bit (the remaining 80gig). Make it half way (40gig) and reboot. After rebooting, format both (D and E) in PartitionMagic. That’s about it.
You’ll have 3 parts …. C = 40gig …. D = 40gig …. E = 40gig (this was my suggestion anyway, you can size them differently if you like, up to you). But for C: …… make sure no less then 25gig. It needs room for page file and stuff.
That’s all man, get to it!