[krillbee]

I helped my friend setup Bootcamp and Windows on her computer.
Unfortunately we didn't allocate enough space and she is running out and now we need to make her partition bigger. Is this possible?

[64stang06]

Sure is. The bad part? You have to restore the hard drive back to it's original size using Boot Camp, erasing all the data from Windows. Then, open Boot Camp once more to create a new partition, choosing the size you think is best. Then go from there to setup Windows as you did previously.

[ghporter]

Back up the whole Windows install somewhere. THEN do what 64stang06 says. It's possible, even fairly easy to back up that Windows install without too much grief. And there are really good tools that work quite well and are FREE. Look at the Bart's PE Builder site for lots of helpful stuff, and here for a DriveImage plugin for Bart's PE. I really like DriveImage's capabilities, and I think you'll find it pretty easy to use. It even sets you up to be able to save an image on a network. Very handy.

[64stang06]

Thanks ghporter. I don't why I assume everyone has a backup!

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by 64stang06 

Thanks ghporter. I don't why I assume everyone has a backup!

Because it's a good idea and good practice. It's just not done as universally as it should be.

And not all backups are created equal. I'd just image the whole installation myself for this sort of task, because my XP backups don't include everything in my installation, so they wouldn't be helpful. And an image is more appropriate because we can probably assume that the installation is working fine and who would want to mess with that?

[wubrew]

Originally Posted by ghporter 

Back up the whole Windows install somewhere. THEN do what 64stang06 says. It's possible, even fairly easy to back up that Windows install without too much grief. And there are really good tools that work quite well and are FREE. Look at the Bart's PE Builder site for lots of helpful stuff, and here for a DriveImage plugin for Bart's PE. I really like DriveImage's capabilities, and I think you'll find it pretty easy to use. It even sets you up to be able to save an image on a network. Very handy.

Backing up window xp partition and cloning/restoring it back to new partition will not necessarily make that new partition bootable. PE builder need a viable/functioning window environment.

[Radio Monk33]

No way to non-destructively resize.

I recommend BACKING up the partition via WinClone (freeware) to an external drive or something. Then you can remove the partition through boot camp assistant. Then you create the new resized partition again, but choose to quit instead of installing OS. You will then have a blank partition on your HD.

Use WinClone to restore the saved partition into the new larger partition.

It is possible that you may have an error moving the old partition into the new due to data fragmentation, but essentially you may have to reinstall the OS and restore from time machine, THEN restore your bootcamp partition.

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by wubrew 

Backing up window xp partition and cloning/restoring it back to new partition will not necessarily make that new partition bootable. PE builder need a viable/functioning window environment.

To run PE builder, yes, you need to have a functioning XP installation. Which is not that hard to find in most places; you must know someone who has a PC. And note that 64stang06's process has you using Boot Camp to create a new partition for Windows, which WILL ensure that the partition is bootable.