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Advice needed about splitting or re-sizing a partition ...

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Stoic Joker:
Just to emphasize something: Many of us on this thread are fans of using multiple partitions for the OS and data, etc. when you have a large drive (or putting them on different physical drives).  It's just that when you have a small hard drive like this, the downsides far outweigh any upsides.-mouser (May 09, 2014, 10:29 PM)
--- End quote ---

+1 - Quite true. For an OS the size of XP on an 80GB drive I'd cut it into my usual 3 partitions for OS, current workspace, and long term storage. But for OS's the size of Vista/7/8 80GB just ain't enough room to play with once you start adding a few largish applications. Hell at the Office I had a 84GB OS partition on my workstation. It seemed like plenty of room years ago when I first set it up with a clean load of Vista. But towards the end it got really cramped trying to fit everything in that tiny space.

Shades:
I understand anyone that couldn't be bothered to partition an 80GByte disk, it isn't much nowadays. And current software/games really consume storage space for one reason or another, so partition limits are quickly found.

My current personal PC setup (which runs already since 2008) has a 12GByte C:\ partition for the Windows 7 OS, 40GByte for applications on D:\, a 15GByte partition containing all temporary files and the rest is for my data. C:\ still has 2 GByte free and almost 10GByte is free on D:\ , which would be a lot more if I hadn't such a hard time parting with games Skyrim and Oblivion (including the big mod).

All zealotry (from my end) aside, with an 80GByte drive you will have to learn which software to install/keep and develop the discipline to keep the system lean and mean by removing what you don't need, even with one partition. And make backups regularly... ;)

joiwind:
Thanks again for all the comments and advice.

I must put some minds to rest : this isn't my one and only PC, I have a desktop which is running fine, though reaching saturation point, but which was never partitioned. So when I got this laptop, nice and empty, running fast and smooth even though far from new (the E6400 is a real workhorse), I thought it might be a good idea to partition it before filling it up with all sorts of things.
However I don't have the installation CDs for it but if I had I wouldn't have hesitated in going ahead with the partitioning so that if things went wrong I could start again from scratch.

But I'm following your advice and will leave things well alone.

BTW MiniTools looks pretty good and it does offer to either Split or Resize-Shrink - thus my OP.

Thanks again.

joiwind:
For those that may be interested MiniTools Partition Wizard professional version is free for a few days - go to chez Gizmo and follow the links and instructions.

mikiem:
FWIW...

If you don't have the Windows install disc, joiwind, I'd suggest getting one. I'd also suggest using something like the Nirsoft utility to get the Windows key for (re)install, & storing it with the disc you'd burn from the Windows setup ISO. With older hardware the latest version of backup software rescue discs may not work. I'm a believer in making disk/partition image backups -- If you feel the same way, you might do a bit of testing to make sure you have a rescue disc that works with the laptop, or go through older versions of backup software to find one. I'm assuming you wouldn't want to take up disk space with a full backup app.

I'd think an external drive for some or most of your software would also come in very handy. You might have or want to buy a card to interface with the drive [I don't know what your laptop has]. External drive housings &/or docks can be found pretty cheap on-line -- for a drive to put in it, I've seen smaller remans pretty cheap as well.

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