Modifying XP and Vista Partition Sizes on Single SATA Hard Drive

[Richkut]

I have 1 SATA HD, 2 partitions dual boot (XP & Vista). Can I boot Partition Magic 8.0 with the CD (to DOS) and shrink the XP partition as well as enlarge the Vista partition (with the space XP has given up)? If not, how can I accomplish this safely? I DID try to boot with the Gparted Live CD (the last two verions, in fact), but I received a loopback error on both of them (something to do with the location of gparted.exe--not sure why this did not work!). I have seen the program Partition Logic, but am not sure if this will work. Others have suggested Diskpart.exe. Still others have mentioned Acronis Disk Director. Bottom line is that I am totally confused what to do to accomplish my goal, so I am asking here where the true EXPERTS hang out!! So, does anyone have any PERSONAL experience with resizing XP/Vista partitions without trashing their PCs? Please help, and thanks in advance!!!!!

[Nelson37]

The ONLY way I will do this for a customer is to copy the partition to a new HD. Resizing partitions is just simply bad news. I wouldn't touch partition magic with a ten-foot pole.

Sure you can get away with it, even several times. Do several dozen and check the results over time, then you arrive at the policy from paragraph one.

Expanding a partition into unused space is about as far as I will go. Re-create from scratch is always better.