Messages

1

Software / incorrect free space in XP Pro.

« on: November 27, 2003, 05:41:59 AM »

Hi,

you might try the program DirectorySnoop from here (they offer a free 25 use trial version). From their own help/features doc:

"Display true drive contents by bypassing the operating system and reading the raw drive sectors directly"
The program then offers to "purge" these leftovers. I'm not an expert, so I don't know if this will solve your problem, but it may be worth a try.

I used it on my *new* usb hd/mp3 player and found traces of a previous owner on it ("deleted" old folders, mp3s) - wasn't too happy about that ;-)

Regards,

Florian.

2

Software / Repartitioning single NTFS hd w/out wiping XP Home

« on: November 27, 2003, 05:11:30 AM »

Hello, I'm new to this forum, and I'm wondering if you can help me out.

I'm using a laptop with a single 30 GB hd, NTFS format, WinXP Home. I want to install Knoppix to boot load, but I don't have a floppy drive; so I need to resize my NTFS partition to fit other partitions on the drive.

Now I know that the MS page says I can't partition my hd without wiping everything on it first. Knoppix forums seem to suggest that this is in fact possible, using (from the Knoppix live cd) qtparted or ntfsresize, which is basically the same thing.

So here's the problem: I've defragged my hd about a zillion times, using XP's native defrag program and O&O Defrag V6, but neither program seems to be able to move the MFT (not even with boot time defrag), even though I made lots of room in front of it. Also, XP will put a (temp?) file called C:\$Extend\$UsnJrnl:$J:$DATA in the free space beyond the MFT. Thus, when I try to resize my NTFS partition, the program says that the hd is fragmented and cannot be processed.

I was wondering whether anyone knew how to defrag a hd so completely that the MFT, the temp files and pagefile.sys will be moved right behind the other data blocks. Or would you suggest using a third-party partition manager like PartitionMagic? (I've read some horror stories about third-party partitioning programs in general and this one in particular.)

Alternatively, can you suggest a way to backup my system setup (i.e., create an image of my XP system) to a USB 1.1 hd? I've tried the native XP backup utility, but it refuses to create a backup larger than 4GB on my USB hd, and I have about 17 GB worth of data on my primary hd. For example, how would I go about backing up my entire system to CD-ROMs (the XP backup utility doesn't offer that option)?

Your help would be much appreciated.

Best regards,

Florian.