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I created a Raid 5 volume using 4 500GB disks. I installed Windows 7 64bit and it didn't give me an option to size the partition/allocate size. Might of missed it. Anyway I have a 1.3 TB partition that I want to split up, because that is how I like it. The windows disk management utility will only let you shrink it in half.

I was going to use Partition Wizard but after downloading, burning, and booting into the ISO it didn't see the raid volume correctly.

This doesn't see the Raid Array either, it shows 4 seperate disks Partedmagic.com

I thought I would be able to try out free trial off Acronis, but it wouldn't let me do anything at all, because it was a demo version. Why offer free trial that can't do anything. Stupid! I might have bought it, but they made me mad, so now I will not.

So has anyone successfully shrank a Windows 7 Boot partition (x64) with free tools besides the windows disk management utility?

UPDATE: I went back and started over, but I still couldn't do what I wanted with the partitioning and such when doing the install from the DVD. So I used the information found Here to setup my partitions before doing the installation for the 3rd time. All I can say is be careful with your commands like "clean" :)

One last tip - always disconnect your backup drive before screwing around like this!

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  • The install does give you the option to partition, the first time through I wasn't really paying attention.
    – Breadtruck
    Sep 12, 2009 at 9:27

3 Answers 3

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GParted doesn't see the RAID volume but the individual disks because the driver that manages the RAID is part of Windows, not in hardware.

I'm not familiar with these solutions but, a bootable Windows CD/DVD with the appropriate drivers and partitionning software might do, if it exists (BartPE? Or something based on Windows 7 WIM?)

Otherwise, buy a 2 TB harddisk (Western Digital makes one), copy your data over, repartition the RAID array (from scratch) and put the data back. If you're quick enough, you could even return the 2TB HD to the vendor, saying it doesn't work with your computer ... ;-)

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  • It is no big deal, I did copy everything I have over to 1TB...plenty of room to spare. I didn't do anything on the new raid windows 7 install yet. Just screwing around and found that I couldn't partition the drive the way I like.
    – Breadtruck
    Sep 12, 2009 at 9:04
  • easeus is easy to use, runs (only) on windows, and might do a bit more than gparted can unix.stackexchange.com/questions/96113/… it might not run live but questioner didn't specify live.
    – barlop
    Apr 9, 2017 at 17:35
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GParted should do it.

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  • I think gparted is used as part of the PartedMagic iso. So it doesn't work unless I need to do something specifically so that it will see the array partition. What do you think?
    – Breadtruck
    Sep 12, 2009 at 6:47
  • So you use software RAID, not an hardware RAID, right? I guess it's right, based on one of your previous questions.
    – Snark
    Sep 12, 2009 at 6:59
  • Breadtruck- OK, didn't know that. Don't have any further knowledge I'm afraid. Good luck Sep 12, 2009 at 7:02
  • @snark, yeah I am using the software raid based on that question superuser.com/questions/32254
    – Breadtruck
    Sep 12, 2009 at 7:51
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I'm not sure if it will work on a RAID setup, but Perfect Disk 10 has a fully featured free trial version that you can use for 30 days. I used it to shrink a single partition Vista 32-bit install from the previous minimum of 70 GB to a new minimum of 30 GB - a very marked improvement.

If you're happy enough with the results and are thinking about buying, now would be the perfect time because they're selling licenses at, I think, 25% off to celebrate Windows 7 certification.

(For the sake of transparency, I am not in any way affiliated with PerfectDisk, but I am an owner of a PerfectSpeed+PerfectDisk10HomeEd. combo license.)

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  • Looked at your link, but I don't see anywhere where it talks about partitioning. Does the partitioning aspects have full features like say Acronis who doesn't really allow anything with their free trial?
    – Breadtruck
    Sep 12, 2009 at 9:13

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