Tips and Recommendations for Resizing Windows Partitions

A friend recently asked me how to go about resizing some partitions in Windows 7. He wanted to know how to do it with Windows Disk Management. I included a link in this post to a How-To for that. Of course, Windows built-in tools are not always the best or most functional for performing certain tasks. Therefore, I wrote the following to help him choose some free third-party tools to accomplish the job.

Paragon makes some good tools and has free versions. You can use "Backup and Recovery 2012" to make an image of your hard disks for backup purposes. Then use "Partition Manager" to resize your partitions.

http://www.paragon-software.com/free/

"Macrium Reflect" is what I usually use to clone my hard drives similar to "Backup and Recovery 2012" above.

http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.aspx

Built-in Windows support for resizing partitions exists in Vista and 7. Use another product to back up your partitions first just to make sure.

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/resize-a-partition-for-free-in-windows-vista/

"Gnome Partition Manager Live" is a bootable CD that you can use to resize, create and move partitions as well. I often use this bootable disk to adjust partition size, or repartition hard drives.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

Whatever you choose, you should do a thorough disk defragmentation before resizing. If personal data or system files are occupying non-contiguous space, it will prevent you from resizing past that file fragment.  To do a thorough defrag, choose one of the below programs, defrag with free space consolidation if possible, then tell it to do a boot-time defrag, then reboot. When the system is coming back up, it will defrag before the operating system has time to lock system files. Two that I highly recommend are Auslogics and Smart Defrag 2.

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/

http://www.iobit.com/iobitsmartdefrag.html

Just pay attention when you install any of these programs, as many reputable, good companies will offer to install additional software like toolbars and such as you are going through the installation. You don't have to worry about it with the Gnome Partition Editor since it's open source, but most of the other companies probably include those things in the installer. You should be able to opt-out.

Good luck. Have fun. If you made a backup like I suggested, you have nothing to fear.

Connecting to Box.net With NetDrive

Here is quick post describing how to connect to Box.net (box.com now) using an application called NetDrive. This is the process I used for Windows XP, though it should work for Windows 7 as well. You can download the application from here: http://netdrive.net/

Of course it goes without saying that you need to sign up for a Box.net account if you don't already have one. You can sign up for an account here: http://box.com

There are a few tutorials on connecting your Box.net account as a drive in Windows. Here are some examples:

http://techie-buzz.com/tech-news/mount-boxnet-account-in-windows-explorer.html

http://smallvoid.com/article/winnt-webdav-network-drive.html

I have had trouble trying to use the Windows WebDav implementation on XP, so this application was a breath of fresh air. It is very straightforward, though there is a gotcha that I haven't seen documented on any other site. So here are the steps:

1. Download and install NetDrive
2. Open the application
3. Create a "New Folder" under Site
4. Select your new folder
5. Click "New Site" and fill in the information on the right side of the screen
6. I named mine "Box.net" (I know, not very original)
7. For the site URL, use: "https://www.box.com/dav" (notice the https prefix, and the .com instead of .net)
8. Enter port 443
9. Select "Server Type" as "WebDav"
10. Choose a drive letter for your mount point
11. Enter your "Account" login ID
12. Enter your "Password" using your Box.net password
13. Select your "Automatic login..." preferences
14. Click "Save"

Now you are almost done. Here is the secret sauce that makes this work:

1. Select the "Site" you just created
2. Click on the "Advanced" button
3. Set your "Encoding" to UTF-8
4. Click the "Use HTTPS" checkbox
5. Enter 443 for the "Host : Port" (if it's not already filled in)
6. Enter your login information again (if it's not already filled in)

That is it! Now you can mount your Box.net cloud drive whenever you like. I find the performance better than other methods as well (ie - I set it up using Windows 7 native WebDav - WebFolders - support). You can now access your cloud drive any time you like.

A Plea to Software Companies in Troubled Times

In our currently troubled economy, there is more risk than ever that companies will go under. Those that don't are probably considering trimming the fat on their product portfolios and concentrating on their biggest money makers.

This presents the possibility that some software products may be discontinued or abandoned. My plea is this—that companies open–source their software under an approved license if they are no longer marketing it.

While open–source is not a panacea for every application out there, it does at least add to the wealth of code available to programmers. Why reinvent the wheel if there is already a servicable component to use? Some software is reinvigorated via the open–source model. Some may just benefit other programming projects.

Of course, there is the possibility that a vibrant community will develop around it and opportunities may arise for providing support contracts. An example of this might be NetManage ECCO Pro (though not open–source). Another scenario is that programmers who worked on the product might continue to do so in their spare time, perhaps even with encouragement from their company. This demonstrates good will and is appreciated by many developers and end users. An example here might be OpenOffice (if there is a better example, please post it in the comments). Really, I am surprised that more companies don't do this.

I think perhaps some of them are afraid that the open–source product might be competition for them. Lay your fears to rest. If the open–source revolution has demonstrated anything, it is that despite there being high-quality, free solutions available, most companies continue to purchase commercial software.

Perhaps they do so partly out of habit, but more often than not, they do so because they have a company to hold accountable and service contracts to help with bugs or other issues they encounter. In fact, it is rare indeed to find a company that relies exclusively on free software.

As for competition—I think most people agree that a little competition brings out the best in all parties. It could be argued that many commercial products owe at least some of their success to competing with eachother and with free solutions. Competition drives innovation.

Once again, please consider releasing code for products that are no longer in your portfolio, or to your software assets if you are unfortunately forced to close your doors.