Free Program to resize and add partitions outside of Windows?

[andper10]

I was recently installing a new SATA II card (to replace my slower onboard SATA) in my computer (specs in sig) and it caused Windows to be unable to boot. I tried safe mode, last known good setup, and start windows normally with and without the card in the computer but it still starts to load Windows and then reboots. So my plan is to resize the current partition (make it about 100GB) (it currently takes up all of the 160GB hard drive) and then make a new partition ( about 20GB?). Then I plan to install another copy of Windows XP (but not activate it since it is the same copy on the other (old) partition). Then I plan to go into the files in the 100GB partition from the new windows instalation on the 20GB partition and delete the drivers that are causing the problems on the 100GB (old) partition, or at least copy a few saved game files that I forgot to back up regularly and then reformat the whole Hard Drive and do a fresh XP install.

Sorry if that was confusing, ask if something needs clarifying.

BASICALLY I AM LOOKING FOR A FREE PROGRAM TO LET ME RESIZE MY CURRENT PARTITION AND THEN ADD A SMALL NEW PARTITION OUTSIDE OF WINDOWS.

Thanks for any and all help!

[glc]

Free is difficult. I would either buy Partition Magic or make temporary use of a second hard drive.

[LeftyAce]

gParted. It's a free download, bootable cd based on Linux. I've used it 5 or 6 times with no problems.

As always, if possible, backup your data before messing around with partitions :-)

[andper10]

I tried gParted but it gives me this error: "Kernel panic - not syncing: Attempted to kill init!" I think that I am going to try downloading Ubuntu and running it from LiveCD in order to delete the drivers or copy the files that I want.

@LeftyAce: I backed up almost all of my important data, but I didn't think about saved games. I would like to get those files if possible, but I don't know if I will be able to.

Is there any way to copy the files through Windows recovery to a flash drive? From this article it looks like it could be done, but I don't know how I would go about doing it.

I don't have any spare hard drives sitting around, so I don't think that is a feasable idea for the time being. I would hook the hard drive up to another computer and get the files that way, but none of the other computers in the house have SATA so that option is out.

Thanks for all the help!

[andper10]

Well, I found a backup of my saved games from Mid. June, so I am going to go ahead and reformat my Hard Drvie and reinstall XP.

[andper10]

My computer is back up and running. It successfully repaired the Windows installation! All of my files are there and all is well. IE7 was a little bit messed up but it is working fine now that I reinstalled it. Thanks for the help.

Is there some sort of free backup utility that you can set to automatically copy certain folders to another (networked) hard drive every day (or every week)? Thanks for the helpful suggestions!