1 Topic by publicemaildump751

  • publicemaildump751
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Topic: Expand downward left boundary of partition without relocating all data

Hello,
I would like expansion of left partition boundary (a grow downwards) to be as quick as and expansion upwards of the right boundary, without causing all data to be relocated (shifted). It does not really matter whether the data on the HD will end up filled only, say, at the last 50% of the drive. I can use a Defragmenter later to relocate data to beginning of partition later if I wish.

I don't know if this is true, but this should also be investigated at the same time: If I were to move a partition up by say 10%, I only want the 10% data from the partition to be relocated (shifted) on the HD, leaving 10-100% of original data in its original place on the HD.

2 Reply by mfleetwo

  • mfleetwo
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Re: Expand downward left boundary of partition without relocating all data

Moving the start of the partition, without moving the data, will prevent any operating system from recognising the file system it contains, preventing access to the data.  The only way to recover access to the data would be to move the start of the partition back, either using the known previous starting partition or by using a tool to scanning the hard drive looking for signatures and recreating the partition.

As an alternative you could shrink the size of the partition as small as possible and applying the operation, before moving the start of the partition to minimise the amount of copied data.

Unfortunately your request is not possible because all file systems always start from the beginning of the partition and start filling upwards.

3 Reply by publicemaildump751

  • publicemaildump751
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Re: Expand downward left boundary of partition without relocating all data

mfleetwo wrote:

Moving the start of the partition, without moving the data, will prevent any operating system from recognising the file system it contains, preventing access to the data.  The only way to recover access to the data would be to move the start of the partition back, either using the known previous starting partition or by using a tool to scanning the hard drive looking for signatures and recreating the partition.

As an alternative you could shrink the size of the partition as small as possible and applying the operation, before moving the start of the partition to minimise the amount of copied data.

Unfortunately your request is not possible because all file systems always start from the beginning of the partition and start filling upwards.

OK I did not know this. Thanks!