Is there a sector-precise partition manager that can resize an NTFS partition? Accepting Windows software and Live CDs.
-
The default cluster size of NTFS is 4KB - setting a size on sector-precision therefore would require to have an NTFS file-system with custom cluster size of 512 bytes (don't know if this is possible - I only know larger block sizes).– RobertCommented Dec 13, 2011 at 13:18
-
Physical sectors on new hard drives are 4KB, and erase blocks on SSDs are larger. Partitions should be aligned to those sizes. Windows' default 1MB partition alignment is a good compromise since it's a multiple of any sector or block size that a storage device is likely to use, but still rather small compared to the capacity of a modern storage device.– WyzardCommented Dec 13, 2011 at 13:44
-
@Wyzard: Thankfully I am using an old drive (physical 512 sectors).– kinokijufCommented Dec 14, 2011 at 21:01
1 Answer
Not so sure about "sectors," but ntfsresize
from ntfs-3g lets you resize NTFS filesystems to kibibyte precision, which usually corresponds to two "sectors". Most *NIX partition tools, including fdisk
, parted
and cfdisk
lets you resize the partition to increments of 512 bytes, corresponding to one "sector."
All, or a subset, of the above are available on most Linux live disks, I myself prefer the Gentoo live disks, available here.
Check the corresponding man pages for instructions to the individual programs.
PS: Apparently the native windows partitioning software (diskpart
) only allows MiB precision.