Extending partition after dual-boot?

[MaconPC?!]

Hi,

I had a 230GB drive. I partitioned it via Disk Utility and installed Leopard on 40GB. Then I installed Windows 7 on the 190GB drive, downloaded EasyBCD 2 and it's working like a charm!

 

Anyway, I now understand I want to extend my Mac partition (contains only 40GB) by taking some space from the Windows partition, and make sure everything works as it used to.

 

Any special ways on how to do it without causing any damage?

[MuppMan]

Your osx installation needs to be in GUID format not MBR to be able to shrink or expand partitions. ( at least I think so )

 

Anyway I assume your Windows 7 installation/partition is "on the right side" of your mac installation, you can see if that is the case under Windows 7 partition tools.

 

If I am right on both points, download a gparted liveCD.

 

Boot up your computer with the liveCD and shrink/expand your disk this way, gparted is the best partition tool I ever come across.

 

Anyway when in gparted, first shrink your Windows 7 partiton to desired size.

 

Now because your Windows partition probably are on the right side of your Osx partition you need to move the freespace to the left side on your Windows partition ( it might take hours depening on how much data you have on the drive ). 

 

When everything is done in gparted boot up Osx and expand/claim ( in diskutility ) the freespace you created with gparted from the Windows drive.

 

Sounds complicated ?

 

Its quite easy really.  

 

 

 

 

[MaconPC?!]

Can't I do it without LiveCD? Are there any other programs?

[MuppMan]

You cant usually shrink or expand System partitions when they are in use / mounted. The OS system files are locked and cant be moved when 'online'. Thats why I recommended Gparted which modifies drives in offline mode.