Well, a current backup is always a good thing to have. However, most "knowledgable" users do something on a routine basis that is just as hazardous to file integrity as partition resizing with decent software: They "optimize" their HDD -- with Norton Speed Disk or M$ whatever software -- and in doing so they are trusting that the software will do the following:
a) read the FAT and find all the pieces of each file b) do multiple moves of file parts to other physical locations on the HDD and keep track of each move [in FAT and/or otherwise] c) create enough space on the HDD by doing the foregoing to then read the moved fragments of the files and relocate the fragments into a single physical location in the correct sequence to produce a non- fragmented new file. d) update the fat each time this is done. Norton Speed Disk gives the option of verifying each and every write by comparing to the read, prior to deleting the fragment it is moving. I don't know if any of the Microsoft software that's supposed to do the same thing has default of "verify before erase" ... If you trust the software, through both "professional evaluations by independent 3rd parties," and through talking with people who routinely use it, I don't see that Partition Magic is any more potentially destructive to stored data than simply running SD. And PM won't let you create a downsized partition that is 'smaller' then the current contents of that partition. ==== On Mon, 21 Jan 2002 08:50:54 -0500, Sam Ewalt wrote: > On Sun, 20 Jan 2002 20:48:01 -0400, L.D. Best wrote: >> None of those can resize a partition with files in place, with no >> loss of stored data; that "resize" is either larger or smaller. > Still sounds risky to me. I wouldn't want to try partitioning without > a backup of all files. > It's just asking for trouble. > Sam Ewalt > Croswell, Michigan, USA > -- Arachne V1.70;rev.3, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/ -- Arachne V1.70;rev.3, NON-COMMERCIAL copy, http://arachne.cz/
