What's the best tool to resize Win7 X64 partitions?

I have to increase the size of my C: drive partition. I could use Acronis True Image Home to image the drive and then reapply the image into new partition sizes, but I was hoping for a tool that could do this well - and safely! - while running. In particular I'd one that will allow me to "move" one partition so I can create unallocated space immediately behind the partition I wish to extend. What would be the best tool for this?

Of course I will image my drive before attempting this with whatever tool can do it.

I have used MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition on 32 and 64 bit installations. The best part is that it is free.

Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.

ecurrey said:

I have used MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition on 32 and 64 bit installations. The best part is that it is free.

Best Free Partition Manager Freeware and free partition magic for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Vista and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition.

Will this tool work for my C: drive? It seems from what Golden says I will need a bootable version of whatever I use to eventually do my C: drive.

If you are doing C: it will reboot to take care of the partition.

Golden said:

Tony.

Since you want to resize C: eventually, you need to use the bootable version of Partition Wizard. You can also try EaseUS Partition Master, which will resize C: when you are booted into Windows, although a reboot is required for EaseUS to complete the partition manipulation.

Golden, the EaseUS free version seems to have a lot of users unhappy with the way it installs a lot of bloatware, some accusing it of being malware. A number of reviewers indicated that a careful unchecking of these options during installation will cause them not to be installed, but others suggest stuff gets installed anyway. Is it possible to do a clean install of EaseUS free edition without any of this extra stuff getting installed?

I decided to do it using the tool I've been using - Acronis True Image Home. Probably took longer that it would have using one of these other tools, but it seemed to have worked (took about 5 hours). I first made an exact clone of my disk to my backup, then checked it by booting off of that one. Then I used that as the source to clone back to my original disk, but this time using the partition resizer and mover in True Image to get the sizes changed. After it was done I rebooted and things loaded up okay. So the question now is: how do I check the integrity of the installation to make sure it's all good?

There is no reason to go to that kind of trouble to resize partitions, which is as easy as moving a slider around to borrow space from any other partition even if it's not adjacent, using the cool new feature to extend partition easily with Partition Wizard - video help.

It's always best to post back a screenshot of Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image so we can check it over and give you any pointers.