Best software to partition new HDD for w7 !?

[Suspekt]

Hello guys ! I have a " strange " question for y'all !

I was wondering which partition tool would be best to use before installing W7 on a brand new HDD ? I'm planning to buy a new WD 1TB HDD and i want to partition it from Hiren's boot cd (create 3 partitions),but I'm kinda not sure which software to use so i don't have problmes after installing w7.As i read from the internet Acronis Disk Director causes problems with win7.Partition Magic Pro 8 is kinda old and I'm afraid that it uses a different NTFS mode,should i use Paragon Partition Manager ?

 

[gregrocker]

I would use the booted Win7 DVD to partition using Custom>Drive Tools during install.

The best partition manager for Win7 is free Partition Wizard bootable CD.

It has been used successfully to help remove over a hundred dual boots here.

Any third party Partition Manager can fail while resizing a partition, but we have not experienced that yet with Partition Wizard when not interrupted by user.

However, to be sure I would use Disk Management to shrink volume wherever possible as it never fails with data loss.

Back up data anyway.

 

[Suspekt]

Thanks for the suggestion ! Well I ain't got no data to backup,because the HDD will be blank (I'm gonna replace with the current HDD),so i downloaded the bootable version of Partition Wizard 4.2.

Question: After i create the partitions and switch the CD to the Windows 7 DVD,should i format the Primary partition that i created ( In this case will be the C: partition ) from the W7 DVD tools ? Or i can just continue the installation normally on the new partition ?

 

[gregrocker]

Either way is fine.

Suggest you format your data drive(s) NTFS logical, OS drive NTFS Primary.

Data backup was for future reference when resizing, which is always risky but less so with PW and almost zero using Disk Mgmt to shrink.

 

[Suspekt]

I would use the booted Win7 DVD to partition using Custom>Drive Tools during install.

Well the main reason i don't want to use the Win7 DVD to partition is: Windows 7 installation wizard will not modify existing partition which already been defined and allocated. The 100 MB BitLocker partiton will only be created when user creates new partition on a clean and empty HDD (no partitions), or delete all partitions and then create a new partition during setup.
So I'm one of those who don't wish that hidden partition to be created separately,and wish to implement it in the Primary partition.

 

[gregrocker]

Good reason. If you don't need Bitlocker or care whether the Repair Console is available at F8 during bootup then you can do without the 100mb SysReserved.

Prepartitioning is indeed then the solution.

 

[Acronis]

As i read from the internet Acronis Disk Director causes problems with win7.

Hi Suspekt,

Unfortunately Acronis Disk Director doesn’t support Windows 7 yet, though we are working on the update right now.

 

[noyb]

I'd make an Acronis Image of the old HDD ..
Then rebuild the new HDD from the Acronis Image and specify the partition size as I recover the new HDD.
Partition it as you rebuild it.

I think you can also do a manual Clone in Acronis and specify the partition size .. but I haven't done it this way.