Creating Free Space for BootIt BM Installation

BootIt BM can be installed to a hard drive containing very little free space. Generally, 8MB of free space is a good choice for BootIt BM hard drive installation and provides more than enough room. This article will explain how to create ~8MB of free space for the installation of BootIt BM.

These instructions assume that you are already in manual setup mode, as described in the article Choosing the BootIt BM Installation Partition Manually. With that in mind, proceed as follows:

1. In the Work with Partitions dialog, select the hard drive on which you wish to install BootIt BM.
   
   
2. Make room for the new BootIt BM partition. How you will do this depends on your configuration. Refer to the appropriate section below:
   
   Selected Hard Drive has a Primary Partition at the End
   
   
   1. Select the primary partition located at the end of the drive (i.e. the bottommost partition, as shown in the Partitions listing of the Work with Partitions dialog).
      
      
   2. Click the Resize button, then click OK on the resultant dialog to check for file system errors. After the error-checking process completes, the Resize dialog will appear.
      
      
   3. In the New Size text box, enter a number which is 8 smaller than the current size of the partition (e.g. if the current size is 2048, enter 2040). Please note that the amount of free space actually created after the resize process completes may vary from this number.
      
      
   4. Click OK to begin the resize process. When the resize process completes, you should have 8MB to 16MB of free space at the end of the hard drive. Proceed to Step 3 below.
   
   
   Selected Hard Drive has an Extended Partition at the End
   
   To create a free space at the end of the drive, it will first be necessary to resize the extended partition. And before that can be accomplished, one or more volumes in the extended partition will need to be resized.
   
   
   1. Select the volume within the extended partition that you wish to resize. Generally, it will be easiest to resize the volume at the end of the extended partition (i.e. the bottommost volume, as shown in the Partitions listing of the Work with Partitions dialog).
      
      
   2. Click the Resize button, then click OK on the resultant dialog to check for file system errors. After the error-checking process completes, the Resize dialog will appear.
      
      
   3. In the New Size text box, enter a number which is 8 smaller than the current size of the volume (e.g. if the current size is 2048, enter 2040). Please note that the amount of free space actually created after the resize process completes may vary from this number.
      
      
   4. Click OK to begin the resize process. When the resize process completes, you should have 8MB to 16MB of Free Space shown immediately after the volume you just resized. Please note that this free space is still contained within the extended partition and is therefore not yet available for the creation of a new partition.
      
      
      • If the volume you just resized is not the bottommost one, you will need to slide the volume(s) that follow it up. This will move the newly-created free space to the bottom of the extended partition. To do this:
        
        
        1. Select the volume under the new free space entry.
        2. Click Slide.
        3. Change the value of Free Space Before to 0.
        4. Click OK.
           
           
        Repeat this procedure until the free space appears at the very bottom of the extended partition.
        
        
   5. Select the extended partition entry.
      
      
   6. Click the Resize button. The Resize dialog appears, with four text boxes, as follows (the values you see may differ from this example):
      
      

      Description	Current Value	Desired Value
      Beginning: Free Space Outside	0 MB	0 MB
      Beginning: Free Space Inside	0 MB	0 MB
      End: Free Space Inside	8 MB	0 MB
      End: Free Space Outside	0 MB	8 MB

      
      
      
   7. Change the value of End: Free Space Inside to 0.  This should make the value of End: Free Space Outside change to the value that End: Free Space Inside started with.
      
      
   8. Click OK. You should now have 8MB to 16MB of Free Space shown at the end. Proceed to Step 3 below.
      
      
3. Click Close on the Work with Partitions dialog.
   
   
4. Click Resume on the BootIt BM desktop.
   
   
5. Begin the BootIt BM install process again. When you are asked if you would like setup to choose the installation partition for you, click Yes. BootIt BM setup will then prepare the installation partition for you, using the free space you created in the foregoing steps.