Non destructive partition resizing on Win7

[molnart]

I have 2 SATA HDDs in my PC, all of them divided into 3 partitions as follows:
HDD1:
C: Win7 system
E: software
F: data

HDD2:
D: WinXP system
G: data
H: data

Now what i want to do is take some place from partition C: and add it to E: and to do the same with D: and G:, obviously while retaining all data and functionality of both OSes.

I know that Win7 is pretty sensitive on partition structure and essentially refuses to work on any partition that was not created by the Win7 setup. Also I think I wont be able to use built-in windows tools for the resizing, as afaik partitions being used cannot be resized (or at least it's not recommended).

What tool would you recommend me for the action to be on the safest side ?

 

[JTS]

I know that Win7 is pretty sensitive on partition structure and essentially refuses to work on any partition that was not created by the Win7 setup.

Nope If you have created the NTFS partition prior to installation, you can install it on pretty much any partition you want (with a few exceptions)

Also I think I wont be able to use built-in windows tools for the resizing, as afaik partitions being used cannot be resized (or at least it's not recommended).

Sort of correct. For what you want to do, you're right in that Disk Management will not work. Disk management cannot extend to the left. But you can resize active partitions, but like anything, there is always an risk element.

Depending on how much data is on the second partition, it can also take a bloody long time to do

For what you need to do, either look at the free Gparted:
http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php

or the not free Paragon partition Manager: (not sure if the trial has the feature you need)
http://www.paragon-software.com/home/pm-personal/comparison.html

 

[RejZoR]

Use this:
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/pwizhome.html

Excellent tool and it's also free and even works on 64bit systems. I've resized my primary partition with this tool and it worked like a charm. Process takes some time though so it's best to perform it before you go to sleep and make sure there won't be any power grid maintenance during that time.
Because losing power during resizing can be fatal for your data.

There are also options to merge partitions, split them and so on. Basically full featured partition manager without certain more advanced features that you'll most probably never need anyway.

You can also use EASEUS which is also prety good, but only supports 32bit systems:
http://www.snapfiles.com/get/easeuspartitionman.html