Expanding System Partition On-The-Fly?

[(PeteCresswell)]

My internal drive is currently partitioned:

- 30 gigs "C:" - System
- 400+ gigs "W:" - Work


Assuming I don't mind losing the contents of W:, can I use
My Computer | Manage | Disk Management to increase the C:'s
partition without hosing my system?

If I were to do it, I guess I'd first delete the existing "W:"
partition, then increase the size of "C:", and finally create a
new "W:" with whatever's left.

What're my chances of coming out of this with an intact system?

 

[Pegasus [MVP]]

My internal drive is currently partitioned:

- 30 gigs "C:" - System
- 400+ gigs "W:" - Work


Assuming I don't mind losing the contents of W:, can I use
My Computer | Manage | Disk Management to increase the C:'s
partition without hosing my system?

If I were to do it, I guess I'd first delete the existing "W:"
partition, then increase the size of "C:", and finally create a
new "W:" with whatever's left.

What're my chances of coming out of this with an intact system?

There is no native mechanism in Windows XP to expand or contract a partition
non-destructively. You would have to use a third party partition manager,
e.g. Acronis DiskDirector. They are usually safe to use but accidents do
happen. To play it safe you would need to create an image of your system
drive first and verify its integrity.

I wonder why you would want to expand your system partition. If you keep
your data files away from drive C: then 30 GBytes is quite a generous size.

 

[David Webb]

Easier yet...Google for a utility called Easeus Partition Master. It will allow
you to resize partitions without losing data.

It's freeware and it works well.

 

[sgopus]

Try using Partition Magic (the latest version) , it's a better bet, you can
change partition size with loss of data or format, although I always advise,
make backups first.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Pegasus [MVP]:

I wonder why you would want to expand your system partition. If you keep
your data files away from drive C: then 30 GBytes is quite a generous size.

Been doing ok for the past few years - 30 gigs being my standard
system partition size.

But installing SQL Server Express and Visual Studio.Net chewed
up a lot of space.

Short term, maybe I'll seek out all the system update backout
files and delete them.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

My internal drive is currently partitioned:

- 30 gigs "C:" - System
- 400+ gigs "W:" - Work


Assuming I don't mind losing the contents of W:, can I use
My Computer | Manage | Disk Management to increase the C:'s
partition without hosing my system?

Sorry, no. Windows XP has no facility to resize partitions. You need
to use a third-party program.

One of the several reasons I think having more than one partition is a
mistake for most people is that your problem--the need to resize the
partitions--often occurs.

If I were to do it, I guess I'd first delete the existing "W:"
partition, then increase the size of "C:", and finally create a
new "W:" with whatever's left.

What're my chances of coming out of this with an intact system?

If you do do it (with a third-party program) be sure you have a have
backup of everything you can't afford to lose before beginning--just
in case.

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Pegasus [MVP]:

If you keep
your data files away from drive C: then 30 GBytes is quite a generous size.

RCI has struck again.

I found a high-def television recording hiding on C:.

Picked up over seven gigs by deleting it..... so I'm out of the
woods for now.

Now I have to come back to agreeing that 30 gigs sb plenty - even
with the dotnet dev environment installed I still have 10 gigs
free now.... and I probably have a gig or two in other files that
shouldn't be on C:.