Extending a basic Volume

[Catin Dehat]

Computer has a 250 GB drive.
Drive had two partitions: 1. Volume 2, Presario_RP, Drive Z, 5.27 GB
2. Volume 3, Local Disk, Drive C,
228 GB

Volume 2 had the Restore files, but, after creating CDs for restoring to the
original software, I didn't see any value in keeping the 5 GB for restoring
to the original complement of software, so I re-formatted Volume 2 from
FAT32 to NTFS, intending to extend Volume 3 to swallow up Volume 2.

In a Command Prompt window and following the Help directions for Control
Panel|Computer Management, I get:
"diskpart failed to extend the volume
please make sure the volume is valid for extending."

Solution to the failure does not jump out at me. Should I delete Volume 2,
thereby making it unallocated or are there any secret steps?

 

[philo]

Computer has a 250 GB drive.
Drive had two partitions: 1. Volume 2, Presario_RP, Drive Z, 5.27 GB
2. Volume 3, Local Disk, Drive C,
228 GB

Volume 2 had the Restore files, but, after creating CDs for restoring to the
original software, I didn't see any value in keeping the 5 GB for restoring
to the original complement of software, so I re-formatted Volume 2 from
FAT32 to NTFS, intending to extend Volume 3 to swallow up Volume 2.

In a Command Prompt window and following the Help directions for Control
Panel|Computer Management, I get:
"diskpart failed to extend the volume
please make sure the volume is valid for extending."

Solution to the failure does not jump out at me. Should I delete Volume 2,
thereby making it unallocated or are there any secret steps?

XP does not have the ability to repartition non-destructively...
(Vista has that capability though)
You will need a third party utility such as Partition Magic

 

[peter]

http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html
bootitng has the capabilities to do what you want.
Download the .zip file..expand it to a floppy and start system with the
floppy in place.
When it asks you if you wish to install ..click cancel and it will run off
the floppy.
Click partition work and you will see your 2 partitions. delete the
partition you do not want and then expand the partition you do want to
include that unallocated space.
There is a readme file that you should read.
As always...backup backup and backup
just because it worked flawlessly without destroying a single byte for me
does not guarantee the same for you
peter

 

[Catin Dehat]

XP does not have the ability to repartition non-destructively...

(Vista has that capability though)
You will need a third party utility such as Partition Magic

philo, thanks for the info, but what I cannot get through my skull, is that
Help for Control Panel\Disk Management\Administrative Tools\Computer
Management\Disk Management gives fairly simple instructions for "Extend a
basic volume" by opening a Command Prompt, etc. I have extended a basic
volume once before, when Windows would not recognise the whole disk space.
It was a breeze. Now, (jeez, philo, I just re-read the Help and now I
understand!!). OK. The answer for why I cannot extend the volume is in this,
from Help: "For basic volumes, the unallocated space must be on the same
disk and must follow (be of a higher sector offset than) the partition with
focus."

My drive's Volume 2 (the 5 GB one I want to fold into the 228 GB volume)
PRECEDES and does NOT follow Volume 3.

Please let me know if you think my understanding of Help makes sense. If I'm
right, then I can only use the 5 GB volume as storage.

 

[Catin Dehat]

peter, please read my response to philo and see if my reasoning makes sense.

 

[peter]

I think you understood that quite well............
BootitNG dont care where the free space is
peter

 

[John John]

To extend a partition with the Diskpart Extend command the following
conditions must be met:

1- You cannot extend the System or Boot volumes.
2- The volume that you want to extend must be formated NTFS.
3- The extension space must be unallocated.
4- For basic mbr disk the unallocated space must be contiguous and next
to the partition that you want to extend. For Dynamic Disks the
unallocated space can be anywhere on the disk.

If your disk and partitions meet the above requirements but you find
that you cannot extend the partition use the "Select" command and make
sure that you have focus on the volume that you want to extend.

John