How Do I 'Allocate' Unallocated Drive Space?????

[Guest]

I posted a question earlier this week regarding how my hard drive appeared to
"shrink" after 2 re-installs of Windows XP. In the response I got, I was
asked to find out what was listed under Control Panel-->Administrative
Tools-->Computer Management-->Disk Management. The graphic view showed the
following information:

Disk 0
Basic
38.28 GB
Online
____________

Presario_RP (D
4.88 GB NTFS
Healthy
_____________

C:
13.68 GB NTFS
Healthy (System)
______________

19.73 GB
Unallocated
_______________

My question is how do I "allocate" the unallocated space? When I
right-clicked on it, it gave me the option to make it a new partition, but I
don't want to make a new partition. I want the 19.73 GB to be added to my C
drive. But how do I do it? *Can* I do it?

If it helps to know this, D drive is completely empty. All data is stored
on C drive, which currently has 9.40 GB of free space.

Please advise... I'm hesitant to install any additional hardware/software
until I've gotten this straightened out, just on the off chance that I may
end up having to re-install XP again. Any help will be greatly appreciated!

Betty

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

Windows XP cannot natively allocate unallocated space to
a different drive or partition. You'll need a third-party program,
such as Partition Magic 8.
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Be Smart! Protect Your PC!
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/protect/default.mspx

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| I posted a question earlier this week regarding how my hard drive appeared to
| "shrink" after 2 re-installs of Windows XP. In the response I got, I was
| asked to find out what was listed under Control Panel-->Administrative
| Tools-->Computer Management-->Disk Management. The graphic view showed the
| following information:
|
| Disk 0
| Basic
| 38.28 GB
| Online
| ____________
|
| Presario_RP (D
| 4.88 GB NTFS
| Healthy
| _____________
|
| C:
| 13.68 GB NTFS
| Healthy (System)
| ______________
|
| 19.73 GB
| Unallocated
| _______________
|
| My question is how do I "allocate" the unallocated space? When I
| right-clicked on it, it gave me the option to make it a new partition, but I
| don't want to make a new partition. I want the 19.73 GB to be added to my C
| drive. But how do I do it? *Can* I do it?
|
| If it helps to know this, D drive is completely empty. All data is stored
| on C drive, which currently has 9.40 GB of free space.
|
| Please advise... I'm hesitant to install any additional hardware/software
| until I've gotten this straightened out, just on the off chance that I may
| end up having to re-install XP again. Any help will be greatly appreciated!
|
| Betty

 

[Ken Blake]

In

C:
13.68 GB NTFS
Healthy (System)
______________

19.73 GB
Unallocated
_______________

My question is how do I "allocate" the unallocated space? When
I
right-clicked on it, it gave me the option to make it a new
partition, but I don't want to make a new partition. I want
the
19.73 GB to be added to my C drive. But how do I do it? *Can*
I do
it?

Unfortunately, no, you can't--at least not with native Windows
software.

To do this requires a third-party program. Partition magic is the
best-known such program, but you might want to consider the
shareware Boot-It Next generation. It comes with a free 30-day
trial, so you should be able to do what you want within that
period. I haven't used it myself, but it's highly recommended by
several other MVPs here.

You can get it at http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/

Other than that your only choice is to start over, reallocate the
space on your drive, reformat, and reinstall cleanly.

 

[Guest]

Thanks to both Carey and Ken for your replies... I appreciate it a lot.

Which way would be best to go about doing this? Using one of the two
partioning programs suggested, or starting over, reallocating, reformatting,
and reinstalling? I'm not asking which is easier/quicker... just which way
would get the best results (if there is a difference at all).

Also, are there any articles about this that you could point me towards? I
feel better about doing something like this after I've read a fair amount of
information on the subject.

Again, thank you both for you help!

Betty

 

[Ken Blake]

In

Thanks to both Carey and Ken for your replies... I appreciate
it a
lot.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

Which way would be best to go about doing this? Using one of
the two
partioning programs suggested, or starting over, reallocating,
reformatting, and reinstalling? I'm not asking which is
easier/quicker... just which way would get the best results (if
there
is a difference at all).

In terms of results, it doesn't matter. Both methods should
produce the same result. But if you use a program like Partition
magic or Boot-It Next generation, be sure to first make sure you
have a backup of anything you can't afford to lose. It's isn't
likely that you'll need to restore the backup, but it's always
possible for something to go wrong.

If it were me, I'd use BING.