How to combine partitions to make room for C drive?

  • Thread starter Thread starter cfman
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JCO said:
Yes Defrag is another thing you can do. I was going to mentioned that ..
then for some reason, just left it out. Although not as important, it is
nice to defrag before you make an image. That way when you do a restore,
you will know that the restoration is also defragged, therefore optimized
for performance.

At the time, I just did not think it was absolutely necessary.
Thanks for adding the Defrag.
Click to expand...


JCO and everybody,

Bad news! I've just looked at my partitions, C(OS) and D(Program Files) are
unfornately on the same harddrive. Even if I combine them into a new C
partition, it doesn't gain me anything, because both of these two partitions
are currently fully loaded. An estimate of the free space after combining is
about 50MB out of a total space of approximately 38GB.

Originally, I planned that if C, E, F are on the same harddisk, I can remove
the data files on E and F, so after combining the partitions, all the 38GB
will be for OS, so it will have a lot free space.

Now, since C and D are on the same harddisk, I cannot remove those program
files. So there is no gain.

Now I am planning to do the following:

1. Attach my new 300GB harddisk as a USB external drive to the PC;
2. Create three partition on 300GB harddisk, call them C1, D1, E1, for OS,
Program Files and Data, respectively(Please note that I have to keep the
Program Files on D, since otherwise I will screw up many applications). I am
thinking of making C1 to be 30GB (vs. the original 11GB), D1 to be 70GB(vs.
the original 27GB), and allocating the remaining space to E1 (for data);
3. Duplicate the content on C precisely and exactly onto C1;
4. Duplicate the content on D precisely and exactly onto D1;
5. Without rebooting, change the letter of C to be C2, and change the letter
of C1 to C, hence finish the swap;
6. Without rebooting, change the letter of D to be D2, and change the letter
of D1 to D, hence finish the swap;
7. Shutdown the PC. Remove that harddisk(of C and D) physically, and use the
300GB harddisk as a replacement of that very harddisk;
8. Reboot back. (Since I made exact copy of C and D partitions onto the
300GB harddisk, I should be able to successfully reboot the system).
9. The remaining are just housekeep task. I am done with joys, not with
tears!

Are the above procedures well-thought and fail-proof?

I am not sure about steps 3 and 4: C and C1 have different sizes, which
software will allow me to do an exact duplicate for partitions with
different sizes? Without having used PM, Ghost,Acronis, etc. before, I am a
little bit hesitant.

Could the experts here confirm my plan and so I will be able to jump-start?

Thanks a lot and have a great weekend!
 
Well first of all, your need to run Ghost (or Partition Magic or Acronis
TrueImage) from a bootable CD (floppy disk if your using ghost). It is
possible that if you fail, your system may not be recoverable. Therefore,
you can't rely on booting up the computer in order to restore your
partitions. You instead boot from the floppy or CD. That will give you
access to your stored images and to your current HD (that is messed up).
The applications (Ghost, PM, or TrueImage) all load in memory and they run
from there.

I don't remember what it takes to create a floppy boot disk using ghost.
But before you do anything, you should verify that you can boot from your
"created boot disk" and be able to see your HD and your new external HD.

About your second thought.
You will not be able to boot from the external because it will only contain
a compressed image. The compression level could be 40-70%. In order to
create a bootable drive, you would want to create a CLONE instead of an
Image. Then if you had a failure, you could swap drives. Since your new
drive is an external USB, this concept will not work. Therefore, stick to
creating "Images", then work towards modifying you HD.

Note:
I believe Ghost and TrueImage will create a Clone for you. To go that
route, assuming that you want to move to the larger HD, you need to
partition the new drive first. After the new drive is all set up, you begin
the Clone process. Personally, I've found it better to create the Image and
store it on one of the partitions (of the new drive). Then with the new
drive in computer as the primary (old drive out), you would boot with your
software and restore the image to the C-partition of the new drive. This
way, you always have the image in a safe place.
 
I'm not about your naming convention.
I posted info below that may help you. Keep in mind when you have multiple
HD that the primary is the one you will boot from. I don't think an
external USB will work because you can't boot from it. Actually there is a
way but only the newer computers can do this... so it is not worth
discussing. If you had another Internal drive, then it could work.
Whatever the naming convention is.... it will automatically change when you
take the old HD out and change the new HD to be the primary. The first
partition will automatically change to C.... and so forth.
 
JCO said:
I believe Ghost and TrueImage will create a Clone for you. To go that
route, assuming that you want to move to the larger HD, you need to
partition the new drive first.
Click to expand...

No you don't. You're guessing... and that's a dangerous thing when
one takes on the responsibility of providing advice.
 
I think I've only done a Clone one time by accident... years ago. Even if
you partition first (which may not be necessary), won't the Clone take care
of itself and still be created okay? Sorry if I got it wrong.
 
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