Make extra space ...

[Peter F]

Hi All,

I have a vista laptop with a 60g HDD which is partitioned as C:\ 20g d:\
40g. I have been having space issues with the c: drive and would like to know
if i would be able to transfer some of the 40g from d: to c:?

Any information you could supply would be greatly appreciated.

Regards.

 

[Rick Rogers]

Hi Peter,

You can, but not with the drive tools included with Windows. It will require
a third party utility like Acronis' disk director or Terabyte's Bootit ng.
The steps are relatively simple:

a) Shrink D: by the desired amount. Free space will be created at the end of
the volume, not the beginning.

b) Slide D: back to into the newly created free space so that the free space
is now in front of it and behind C: (this is the step that Windows' disk
manager cannot do).

c) Expand C: to encompass the free space that is now at the end of it's
volume and in front of D:

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

 

[Gordon]

Hi All,

I have a vista laptop with a 60g HDD which is partitioned as C:\ 20g d:\
40g. I have been having space issues with the c: drive and would like to
know
if i would be able to transfer some of the 40g from d: to c:?

Any information you could supply would be greatly appreciated.

Regards.

Presumably D has your data on it?
Backup the data, and in Disk management, remove D partition.
Expand C to the size you require, then re-create D in the remaining space.
Restore your data.

HTH

 

[Gordon]

Hi Peter,

You can, but not with the drive tools included with Windows.

If D is data, (which is fairly common in a two-partition setup) why not
backup data, remove D in Disk Management, re-size C, re-create D and restore
Data?

 

[Peter F]

Hi Gordon, Rick,

Thanks very much for your input. I think i might go with what Gordon
suggests that way it will force me to weed out any unwanted software on D:
which i have no use for.

Thanks very much.

 

[R. C. White]

Hi, Peter.

Gordon's solution is very good. ;<)

Another approach, also using only the tools built into Vista, might work if
you have no backup space. It depends on some numbers that you didn't give
us yet.

IF, after cleaning out the deadwood, you have only 15 GB of data on D: that
you need to save, this should work. First defrag D:. Then use Disk
Management to shrink it; unless there are unmovable files in the way, you
should be able to reduce it to 15 GB. Then use DM to create a new 25 GB
volume following D: and Copy all of D:'s contents there. After verifying
that your files are healthy in their new location, delete the old D: and
assign the letter D: to your new volume. Then you can use DM to Extend
Drive C: by the 15 GB of now-free space.

You'll need to adjust these numbers, of course, to fit your actual needs.
And if you have more than 20 GB of data in your 40 GB Drive D:, it won't
work.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
Windows Live Mail 2009 (14.0.8064.0206) in Win7 Ultimate x64 7000

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

Hi All,

I have a vista laptop with a 60g HDD which is partitioned as C:\ 20g d:\
40g. I have been having space issues with the c: drive and would like to know
if i would be able to transfer some of the 40g from d: to c:?

Any information you could supply would be greatly appreciated.

Regards.

The ideas presented by the other posters are great, but only Gordon seems
to have mentioned to backup everything up to an external drive first.

Which just gave me an idea of my own. Forget readjusting the drives as
described. Get an external drive and move all your D: data to it, then
delete partition D:, expand C: to fill the drive, and use the external
drive as your new D:.

I know your computer is a laptop, so that idea might not appeal to you,
since even a portable drive (2.5" USB powered) is an extra thing to carry
around.