Partition question

[Joker]

I recently bought a computer with a 60 gig HD. I checked it out when I got
it and everything was fine. However, somewhere along the line, the HD was
partitioned. Now I have partition1 that is only 20 gigs and the reset is
not recognized. How do I increase the size of the partition to use all
available space on the HD?

 

[Tim Slattery]

I recently bought a computer with a 60 gig HD. I checked it out when I got
it and everything was fine. However, somewhere along the line, the HD was
partitioned. Now I have partition1 that is only 20 gigs and the reset is
not recognized. How do I increase the size of the partition to use all
available space on the HD?

You'd need third party software to do that. Nothing that comes with
Windows allows you to increase the size of an existing partition.
Something like Partition Magic (www.symantec.com/partitionmagic) will
do it.

You should be able to use XP's disk management software to create a
new partition on that unused space, though.

 

[Mike Hall - MS MVP Windows Shell/User]

Right click on 'My Computer', select 'Manage'.. at the next window, click on
Disk Management.. from there, you can format the rest of the drive and give
it a letter..

 

[Dave Cohen]

Right click on 'My Computer', select 'Manage'.. at the next window, click on
Disk Management.. from there, you can format the rest of the drive and give
it a letter..

If you don't want to create another partition, you can manage partitions
using bootitng from terabyteunlimited.com. You can do this without
installing. You might decide to install and register for it's other
features.
Dave Cohen

 

[MayDay]

You'd need third party software to do that. Nothing that comes with
Windows allows you to increase the size of an existing partition.
Something like Partition Magic (www.symantec.com/partitionmagic) will
do it.

You should be able to use XP's disk management software to create a
new partition on that unused space, though.

Actually you can create a dynamic disk using XP built in disk management
tools. This will "merge" the two partitions. You will actually have 2
partitions, but your system will use them as one big partition.

 

[John John]

Actually you can create a dynamic disk using XP built in disk management
tools. This will "merge" the two partitions. You will actually have 2
partitions, but your system will use them as one big partition.

Firstly, if the original poster has Windows XP Home he/she will not be
able to convert to Dynamic Disk and secondly, for most users it is not a
very good idea to convert the System and or Boot Volumes to Dynamic
Volume. Best that the Original Poster create a new partition from the
unallocated disk space or use one of the non-destructive partitioning
tools suggested by other posters to increase the present partition. It
goes without saying that even if using these non-destructive
partitioning tools the possibility of catastrophic failure exists and
one should always backup data they don't want to lose.

John

 

[MayDay]

Firstly, if the original poster has Windows XP Home he/she will not be
able to convert to Dynamic Disk and secondly, for most users it is not a
very good idea to convert the System and or Boot Volumes to Dynamic
Volume. Best that the Original Poster create a new partition from the
unallocated disk space or use one of the non-destructive partitioning
tools suggested by other posters to increase the present partition. It
goes without saying that even if using these non-destructive
partitioning tools the possibility of catastrophic failure exists and
one should always backup data they don't want to lose.

John

The name escapes me right now, but with WinXP and NTFS you can also
mount the second partition as a folder on the original partition. Does
this make sense? Do you know what I am getting at?

 

[John John]

The name escapes me right now, but with WinXP and NTFS you can also
mount the second partition as a folder on the original partition. Does
this make sense? Do you know what I am getting at?

I think you mean Volume Mount Points but I'm not sure how that would
answer the question asked by the OP.

John

 

[Joker]

You'd need third party software to do that. Nothing that comes with
Windows allows you to increase the size of an existing partition.
Something like Partition Magic (www.symantec.com/partitionmagic) will
do it.

You should be able to use XP's disk management software to create a
new partition on that unused space, though.

I would prefer not paying $70 for something I will use once. I'm not eve
sure how the partition was created since I did not do it. The only thing I
have done is install SP 2 and created the admin account. Anything in the
freeware category that will work? I may just create the new partition so I
can get to the space.

While I'm on that subject, if I install software onto the new partition,
assuming it is marked as a new drive, will software run correctly without
the OS being on the same drive? I have installed software on my portable
disk only to find it does not work unless I am connected to the original
installation computer. Any ideas?

 

[DatabaseBen]

if you run the command console and type at the prompt

diskpart

you will see something that might help. There is a MS knowledge base
paper on how to use it.


Also, you can check these out too:
http://www.thefreecountry.com/utilities/partitioneditors.shtml

 

[Kerry Brown]

I would prefer not paying $70 for something I will use once. I'm not
eve sure how the partition was created since I did not do it. The
only thing I have done is install SP 2 and created the admin account.
Anything in the freeware category that will work? I may just create
the new partition so I can get to the space.

If you've just reinstalled XP then the easiest and cheapest thing to do
would be to do the install over deleting the 20 GB parition and create a new
larger one (60 GB) during the install.

 

[Tim Slattery]

While I'm on that subject, if I install software onto the new partition,
assuming it is marked as a new drive, will software run correctly without
the OS being on the same drive?

Yes, of course. This is done every day.

I have installed software on my portable
disk only to find it does not work unless I am connected to the original
installation computer. Any ideas?

That's a different issue. The software on your portable disk
apparently depends on something (probably a DLL) that resides
elsewhere in your computer system. When you connect that portable
drive to another computer and start the app, whatever it's looking for
isn't where it's looking for it. (Might also be a registry entry that
exists in the original machine but not in the second machine.)

 

[Jonny]

I recently bought a computer with a 60 gig HD. I checked it out when I got
it and everything was fine. However, somewhere along the line, the HD was
partitioned. Now I have partition1 that is only 20 gigs and the reset is
not recognized. How do I increase the size of the partition to use all
available space on the HD?

Sounds like a PC that had its hard drive replaced. And either 1) its a
factory PC where the hard drive was restored to it original configuration,
or 2) the previous owner or builder did not have a clue when partitioning.
I believe it to be the former.

All hard drives that see service and have file storage capability have at
least one partition.

If the current hard drive has a hidden partition of whatever size, need to
let us know. Especially if the computer is a laptop.

 

[Joker]

Yes, of course. This is done every day.

Of course. I see the question is a little obvious now.

That's a different issue. The software on your portable disk
apparently depends on something (probably a DLL) that resides
elsewhere in your computer system. When you connect that portable
drive to another computer and start the app, whatever it's looking for
isn't where it's looking for it. (Might also be a registry entry that
exists in the original machine but not in the second machine.)

Ok, so is it possible to keep the whole thing self contained on the
portable?

 

[Tim Slattery]

Ok, so is it possible to keep the whole thing self contained on the
portable?

If you can find what the dependency is, probably so. If it's a DLL
that can't be found, a copy of that could certainly be put on the
portable. If he program is reading the registry for a pointer or
something, then no.

 

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[Paul Johnson]

I recently bought a computer with a 60 gig HD. I checked it out when I
got
it and everything was fine. However, somewhere along the line, the HD was
partitioned. Now I have partition1 that is only 20 gigs and the reset is
not recognized. How do I increase the size of the partition to use all
available space on the HD?

If you don't want to reinstall and you did *not* use NTFS to install, you
can go grab a copy of knoppix from http://www.knoppix.net/ . Boot that CD,
and open a terminal window as soon as it finishes loading. Type the
command

sudo qtparted &

You will be in a nice free software graphical partitioner similar to
Partition Magic. It handles pretty much everything but NTFS well.

If you used NTFS, I would suggest Partition Magic... that's about the only
thing PM can do that parted can't.

 

[Paul Johnson]

If you've just reinstalled XP then the easiest and cheapest thing to do
would be to do the install over deleting the 20 GB parition and create a
new larger one (60 GB) during the install.

Not quite, see my message in Message-Id: <[email protected]> from
earlier today. There are free software tools that can do repartitioning
for about the cost of a CD-R.