Trouble with extending partition

J

jmarsico

Hey all, I hope this is the right forum for my question, but feel free to
direct me elsewhere if not.

I posted this question on another Vista forum but, despite other posters'
efforts, I could not solve the problem. So I hope I have more luck here.
Simply, the trouble I'm having is that I need to extend a partition on my
HDD. When I first created the partitions when I put the computer together, I
didn't leave enough space on the partition that holds the OS, because I
forgot that it would need room in the future for things like updates. So,
when I tried to install Service Pack 1, I found that there was not enough
space for it.

For some reason, the disk management utility will not allow me to extend
that particular partition, even though I definitely have free space on the
drive. (Just to make sure of that, I've shrunk other partitions and then
tried to add that now-free space to the OS partition, but still no luck.) I
really have no idea what else to try, because I'm not all that technically
savvy to begin with...

Let me know if I can provide any more details to help with an answer. Thanks
for reading.
 
M

Mark L. Ferguson

There is no way for diskmgmt.msc to push the C: out until the 'extended'
partition is deleted. You might be enough geek to use Achronis (or whatever
backup) to stash your partition data elsewhere and rearrange the available
space on your drive to proportion it as you prefer. Not a task for the faint
of heart.
Let's assume for a second I was doing this. I have original media in hand to
boot to the 'recovery' screen, I own a second drive, or a burner with a
passel of writable disks. My version of Vista includes "Complete PC Backup"
(or I master the use of a good backup or mirror app like Achronis) and I'm
feeling especially brave today :)
I would:
Make a backup that will be available from the 'recovery' boot up.
Wipe out my drive
Repartition
Boot to install media recovery screen
Restore from backup.
(Promise myself to Never own another system without a second hard drive)
--
Was this helpful? Then click the Ratings button. Voting helps the web
interface.
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Mark L. Ferguson
..
 
M

Mike Hall - MVP

jmarsico said:
Hey all, I hope this is the right forum for my question, but feel free to
direct me elsewhere if not.

I posted this question on another Vista forum but, despite other posters'
efforts, I could not solve the problem. So I hope I have more luck here.
Simply, the trouble I'm having is that I need to extend a partition on my
HDD. When I first created the partitions when I put the computer together,
I
didn't leave enough space on the partition that holds the OS, because I
forgot that it would need room in the future for things like updates. So,
when I tried to install Service Pack 1, I found that there was not enough
space for it.

For some reason, the disk management utility will not allow me to extend
that particular partition, even though I definitely have free space on the
drive. (Just to make sure of that, I've shrunk other partitions and then
tried to add that now-free space to the OS partition, but still no luck.)
I
really have no idea what else to try, because I'm not all that technically
savvy to begin with...

Let me know if I can provide any more details to help with an answer.
Thanks
for reading.
Click to expand...


Acronis Disk Director is what you need. It will do the job painlessly..

www.acronis.com

--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx
 
J

jmarsico

Thanks for the quick answer. You sound like you have the right idea, but I'm
not confident enough in my technical skills to go for it without a more
detailed guide...do you think you could direct me to one? I couldn't risk
messing something up with this computer, especially at this moment because I
rely on it daily for schoolwork, so I'm going to try to be very cautious
about things.

Mike Hall-
I read up on that utility, read a review for it, and was very happy that
there was something like that out there...until I saw that it's not free. Heh
heh. I don't have the cash to spend on something like that for what would
hopefully be a one-time use. A good idea, though, so thanks for suggesting it.
 
M

Mike Hall - MVP

Mark L. Ferguson said:
There is no way for diskmgmt.msc to push the C: out until the 'extended'
partition is deleted. You might be enough geek to use Achronis (or
whatever backup) to stash your partition data elsewhere and rearrange the
available space on your drive to proportion it as you prefer. Not a task
for the faint of heart.
Let's assume for a second I was doing this. I have original media in hand
to boot to the 'recovery' screen, I own a second drive, or a burner with a
passel of writable disks. My version of Vista includes "Complete PC
Backup" (or I master the use of a good backup or mirror app like Achronis)
and I'm feeling especially brave today :)
I would:
Make a backup that will be available from the 'recovery' boot up.
Wipe out my drive
Repartition
Boot to install media recovery screen
Restore from backup.
(Promise myself to Never own another system without a second hard drive)
--
Was this helpful? Then click the Ratings button. Voting helps the web
interface.
http://www.microsoft.com/wn3/locales/help/help_en-us.htm#RateAPostAsAnswer
Mark L. Ferguson
.
Click to expand...


Mark

Most image backup programs replace the partitions et al as they were at the
point of backing up. I haven't used Vista's Complete Backup, so not sure if
this will do as others do.

Maybe somebody else can confirm one way or the other..

--
Mike Hall - MVP
How to construct a good post..
http://dts-l.com/goodpost.htm
How to use the Microsoft Product Support Newsgroups..
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?pr=newswhelp&style=toc
Mike's Window - My Blog..
http://msmvps.com/blogs/mikehall/default.aspx
 

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