resizing partition tips

nickj_2

my dd's laptop is nearly full on her c drive partition , whilst the d drive has 20- 30 gbs free , it's an acer all the backup / restoring data is on the d drive
i can get to the bit which gives me the option to change the size but the option to shrink the d drive is not availalble to use
any ideas will be much appreciated

daily_2

Move some data to d, or save new data there instead.

diable

You may need to use something like "partition magic" what operating system is being used?

LeeSouthEast

Be careful changing manufacturer 'restore' partitions and be sure to image the entire drive before you go ahead with any change. You may find it renders that particular partition unusable.

-TangleFoot-

With a little work you could plop GParted on a USB stick and run it from there; doesn't matter what operating system you have, and you'll be able to resize, create and destroy partitions at will with it.

Awec

My tip on this is not to do it.

Partition Magic will warn you about possible data loss and the last thing you want to be doing is messing up your restore partition.

Why can't you just delete some stuff off C: ?

Strider590

You really don't want to attempt resizing partitions with an OS installed.

nickj_2

Awec wrote: »

My tip on this is not to do it.

Partition Magic will warn you about possible data loss and the last thing you want to be doing is messing up your restore partition.

Why can't you just delete some stuff off C: ?

tbh there's not a great deal of stuff on it to delete
i think that the h/d is around 50-60 gbs c is around 30gbs and only has around 1 gb left
aprt from ms office , vista , and a 4gb game there's not alot else on there apart from a/v etc , it's not as if there's 1000's of songs / films on there
the d drive is aprox 30gb's- just contains factory restore settings and yet it still has approx 28gbs free

KathysBoy

nickj wrote: »

tbh there's not a great deal of stuff on it to delete
i think that the h/d is around 50-60 gbs c is around 30gbs and only has around 1 gb left
aprt from ms office , vista , and a 4gb game there's not alot else on there apart from a/v etc , it's not as if there's 1000's of songs / films on there
the d drive is aprox 30gb's- just contains factory restore settings and yet it still has approx 28gbs free

That seems to be a lot of space being used. I've got Vista and Office (inc Frontpage), and a load of other programs and I'm, only using about 16gb. One thing to look at is System Restore which may be using a couple of gb to store old restore points which you really don't need. Also I would run Disk Cleanup (in Vista tools), also defrag the disk as well if you haven't done it. With only 1 gb left it will running like treacle. Also I would change the location of the Documents and other personal folders to the D Drive. Its easy to do (just right click the folder and select Location). you can also change the location of the Temporary Internet Folder in IE ( Tools Options, Settings (Browsing History). Alll this will help free up some space.

Not sure why you can't shrink the D Drive though. I've done this and created new partitions in mine, with no problems. I might be inclined to put a new HDD in. Alternatively, if you have the Installation DVD's I'd reinstall everything, and ten take an image at the end.

Knub

Move the page file to the \?

Move "My Documents" root to \?

Uninstall the game and reinstall it on \

These would be just a few ways clearing space. Not to mention checking the system restore feature and using the administrative tools like "Disk Cleanup".

Failing that if you are adament on resizing/extending the partition, make sure you backup first, and I would go with Partition Magic as software.

Really if you have 15% or more space free on C:\ (So you need 4gb) then there is no need to do anything, just put any other data on \. If you have less than 15% then you are going to run into performance issues on the system and you won't be able to run disk defragmenter in the future either!

stuartk

hi there

maybe its a FAT32 file system and not NTFS. Dont think you can increase or shrink FAT32 within Windows but i'm just checking that out.

anyway a program such as paragon partition manager (better than partition magic IMO) can resize partitions etc regardless of file system. make sure you know what you are doing tho.

why not get an external usb drive, even a decent sized flash drive and dump all data to that

regards