Extend the system partition?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Hecatonchires
  • Start date Start date
H

Hecatonchires

Hi

I'll be glad if you could help me.

I bought a new PC with a 500Go HD
I installed Vista Home Premium on a partition of 100Go (C:)
I have therefore another partition for the remaining (D:, 400Go)
I'd like to know whether it is possible to delete the partition D: and extend C: to the full size of the HD (500Go) ?
Click to expand...

I'd like to avoid using third party software ; is it possible trough Windows
Vista ?

I read things on Microsoft website regarding the deletion and creation of
partition, but never managed to find out an answer for my particular question.
 
Right-click Computer > Manage > Storage > Disk Management then right-click
the drive to be changed or have a look here
http://www.vistamania.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=518&Itemid=34

The shrink partition utility can only decrease the partition size down to
the first unmovable/locked system file. To get round this, temporarily turn
off System Restore, do the shrink and turn System Restore back on. Running a
defrag may also move some of the ‘unmovable’ files.
Alternatively, you can shrink partitions by running the diskpart command
from the Vista DVD, which avoids the occurrence of locked files.
 
Hi

Thanks for your quick answer, but it seems you focus on the "shrink", which
is the deletion of the partition (D:, 400Go in my case)

What about the possibility to extend C: afterwards (system partition, 100Go)
to the total of the HD, that is to say 500Go ?
 
I don't know if you can remove D completely and allocate the unused space to
C. You could certainly make it much smaller and increase the size of C.
 
Hi, Hecatonchires.

That should be no problem at all, using Disk Management.

Just Delete Drive D:, then Extend Drive C: to use the contiguous
now-unallocated space.

By default, Extend will use the entire amount (400 GB) available, making a
500 GB Drive C: and leaving no Free Space on that physical drive. If you
want to use only a part of the 400 GB, note that the Extend wizard lets you
specify the size in MEGAbytes, not GIGAbytes. So if you want to extend C:
by 60 GB - to 160 GB - then enter 60,000 (MB), not 60.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)
 
Hecatonchires said:
Hi

Thanks for your quick answer, but it seems you focus on the "shrink",
which
is the deletion of the partition (D:, 400Go in my case)

What about the possibility to extend C: afterwards (system partition,
100Go)
to the total of the HD, that is to say 500Go ?
Click to expand...

The short answer is no, you can't do this with included tools.

Part of the issue is that the C drive is the system partition, and rules are
stricter for system partitions.

It is not possible to *extend* the system partition or volume with
Windows-only tools. IIRC, this restriction is in place even if the disk
is dynamic, a topic you may not want to get involved with.

You can do it with a number of 3rd party tools, such as Acronis Disk
Director or Partition Magic. These will likely cost in the $50 range.

If you have another hard disk handy, many disk cloning programs (including
the free trial of Acronis TrueImage Home, run in Manual mode) will allow you
to alter the target partition size. So, you'd clone your C drive to a
large enough disk, then clone back to the original disk, choosing the
entire drive size. I did this a number of times with XP.

But, be aware that Vista can behave a little differently. When I got
*this* system, its hard disk was too small. I cloned to a larger drive
adjusting the partition sizes... and Vista wouldn't boot. I had to re-run
the system restore utility, essentially doing a clean install of Vista.

Before you take any action like this, back up your data, FIRST. The tools
are reliable, but ... things can happen.


HTH
-pk
 
Aya, two answers, but contradictory !

RC explains that it is possible
1. delete D
2. extend C (which is the system partition)
(no space would be lost?)

But in the post before, Patrick says that it's not possible:
"The short answer is no, you can't do this with included tools.
Part of the issue is that the C drive is the system partition, and rules are
stricter for system partitions.
It is not possible to *extend* the system partition or volume with
Windows-only tools. IIRC, this restriction is in place even if the disk
is dynamic, a topic you may not want to get involved with."

Do you both confirm your point of view ?

Thanks !
 
Hi, Hecatonchires.

In WinXP, Disk Management could not Extend the System Partition. In Vista's
Disk Management, it can - unless some other restriction applies, such as
being formatted FAT or being a dynamic volume. From what you've told us,
neither of those restrictions apply in your case.

For details, start DM, then click Help | Help Topics and type "extend" into
the Search box. The first article listed should be "Extend a Basic Volume".
DM's Help file is actually only a part of the broader Help file for the
Microsoft Management Console, and it goes off into many issues that most of
us users never see, such as dynamic volumes and GPT disks. But if you keep
your focus on Basic Volumes, formatted NTFS, then there is a LOT of good
information in this file. (The Help file in WinXP is much more focused on
what most of us need every day, but the DM "snap-in" in Vista can do a lot
more than the one in WinXP.)

I have Extended my System Volume using Disk Management in Vista, and other
posters here have reported success, too. See the recent thread, "Extend
Volume", started by Derek Da Silva on 1/18/2008 in
microsoft.public.windows.vista.general.

As always, of course, be careful. A power failure in the middle of the
process would be disaster without a good backup!

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
(e-mail address removed)
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64)
 
All right, thanks for the clarification ; I'll try that next week when I'll
have more time, without forgetting to backup all the important data

Thanks for your help
 
Hey, quite an old post. But I still have to say. You guys chose a wrong way to go. Why not use some freeware to solve this simple question? I recommend easeus partition master to manage partitions and disks. It's free, what's more, it can solve such silly problems in seconds.
 
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