Repartitioning a HD with XP

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L. Peter Stacey

I have just purchased a new PC with a 250Gb HD. Unfortunately it is
partitioned as follows C: 50% D: 40% and E: is 10%. Giving me about 110Gb
for my C:.
For my expected use 20-30GB would seem ample for C: to hold my expected
program and system files and I would rather keep the balance in D: for data
file use etc.
Does my preference seem reasonable and is there cheap or better, free
software to repartition the HD?
TIA
Peter S.
 
Boot off your XP CD and let the Windows setup start and choose to
install Windows, if I recall correctly the screen after the "press F8
to agree....." will give you the option as to where to install Windows,
choose to delete the existing partition then create a single partion
for the C: drive of the size you want leaving the rest of the space
unpartitioned. Install Windows etc.

If you have a SATA drive ensure you have the windows drivers handy -
check your documentation for details.

Once windows is installed and running you can use the Disk managment
feature under Computer Management in the Administrative tools control
panel to partition the unused space as you wish.

WARNING! WARNING! doing the above will delete ALL the data on your
computer so make backups of your important stuff.
 
In
L. Peter Stacey said:
I have just purchased a new PC with a 250Gb HD. Unfortunately
it is
partitioned as follows C: 50% D: 40% and E: is 10%. Giving me
about
110Gb for my C:.
For my expected use 20-30GB would seem ample for C: to hold my
expected program and system files and I would rather keep the
balance
in D: for data file use etc.
Does my preference seem reasonable and is there cheap or
better, free
software to repartition the HD?
Click to expand...



You have two choice:

1. If you don't want to lose what's already on the drive, the
only way to do what you want is with third-party software.
Partition Magic is the best-known such program, but there are
freeware/shareware alternatives. One such program is BootIt Next
Generation. It's shareware, but comes with a free 30-day trial,
so you should be able to do what you want within that 30 days. I
haven't used it myself, but it comes highly recommended by
several other MVPs here.

2. If you've just purchsed the computer, there is probably
nothing on the drive that's important, and you may want to just
start from scratch. Reinstall Windows, and choose your own
partitioning scheme.
 
L. Peter Stacey said:
I have just purchased a new PC with a 250Gb HD. Unfortunately it is
partitioned as follows C: 50% D: 40% and E: is 10%. Giving me about 110Gb
for my C:.
For my expected use 20-30GB would seem ample for C: to hold my expected
program and system files and I would rather keep the balance in D: for
data
file use etc.
Does my preference seem reasonable and is there cheap or better, free
software to repartition the HD?
TIA
Peter S.
Click to expand...

You've been answered on the technical part, so I'll address the "does it
seem reasonable" part. And really, that all depends on how you use your
computer, what program you use and how big they are, etc.

Consider, though, that along with your system and programs on the C drive,
you'll have the swap file, the hibernation information (if that is turned
on) system restore, all of the backups of Windows update files...and on and
on. If the only program you're loading on there is Office, you're never
going to use all that space. But if you're loading on some graphics programs
and CDs worth of clip art and some games and video software....well, you see
where I'm going.

The space you need for data is the same sort of issue. I've you're
collecting Word docs, you'll never fill the space you have, but if you're
copying your home videos to the computer, it's going to eat a lot of space
and you'll be buying a couple of new drives before you know it.

Personally, I like the idea of having data on a separate drive. "Working
data" on the same drive is fine, but backups, storage, etc., might best be
on a separate drive. Take a look at some of the external hard drives. Those
are ideal for making backups of the whole system, or just your data. Do a
little shopping and you might find one that isn't that much more expensive
than partitioning software and the cost of your time and frustration. And
it's a lot less than the cost of data recovery.

Alternately, if you don't need the space you've got, you could keep your
data on C and put your backups on D, but that only protects you in the case
of a Windows corruption. It's not going to do any good if the hard drive
itself goes bad.
 
Thanks for all the help, it is greatly appreciated.

To put more info on the PC, it is new, partitioned into three drives and
came with all software preinstalled and configured. It includes a TV/Radio
tuner so if I get to record programs I will certainly use /need more space
in D: Also, I do play around with graphics/photos and that certainly uses
heaps of room. E: is the Restore partition.

Having just moved from a Celeron 400 with a 40Gb HD with a 9Gb C: partition
(which is too full now), you can see why I am concerned that I am 'wasting'
disk space on the new 110Gb C: and would rather have it available for my
data on D:

I take your point D.Currie about using a separate HD to use as a backup
drive having lost my data about a year ago. In that case I could still run
my system C: but lost access to D: the partition with all my data :-(
Just have to decide in the short term how best to deal with backups using
the CD /DVD drives (Suggestions welcome).
Peter S.

L. Peter Stacey said:
I have just purchased a new PC with a 250Gb HD. Unfortunately it is
partitioned as follows C: 50% D: 40% and E: is 10%. Giving me about 110Gb
for my C:.
<SNIP>
Does my preference seem reasonable and is there cheap or better, free
Click to expand...
software to repartition the HD?
 
L. Peter Stacey said:
Thanks for all the help, it is greatly appreciated.

To put more info on the PC, it is new, partitioned into three drives and
came with all software preinstalled and configured. It includes a TV/Radio
tuner so if I get to record programs I will certainly use /need more space
in D: Also, I do play around with graphics/photos and that certainly uses
heaps of room. E: is the Restore partition.

Having just moved from a Celeron 400 with a 40Gb HD with a 9Gb C:
partition
(which is too full now), you can see why I am concerned that I am
'wasting'
disk space on the new 110Gb C: and would rather have it available for my
data on D:

I take your point D.Currie about using a separate HD to use as a backup
drive having lost my data about a year ago. In that case I could still run
my system C: but lost access to D: the partition with all my data :-(
Just have to decide in the short term how best to deal with backups using
the CD /DVD drives (Suggestions welcome).
Peter S.
Click to expand...

I doubt anyone would think my backup strategy is sane. But it works for me.
As far as using CDs and DVDs, probably the easiest thing to do is keep all
your documents in one folder (like My Documents) and just drag that to a CD
now and then, at whatever interval you are comfortable with.

The system can always be reloaded, so that's not as much an issue as saving
your data. But if you want a full-system backup, there are plenty of
programs that will do a good job with that, and some of the external USB
drives come with backup software embedded, so you just press a button and
the system backs up.
 
Just have to decide in the short term how best to deal with backups using
the CD /DVD drives (Suggestions welcome).
Click to expand...

Suggstion: don't wait for a cool external high-capacity drive. Buy a
cheap second hand drive or an older style drive on ebay, slap it in and
run free backup software like SyncBack or Back2zip to keep your data
secure. I'm sure you can pull this off for little over $20. Here are
some freeware backup tools to get you started:

http://free-backup.info/backup-software.htm

You'll never regret a backup strategy, no matter how simple.
 
Speak to the store or the computer's manufacturer, about getting restore
cd's.
Or find out if the data in the restore partition can be used to create a
bootable
restore cd.
 
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