Strangely disk management on Vista can be an utter pain at times; personally
I think it has a will of its own. If partition D: (Unallocated space - in
other words empty) is butted directly up to partition C: then you have
contiguous space available for extending. If there is a partition between C:
and D: the you don't have any free space to extend in to. You can't extend
the partition, in the above scenario, by jumping over an already created
partition.
Because Disk Management has a will of its own, it can sometimes, depending
upon its mood, gray out certain options. When this happens you, sadly,
cannot proceed, using disk management. Another option would be to buy a
third party partitioning application and use it to 'resize' the C: partition
(Paragon Hard Disk Manager 2008 Suite is one such application that I keep by
my side, as is Acronis Disk Director.) There may even be a 'free'
partitioning application that will also do the job. I cannot, however, pass
comment on any free partitioning applications not having actually used them
myself; maybe someone else who has tried any free partitioning applications
would care to give us the benefit of their experience?
That leaves DiskPart as smithsonian suggested. Personally using commands
from the command prompt can be a little intimidating, however, I did find
these instructions which illustrate quite well how to proceed:
http://vistarewired.com/2007/04/07/...ows-vista-xp-when-disk-management-doesnt-work.
Can I stress that you ensure you have backed up any files/folders that are
important to you and that you are fully aware how to return your PC to
factory conditions, via the recovery disk (or partition) supplied by your PC
manufacturer prior to attempting to extend the partition via DiskPart as
once the command is given and Vista undertakes the extension, should
anything go wrong, you may end up with an unbootable PC. If DiskPart cannot
extend the partition, the it will say so and no alterations will be made.
I'm sorry to sound like a 'bringer of doom' but it is better you know the
risks than go blindly ahead and discover them later.
--
--
John Barnett MVP
Windows XP Associate Expert
Windows Desktop Experience
Web:
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org
Web:
http://vistasupport.mvps.org
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