Enlarging Partition Size

Hi, I have been dual-booting XP Pro & Vista Business for a while and since
it had a boot failure, I have discarded the XP partition. I now want to add
the formatted xp partition to my Vista partition using paragon partition
manager (8.5).

Last time I tried the 'enlarge partition' it left the operating system
unusable. Should I have used the 'merge partitions option or is there a
better tool to do this more me? Each partition is about 300GB across 2 Hard
Drives in RAID 0 config.

Cheers

Dave

Hi Dave,

I never merge partitions, it is fraught with chances for disaster. And, to
be honest, virtually any partitioning work has its hazards and data backups
should be made before beginning to guard against loss. Instead, delete the
partition/volume that you formatted and then expand/extend the Vista volume
into the free space. Generally, to expand a volume the free space must be
behind it (at the end of the existing one). If it isn't, you may need to
slide the Vista volume forward, then expand it. If your tool does not do
this (though I think it does), then try BootIT NG from terabyteunlimited as
I know that one works fine with Vista volumes.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/
Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
My thoughts http://rick-mvp.blogspot.com

"Dave" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Hi, I have been dual-booting XP Pro & Vista Business for a while and since
> it had a boot failure, I have discarded the XP partition. I now want to
> add the formatted xp partition to my Vista partition using paragon
> partition manager (8.5).
>
> Last time I tried the 'enlarge partition' it left the operating system
> unusable. Should I have used the 'merge partitions option or is there a
> better tool to do this more me? Each partition is about 300GB across 2
> Hard Drives in RAID 0 config.
>
> Cheers
>
> Dave

"ray" <> wrote in
news...

> I would use 'gparted' from a Linux Live CD. Very robust - never had a
> problem.

Don't expect too much from gparted. I have tried merging OS partitions with
this tool, and it was unable to do it. gparted gave me an error message
"can't merge system partition". It might have something to do with the Vista
partition coming after the XP partition on the drive.

Charlie42

"Charlie42" <> wrote in
news898D394-84B1-40D8-9D75-:

> "ray" <> wrote in
> news...
>
>> I would use 'gparted' from a Linux Live CD. Very robust - never had a
>> problem.
>
> Don't expect too much from gparted. I have tried merging OS partitions
> with this tool, and it was unable to do it. gparted gave me an error
> message "can't merge system partition". It might have something to do
> with the Vista partition coming after the XP partition on the drive.
>
> Charlie42

I wouldn't touch gpartd with a 10 foot pole.
Last time I tried it I ended up with a totally scrambled hdisk.
You get what you pay for I suppose.
I used Hiren's boot CD and Pmagic to repair the carnage and then
backed up and re-partitioned the drive from scratch before restoring.
I have heard of other horror stories using gpartd.

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:32:54 +0200, Charlie42 wrote:

> "ray" <> wrote in
> news...
>
>> I would use 'gparted' from a Linux Live CD. Very robust - never had a
>> problem.
>
> Don't expect too much from gparted. I have tried merging OS partitions with
> this tool, and it was unable to do it. gparted gave me an error message
> "can't merge system partition". It might have something to do with the Vista
> partition coming after the XP partition on the drive.
>
> Charlie42

Didn't realize gparted had a 'merge' function. I would delete the no
longer used parition and then expand to one kept to include that space.
Should be no big deal.

On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:19:45 +0000, Singer wrote:

> "Charlie42" <> wrote in
> news898D394-84B1-40D8-9D75-:
>
>> "ray" <> wrote in
>> news...
>>
>>> I would use 'gparted' from a Linux Live CD. Very robust - never had a
>>> problem.
>>
>> Don't expect too much from gparted. I have tried merging OS partitions
>> with this tool, and it was unable to do it. gparted gave me an error
>> message "can't merge system partition". It might have something to do
>> with the Vista partition coming after the XP partition on the drive.
>>
>> Charlie42
>
> I wouldn't touch gpartd with a 10 foot pole.
> Last time I tried it I ended up with a totally scrambled hdisk.
> You get what you pay for I suppose.
> I used Hiren's boot CD and Pmagic to repair the carnage and then
> backed up and re-partitioned the drive from scratch before restoring.
> I have heard of other horror stories using gpartd.

Strange. I've never had a problem, and yours is the first one I've ever
heard of.

ray <> wrote in
news:

> On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 17:19:45 +0000, Singer wrote:
>
>> "Charlie42" <> wrote in
>> news898D394-84B1-40D8-9D75-:
>>
>>> "ray" <> wrote in
>>> news...
>>>
>>>> I would use 'gparted' from a Linux Live CD. Very robust - never had
>>>> a problem.
>>>
>>> Don't expect too much from gparted. I have tried merging OS
>>> partitions with this tool, and it was unable to do it. gparted gave
>>> me an error message "can't merge system partition". It might have
>>> something to do with the Vista partition coming after the XP
>>> partition on the drive.
>>>
>>> Charlie42
>>
>> I wouldn't touch gpartd with a 10 foot pole.
>> Last time I tried it I ended up with a totally scrambled hdisk.
>> You get what you pay for I suppose.
>> I used Hiren's boot CD and Pmagic to repair the carnage and then
>> backed up and re-partitioned the drive from scratch before restoring.
>> I have heard of other horror stories using gpartd.
>
> Strange. I've never had a problem, and yours is the first one I've
> ever heard of.

Of course it is.
You are a Linux user and nothing is ever wrong with Linux applications.
It's the old "works for me it must be you" reply.

"ray" <> wrote in
news...
> On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:32:54 +0200, Charlie42 wrote:

> Didn't realize gparted had a 'merge' function. I would delete the no
> longer used parition and then expand to one kept to include that space.
> Should be no big deal.

That's what I tried to, and it didn't work. I even removed XP completely
from it's partition before I ran gparted. Also there is another issue: When
you resize a Windows partition with this tool, Windows doesn't necessarily
realize it has been resized. Run chkdsk afterwards, it should take care of
the problem.

Imo. gparted really isn't a good way to manipulate Windows systems, consider
PartitionMagic, Paragon or something like that instead.

Charlie42

Dave wrote:
> Hi, I have been dual-booting XP Pro & Vista Business for a while and
> since it had a boot failure, I have discarded the XP partition. I now
> want to add the formatted xp partition to my Vista partition using
> paragon partition manager (8.5).
>
> Last time I tried the 'enlarge partition' it left the operating system
> unusable. Should I have used the 'merge partitions option or is there a
> better tool to do this more me? Each partition is about 300GB across 2
> Hard Drives in RAID 0 config.
>
> Cheers
>
> Dave

Sounds like you need partition viagra. Do you currently suffer from
partition envy?

"Sorry Dave, I can't let you do that..."
Name that movie!

Seriously though, I can't give you any advice on your actual problem
other than to make sure you run a full backup, then test out your
partitioning software to see what methods with it work and what doesn't.
That way you learn more in a hands on fashion and the backup saves you
from any mistakes. Good luck, hope you enjoyed the humor (sorry, I
couldn't help myself).

--
Priceless quotes in m.p.w.vista.general group:
http://protectfreedom.tripod.com/kick.html

"Fair use is not merely a nice concept--it is a federal law based on
free speech rights under the First Amendment and is a cornerstone of the
creativity and innovation that is a hallmark of this country. Consumer
rights in the digital age are not frivolous."
- Maura Corbett

Nothing wrong with gparted, it works just as well as other partition
products. This is a simple adding of a second partition using free space or
reducing the first partition. There is no merge in gpartd.

Backup should be second nature, if you resized a partition without a
backup....failure isn't an accident.

Geof

"Charlie42" wrote:

>
> "ray" <> wrote in
> news...
> > On Mon, 10 Sep 2007 18:32:54 +0200, Charlie42 wrote:
>
> > Didn't realize gparted had a 'merge' function. I would delete the no
> > longer used parition and then expand to one kept to include that space.
> > Should be no big deal.
>
> That's what I tried to, and it didn't work. I even removed XP completely
> from it's partition before I ran gparted. Also there is another issue: When
> you resize a Windows partition with this tool, Windows doesn't necessarily
> realize it has been resized. Run chkdsk afterwards, it should take care of
> the problem.
>
> Imo. gparted really isn't a good way to manipulate Windows systems, consider
> PartitionMagic, Paragon or something like that instead.
>
> Charlie42
>