Extending a Disk in Vista?

I had a 10 GB partition that just freed up. I want to combine that with my existing C: drive. Here's a disk management snap that graphically shows what I currently have -- http://ramnet.net/diskman.jpg

When I right click on the C: drive the extend menu choice is grayed out. How can I extend that drive, in essence adding 10 GB?

Thanks!

Ross

"Ross M. Greenberg" <> wrote in message
news:Ac7Bk.32179$...
I had a 10 GB partition that just freed up. I want to combine that with my
existing C: drive. Here's a disk management snap that graphically shows
what I currently have -- http://ramnet.net/diskman.jpg

When I right click on the C: drive the extend menu choice is grayed out.
How can I extend that drive, in essence adding 10 GB?

Thanks!

Ross

HI Ross,

You can't do that with Vista's Disk Management, as your unused space is to
the left of your Vista partition. You can only merge unused space that is
to the right of the partition that you want to add it to.

Acronis Disk Director may be able to do what you want.


--
Jane, not plain 64 bit enabled :-)
Batteries not included. Braincell on vacation ;-)
MVP - Windows Desktop Experience

Jane C is correct. You would have to move the unallocated space directl
to the right of your C: partition in order to extend it. But you don'
have to buy Acronis Disk Director to do that. Boot-It NG is a sharewar
partition management utility that can be used to manage the shrinkin
and extending of partitions better than Vista's built-in tool. It ha
an old DOS style interface, but it works well. You can get it here
'Boot Manager, Partition Manager, and Drive Image Utility - BootIt Nex
Generation
(http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/boo...generation.htm
I downloaded the free trial version and burned it to a CD with th
included program MakeDisk.exe in order to be able to move som
unallocated space immediately behind one of my four partitions that
wanted to extend. I just booted from the CD, clicked on the menu choic
for "Partition Work", and then used the "partition slide" concept t
move the unallocated space. The TerabyteUnlimited site has a good dea
of documentation, tutorials, answers to FAQs, videos, etc. for how t
use the program
'TeraByte Unlimited :: Support :: BootIt Next Generation
(http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/sup...generation.htm

--
LeeTuto

If this answer has been of help to you, then please add to my Reputatio
by clicking on the middle icon at the top right. :geek:

Lee: maybe I'm just being denser than usual. I downloaded what you indicated but have not gotten the programs to work. Can you give step-by-step instructions for someone who is currently thinking impaired?

Thanks!

Ross


"LeeTutor" <> wrote in message news:...
>
> Jane C is correct. You would have to move the unallocated space directly
> to the right of your C: partition in order to extend it. But you don't
> have to buy Acronis Disk Director to do that. Boot-It NG is a shareware
> partition management utility that can be used to manage the shrinking
> and extending of partitions better than Vista's built-in tool. It has
> an old DOS style interface, but it works well. You can get it here:
> 'Boot Manager, Partition Manager, and Drive Image Utility - BootIt Next
> Generation'
> (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/boo...generation.htm)
> I downloaded the free trial version and burned it to a CD with the
> included program MakeDisk.exe in order to be able to move some
> unallocated space immediately behind one of my four partitions that I
> wanted to extend. I just booted from the CD, clicked on the menu choice
> for "Partition Work", and then used the "partition slide" concept to
> move the unallocated space. The TerabyteUnlimited site has a good deal
> of documentation, tutorials, answers to FAQs, videos, etc. for how to
> use the program:
> 'TeraByte Unlimited :: Support :: BootIt Next Generation'
> (http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/sup...generation.htm)
>
>
> --
> LeeTutor
>
> If this answer has been of help to you, then please add to my Reputation
> by clicking on the middle icon at the top right. :geek:

Hi ross


another one to have a look at is Gparted details and full instructions
for use 'here'
(http://www.brunolinux.com/01-First_T...-_Gparted.html)


--
barman58

Regards,
*Nigel*
the beginning of knowledge is the discovery of something we do not
understand.,- frank herbert

Well, first of all, I trust you understand what you have to do. Th
picture of your 1st drive might be graphed like this

DDDDDDDDDDffffffffffffffffffCCCCCCCC

Where the D's are your D: partiton, the f's are your free space, an
the C's are your C: partition. In order to extend partition C: with th
free space, you have to "slide" the ffffffffffffff free space AFTER th
CCCCCCCCC partition, so it looks like this

DDDDDDDDDDCCCCCCCCCfffffffffffffffff

You do this by creating the Boot-It NG CD or floppy disk, changing you
boot order in your BIOS so that you can boot to the CD or floppy dis
with Boot-It NG on it. And then you follow some steps which are ver
well shown in a video on this page

'Image for DOS, Image for Windows and BootIt Next Generation
(http://www.heffy.com/image.htm

Go down to the section called Using BootIt Next Generation, and watc
the video called "Slide a partition." You may have to watch this vide
several times and take notes on the steps to follow. You can downloa
the video and then watch it on your pc, since it is a Windows Medi
Player video file

--
LeeTuto

If this answer has been of help to you, then please add to my Reputatio
by clicking on the middle icon at the top right. :geek:

I watched that video which I just downloaded now, and made some notes on
what you should do. It is a bit different from what is done on the
video, since that video shows a C: partition followed by a "Backup"
partition, which the person wants to shrink in order to create some free
space on the end of the Backu partition, which he then slides in front
of the Backup partition, formats, and creates a new partition called
Programs. So all that part of the video you can just ignore.

What you should do:

step 1. on the Welcome Screen of BootIT NG, click Cancel button.
step 2. on the entering maintenace mode, click OK button.
step 3. on the next screen, click Partition Work button.
step 4. now you would click on the C: partition and then click on the
Slide button.
step 5. on the next dialog box, change the "Free Space Before" your C:
partition to zero, which will automatically add the free space to the
Free Space After part.
step 6. click the Continue button.

The free space will now be slid to the right of your C: partition, so
that you can use the normal Vista disk partitioning tool to extend C: by
the size of your free space.


--
LeeTutor

If this answer has been of help to you, then please add to my Reputation
by clicking on the middle icon at the top right. :geek:

I watched the video a few times, took notes and practiced. I'm all set to try it now -- once my external USB backup finishes. I'm sure that you feel is entirely trustworthy, but I trust nothing -- belts and suspenders, crazy glue, masking tape and a staple gun. That's me. And I still do not feel secure! :-)

Wish me luck, Lee!

Ross

"LeeTutor" <> wrote in message news:...
>
> I watched that video which I just downloaded now, and made some notes on
> what you should do. It is a bit different from what is done on the
> video, since that video shows a C: partition followed by a "Backup"
> partition, which the person wants to shrink in order to create some free
> space on the end of the Backu partition, which he then slides in front
> of the Backup partition, formats, and creates a new partition called
> Programs. So all that part of the video you can just ignore.
>
> What you should do:
>
> step 1. on the Welcome Screen of BootIT NG, click Cancel button.
> step 2. on the entering maintenace mode, click OK button.
> step 3. on the next screen, click Partition Work button.
> step 4. now you would click on the C: partition and then click on the
> Slide button.
> step 5. on the next dialog box, change the "Free Space Before" your C:
> partition to zero, which will automatically add the free space to the
> Free Space After part.
> step 6. click the Continue button.
>
> The free space will now be slid to the right of your C: partition, so
> that you can use the normal Vista disk partitioning tool to extend C: by
> the size of your free space.
>
>
> --
> LeeTutor
>
> If this answer has been of help to you, then please add to my Reputation
> by clicking on the middle icon at the top right. :geek:

"Ross M. Greenberg" <> wrote in message news:GueCk.33153$. ..
I watched the video a few times, took notes and practiced. I'm all set to try it now -- once my external USB backup finishes. I'm sure that you feel is entirely trustworthy, but I trust nothing -- belts and suspenders, crazy glue, masking tape and a staple gun. That's me. And I still do not feel secure! :-)

Wish me luck, Lee!

Ross

===============
Well, Lee:

you were not wishing hard enough! I followed the directions precisely. I not only made another backup using Norton Ghost, but made another backup using the facility of the program itself. Then I ran a slide. It was only a 10 GB partition and it took about five hours. Then I rebooted. Trashed system. No big deal. I had my own backup plus the one the program recommended. First, I tried the program's own backup. The program could not find any backup made. I started to panic. I went to the Ghost backup. It was not recovering either. Two days of pure panic. It ends up that boot-it did some nasty stuff to my partition table which prevented ghost from recovering my backup. I had to use the program's delete partition function to delete the screwy partition, and then Norton Ghost could recover my disk.

Ross

PS: because of me delete the partition table and then recovering from the ghost backup it ends up that I now have a 35 GB free space partition! Got it the hard way, but got it!

Back to the drawing board: the same problem exists with extend volume be grayed out in computer management: http://ramnet.net/diskman2.jpg !

Now fortunately a 35 GB is great -- but I still want the other 10 GB!

Now what?

Ross


"Ross M. Greenberg" <> wrote in message news:dboDk.44540$. ..

"Ross M. Greenberg" <> wrote in message news:GueCk.33153$. ..
I watched the video a few times, took notes and practiced. I'm all set to try it now -- once my external USB backup finishes. I'm sure that you feel is entirely trustworthy, but I trust nothing -- belts and suspenders, crazy glue, masking tape and a staple gun. That's me. And I still do not feel secure! :-)

Wish me luck, Lee!

Ross

===============
Well, Lee:

you were not wishing hard enough! I followed the directions precisely. I not only made another backup using Norton Ghost, but made another backup using the facility of the program itself. Then I ran a slide. It was only a 10 GB partition and it took about five hours. Then I rebooted. Trashed system. No big deal. I had my own backup plus the one the program recommended. First, I tried the program's own backup. The program could not find any backup made. I started to panic. I went to the Ghost backup. It was not recovering either. Two days of pure panic. It ends up that boot-it did some nasty stuff to my partition table which prevented ghost from recovering my backup. I had to use the program's delete partition function to delete the screwy partition, and then Norton Ghost could recover my disk.

Ross

PS: because of me delete the partition table and then recovering from the ghost backup it ends up that I now have a 35 GB free space partition! Got it the hard way, but got it!