Can't extend my Vista partition into unallocated space

Hello,

I deleted my 10 GB Dell recovery partition as I haven't used it once since I got my laptop almost two years ago, and now I have 10 GBs of unallocated space. I also had a 1GB unallocated space earlier and I was able to extend my vista partition into it, but I can't seem to be able to extend the 10gb unallocated space into vista now.



Is there a way to do it? I don't wanna have a separate 10GB partition (that was the reason I deleted the recovery partition in the first place).

Thanks.

 

Gparted from ubuntu live cd

 

You can't extend the volume backwards if you're currently using it.

You'll need to either do it using a boot-time tool (such as PartitionMagic) or by doing it from a different OS.

 

Gparted is what I used to delete the partition which gave me a GRUB 1.5 error 22 which took me about 20 minutes to fix. I decided not to use that again, but.... I guess I'll try again

PS: Partition magic doesn't work with Vista

PPS: Thanks

 

Is that your mediadirect partition?

You might want to check this out:

http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/mediadirect.htm

 

Thanks for the link. I'll look at it. My media direct never worked (or I messed it up a while ago) but I don't use it anyways, and neither do/did/have I use(d) the recover partition.

I burned a Hiren's boot CD and did everything through Acronis Disk Director that comes with it. I think that affected my XP partition but it's no big deal as I only use XP for games and I haven't booted it in several months... I'll just make 2 partitions, one for vista, and one for some light distribution of linux later... problem solved.

Thanks guys

 

Once you slide the partition down into the empty space, Vista will not bootup, because the bootloader looks for the OS at a fixed location. But that can easily be repaired. You can use a Vista install disk to repair the bootloader.

Gary

 

Hi There!

My friend has a very similar looking screenshot... only I want to join the two sections of "Free" space together to form a partition I can load XP on.

Can anyone tell me how to do it? Cos the drive is only 60Gig total. 10Gig free, then C: with vista - 37Gig... then 9.4 gig free...

I want the total unallocated of 19 gig to be joined for XP - lots of old prog. to load.

Cant format vista and reload to the front of the drive cos the install disc got left behind in the UK when my friend left to come home to South Africa.

Thanks!!

 

I don't think there is going to be any way to do this without a Vista install disc. The reason I say this is no matter what tool you use, you are going to have to slide the C: Vista partition to the beginning of the drive to get the 10 gig and 9.4 gig spaces contiguous. When you do this slide, the machine won't boot up since the pointers to where the OS is will be pointing to the wrong physical location. You can easily fix this, but the only way I know is with a Vista install disc.

Gary

 

Thanks for the reply...

I have backed up all the files from the "RECOVERY" hard-drive partition - would they do the same as the install disc?

And If so, how would I do any of this Slide / boot relocate stuff ... (Step by step )

I have downloaded a program called Vista boot pro... cos that's what the tutorial suggested for me to use to redo the vista boot once XP is installed... but thats all i got and the tut only showed that... not all this non-contiguous space stuff

THANKS!

 

Well some computers burn recovery discs from the recovery partition.
I know my Vaio recovery discs can work like a normal windows disc... (definitely in terms ofrepairing") - but I'm not sure if its the same for every manufacturer/model of laptop.

 

ok. I'm afraid I wouldn't know how to make a disc from those files... esp. with the laptop only having a dvd-rom.

hey... would it work to leave it all as unallocated space and run the XP install and format it all together there - creating the partition? or would it still read it as non contiguous & therefore separate sections of "free" space that cant be joined?

 

You can delete partitions in the setup and format is as one, but then you loose all data....

 

Use this partition master
I can almost say it will work 99%.

 

Thanks for the helpful replies guys...

my friend decided they were over Vista anyway & so we decided just to wipe the entire thing clean & start from scratch with XP! Luckily she had the driver install discs still... so everything is functioning great.

 

That happened to me old laptop too before. The technician put 4 partitions so the main partition C:/ is almost full. My notebook's desktop was already warning me to delete some files in order to free up some space for the main partition C:/. I download Partition Logic (a partitioning manager freeware) and solved my problem. Kindly check the site below:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Partition-Logic.shtml

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Hope this helped