unallocated partition to expand c?

I have a 140gb c drive and 170 gbs of unpartitioned space.

Vista wont let me expand my c drive and i still have all this unused space

what can i do to use the rest of it?

when i try to create a new partition with the unallocated space it just says disk is full

 

gparted

http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/using-gparted-to-resize-your-windows-vista-partition/

 

You really only have 2 options. But first a warning.

By removing extra partitions you may lose the ability to do factory restores on your PC if it uses a hidden partition to store it. And remember to backup anything important (preferably a full HDD image) to an external drive before messing with your partitions as it's very easy to lose everything.

Anyways, the one way that will certainly work is a full reinstall after formatting the drive into 1 partition.

The other is a bit more work but will allow you to keep all your settings/installed programs/etc. You can use a 3rd party partition manager. Perfect Disk by Raxco is of the best IMO, but then I've only used it on XP I can't tell you whether it will work well with Vista.

 

Your Dell should have came with a Windows DVD as well as a Drivers disk so you should be fine regarding the recovery partition. But, this should usually go without saying, however. BACK UP FIRST! One wrong move in gParted, and you could lose data.

Just a few weeks ago, I got help using the gParted live CD to fill in unallocated space left behind after a odd linux install. The link to the thread is in my sig. My case took a lot more time but yours should be simple, assuming that you only have one OS installed.

The reason why you cannot resize the Vista/XP partition is because your currently using it right now-Vista/XP's partitioner won't let you adjust what's known as your "boot partition." That's a safety feature.

When you create and boot into gParted, all you'll have to do is click on the partition you want to expand and then click the Move/resize button at the top of the gParted window. Then you'll just grab the tail end of the selected partition and drag it to the right, filling in the unallocated space (that should be in a gray color in the gParted window btw.)

Note that you may have to move the unallocated space behind the partition you want to expand, if it's not there already.

Also, when your finished, depending on what you had to do to get the unallocated space back, Windows may not boot. That's when your Vista DVD comes in handy. Go ahead and pop it in and restart, making sure to boot from the DVD drive-hit F12 when the Dell logo appears on screen.

When the Vista disk loads, select your language, etc. but when it shows the option to "Install now", look for the link in the lower left hand corner of the window called "repair your computer." go ahead and click that. Windows Vista should detect that something has happened to the MBR and then repair it automatically. Then, you should be all set, just a disk check at the beginning is left, this should happen automatically when Windows boots.

 

just tried gparted. When i try to execute it says theres an error in the error checking process

 

You can't merger partitions existing in the beginning of the disk.

 

Yes, it is possible to give the C partition more space. If you have two partitions, reduce the size of the second partition, create a third partition with the left over space. Transfer your files from the second partition to the third partition. Delete the second partition. Now, you'll be able to expand your C partition.

 

i got it, there was an error on the partition, i ran check error with windows and after that i tried gparted again.

290gbs in cdrive successful! didnt even have to run windows repair.

 

Acronis True Home will also allow you to play shuffle-the-partitions, adding to, subtracting from, merging, and dividing partitions.

 

acronis wouldnt work so i had to use gparted

 

Was that before, or after, whatever error you had on the partition got squared away?

 

after, everyone works now though so im happy as a clam