Windows 7: Expanding Windows 7 partition

Hello all,

I'm in the process of trying to expand my Windows 7 partition. However, I'm not entirely sure how to go about it in my particular circumstances.



I have about 7 gigs of unallocated space immediately prior on the drive to the System Reserved boot partition, with Windows 7 itself immediately following that.

Due to this layout I can't expand the Windows 7 partition directly; the partitioner also doesn't seem to offer any option to move either the boot or the 7 partition in front of the unallocated space to at least place the Windows 7 partition next to the unallocated space.

I would move the partitions with a different tool such as GParted, but I'm concerned that this may make it impossible to boot Windows 7 once again, as moving a Windows Vista partition once did.

I wonder whether anyone could offer some advice?

Well..... SIW2....here we go again.....

A couple of questions.

1) Is it a multi boot configuration?

2) How manny physical HDDs do you have?

3) Do you have a disk imaging tool and are you comfortable with it?

IMO the first step is to get rid of the "System Reserved" partition.

There are a couple of options available.

There is a thread that expands on the topic, the cause and corrective steps: http://www.sevenforums.com/software/...es-work-6.html

You can peruse it for info but the exact method for your case may depend on the 3 questions above.

Daniel

Do you really need the 7 gigs?
K

zigzag3143: unfortunately yes.

Muad Dib: SIW2?

It's a multi-boot configuration in the sense that I have two Linux distros and the GRUB bootloader installed, yes. Windows 7 is the only system from the Windows family I have.

I have one physical HDD.

I can use dd to image a drive; I've never felt comfortable using most disk imaging software as they seem often to blow the task a bit out of proportion.

My concern is that getting rid of the System Reserved partition will leave me unable to boot 7.

Ah, looking at a post there by SIW2 and now I think I understand.

Check the thread I referenced. Windows 7 created the "System Reserved" partition because it could not find an existing ACTIVE, PRIMARY partition. So it installed to the partition specified in the install and created System Reserved to install the necessary Windows 7 bootloader files.

If you don't have a lot of time invested in the Windows 7 install the simplest method to get rid of the System Reserved might be to delete the System Reserved and the Windows 7 install partitions. Create a new Primary partition, make it Active and re-instalkl Windows 7.

However, there may be other factors related to your Linux distros and Grub bootloader that I am not familiar with. And yes, you could lose the ability to boot. However the "System Reserved" parttion complicates things, it does not simplify the matter.

Note SIW2 is another forum member who is familiar with the Windows Bootloader.

So you don't hava a second HDD to do an image backup to?

Or, rather, it seems to have created it because it couldn't find an active primary partition which was formatted with a Windows filesystem. I use an ext3 partition which is both primary and active to cordon off GRUB.

Sadly I have quite a lot of time invested and indeed no second HDD to back it up to.

I'm well-versed in the repair of GRUB after installing a Windows OS thankfully, and I have a number of rescue and LiveCDs which provide me with suitable environments for recovery.

That is good news!

I make no claim to being an experienced GRUBBER and am reticent to offer any more suggestions.

However, there are others in the forum that are and perhaps they could address any other questions you may have.