extending partition?

[Alsenor]

According to the help files the adjacent partition should allow me to be extended and absorb the partition next to it which is free space. See screenshot. Why does it not allow it?

 

[whs]

Because it is free space within a partition and not unallocated space. Right click on it and delete the volume.

 

[gregrocker]

You wind up with Free Space when you have an Extended Logical partition which you delete sub-partitions within. As Wolfgang says, you need to delete the Free Space to get Unallocated Space you can extend a Primary partition into.

 

[Alsenor]

Because it is free space within a partition and not unallocated space. Right click on it and delete the volume.

This is the result:

 

[pparks1]

You have to have the "unallocated" space directly to the right of the drive that you want to expand. With your picture above, you could expand the D drive with the unallocated space to the right of it. However, if you want to expand the C drive...you would have to delete the D drive partition immediately to it's right to do it.

Oops...didn't read closely enough. As the message says, it sees this recovery partition as having boot files and won't let you change it.

You might have better luck with something like Gparted. It's a bootable .ISO that you can freely download to resize drives. It works outside of windows...so you aren't hampered with the limitations of Windows as shown above.

 

[Alsenor]

You have to have the "unallocated" space directly to the right of the drive that you want to expand. With your picture above, you could expand the D drive with the unallocated space to the right of it.

That is exactly what I want to do, but as my screenshot shows, it does not let me!

However, if you want to expand the C drive...you would have to delete the D drive partition immediately to it's right to do it.

I didn't intend to expand the C partition. Also, it is not adjacent!
The D is where the restore points are kept, and I want to make room for more.
There may be a reason that the system doesn't allow it to be made larger?

 

[Night Hawk]

Your best option there is GParted live for cd where you would start off by moving the factory image(D) partition all the way to the right being the rear of the drive. The move will take some time however while nowhere as long as a few hundred GBs!

The latest 0.6.2-5 release of GParted is seen at Browse GParted Files on SourceForge.net

The 3rd link in the green area "Newest Files" when clicking the "View all files" button will be for the ISO disk image you burn to a cd-r. If you need a burning program that works well on the 64bit 7 go for the free version of StarBurn at :: RocketDivision :: CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD recording and mastering

ImgBurn is what many will point to but was written for the 32bit XP and doesn't like the 64bit Windows too well. If you have a small usb flash drvie you can also see the disk image written to that to make up a boot from flash drive key and load GParted from that. The same shareware version of UltraISO used for 7 install keys will write the image when selecting the "bootable" option along the menu bar. http://www.ezbsystems.com/ultraiso/index.html

(comes in handy for writting live distros too )

 

[MacGyvr]

You have to have the "unallocated" space directly to the right of the drive that you want to expand. With your picture above, you could expand the D drive with the unallocated space to the right of it.

That is exactly what I want to do, but as my screenshot shows, it does not let me!

However, if you want to expand the C drive...you would have to delete the D drive partition immediately to it's right to do it.

I didn't intend to expand the C partition. Also, it is not adjacent!
The D is where the restore points are kept, and I want to make room for more.
There may be a reason that the system doesn't allow it to be made larger?

FYI, restore points are stored on all drives and contain the information to restore that particular drive. In other words, if you have issues on the C: drive, more room on D: won't help you.

 

[gregrocker]

Make your Recovery Disks and then you don't have to worry about deleting the Recovery partition or moving it to the end of the drive. There are no boot files on it.

If you decide to move it, use free Partition Wizard bootable CD which is tool we use to help hundreds of similar operations here. http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93322-partition-wizard-use-bootable-cd.html

In this case, boot PW CD, rightclick Factory Recovery then Click/hold and slide the whole partition intact to the right end of the HD, click OK. Next rightclick Win7 partition and drag the left grey border all the way to the right to take up the space OK, Apply.

 

[Phone Man]

I use Partition Wizard
BEST FREE Partition Manager Software for Windows supports all 32-bit & 64 bit Windows No-server OS.

it is free and works great.
Read this link to move/resize partitions.

Resize Partition for Windows Server 2000/2003/2008 – Move/Resize Partition safely

Jim

 

[Dwarf]

The D partition on your drive, in common with many computers particularly laptops, is where the manufacturers place an image of the preloaded OS so that you can restore the original factory state of your machine should the need arise. On many systems, this is also super-hidden and only accessible by means of pressing F12 (or whatever key your manual says) during BOOT (just after the BIOS screen).

I recommend that, until you create the factory restore disks, you do not touch this partition at all (I notice that it was called FACTORY_IMAGE).

There is nothing stopping you in allocating and formatting the free space - you can choose the letter you give to it providing no other device/partition shares that letter.

 

[gigabyte]

hi guys i have a question. here goes at one stage i was gonna add partions to my harddrive i was gonna break it into 3 or 4 partions for example i was gonna make a partion for my os and other for download music files or movies. but the guy at the computer shop told me not to because it will slow ur computer down is this true?

 

[gregrocker]

No it isn't true, Gigabyte. Use Disk Management to shrink whichever partition you want to break up into smaller one(s).
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2672-partition-volume-shrink.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html

You can move your User files to another partition which protects them in case your OS ever becomes irreparable - you just reimage or reinstall your OS and your data will be waiting in the separate partition(s). Here's how to move the User files to new partition: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

You need a separate HD or external HD to back up your System Image to: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/663-backup-complete-computer-create-image-backup.html Then you never have to reinstall again, just reimage the HD or it's replacement in 15 minutes. Keep a set of files backed up on your external or secondary HD, too.

 

[whs]

I think we are talking about the wrong problem. The OP said: "D is where the restore points are stored". As was already pointed out, that is not correct. However, D is the default for storing during Data backup. I therefore suggest NOT to extend D (which is a bad idea anyhow since it is the recovery partition) but define a new partition in this available space and direct the data backup to that new partition (change the drive letter for data backup).

 

[Alsenor]

I did go to my PW just to see what it offers, and it did expand the D partition.
I have my rescue disks, and used that in the past for boot recovery.
But I noticed that my system claimed that no restore points were available I figured it may be out of room on D.

 

[whs]

I did go to my PW just to see what it offers, and it did expand the D partition.
I have my rescue disks, and used that in the past for boot recovery.
But I noticed that my system claimed that no restore points were available I figured it may be out of room on D.

Again, Restore points are not on D but on the partition where they were activated. D is only the default location for file backups. For your OS, you must activate the restore points on C. You can check which restore points exist. Open an elevated (run as Admin) Command Prompt and type: vssadmin list shadows. That will show you all restore points on all partitions.
PS: Extending D is not such a good idea. It is your recovery patition and should never be touched except for full system recovery (reset to factory state).

 

[Alsenor]

I tried using my PM now and it did expand the D partition.
I do have recovery disks, and have used them before to repair a booting problem. That is when I noticed that there were no restore points in my system. Figuring D was out of room I wanted to expand it, assuming that was where the restore points reside.

 

[whs]

You are just repeating your story. Did you read my post #16 and did you check with vssadmin whether there are any restore points.

 

[Alsenor]

You are just repeating your story. Did you read my post #16 and did you check with vssadmin whether there are any restore points.

Sorry, that what old guys supposedly do. I don't even know how to get to the command prompt screen in W7.

 

[whs]

Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > right click on Comand Prompt > Open as administrator. Then type or paste vssadmin list shadows and hit Enter. It will list all the restore points on the system. Look for the partition letter. See below example of one restore point on my system.