Solved Need help to repartition hard drive but to keep all installed software

[webgirl]

Hi All,

several months ago my laptop's hard drive was repartitioned by our tech services/administrators without consulting with me. I didn't have a large hard drive in the first place and what they did was that they created a smaller C drive (60 GB) and a larger F (data) drive (87 GB).

I am a developer and I need a lot of specific software to be installed on C drive, I have to have Visual Studio 2008 and 2010, SQL Server 2008, Office 2010, service packs, other work related software.

I uninstalled whatever I could from C drive, I keep cleaning it, remove logs etc.

After latest Windows updates I ran out of space on C drive. I have only 2 GB left. The only "solution" that tech services offered was to completely reformat my hard drive and repartiion it again. For me it means that I will have to spend a week re-installing all the software from scratch and possibly losing stuff in the process. I can't afford it because I have work to do.

Is there a way to repartition hard drive without wiping out all the installed programs, just to increase the size of the C drive and decrease the size of the F drive?

 

[jloc]

Why don't you just copy your files over onto F:/ if that's the data drive?

 

[mickey megabyte]

hi webgirl, welcome to sevenforums,

the good news is that it's pretty easy, but can be a bit time consuming, as loads of data needs to be shuffled around.

try downloading the excellent (and free) partition wizard which offers a nice gui for partitioning tasks.

you can do it using windows built-in diskmgmt.msc, but i prefer partition wizard.

saying that, most software should still work if installed on F:

 

[webgirl]

"Why don't you just copy your files over onto F:/ if that's the data drive? " - I cannot just simply copy program files to data drive because program files are not data files. If a program is installed on C and I move files to F, program will not work.

 

[DMHolt57]

Sounds like u really don't need the other partition so easiest would be to delete it and add the unallocated space back to C:\

 

[mickey megabyte]

DMHolt, it's a very good idea to keep your data and your OS on different partitions - if you ever need to reinstall windows, you won't have to worry about your data.

the OP merely wants to resize the partitions, not get rid of them completely.

webgirl, have you looked at my suggestion (above) yet?

 

[webgirl]

I am going to ..
C partition is a little bit more protected. If some appication or even I are trying to write something to C drive, we can't. I need to provide Admin permission if I want to copy some file on C. Any program can write it's data on the data drive. This gives a little bit more security.

 

[DMHolt57]

...an even better idea is having your data backed up elsewhere, so when you can't access the hdd you can reconstruct on a new hdd. Flash drives are getting cheap...and holding more data....

 

[seavixen32]

Webgirl, all you need do is reduce the size of your F drive from the left then extend the C drive to take up the resulting unallocated space.

Partition Wizard is an ideal tool for this job, as this tutorial explains.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93322-partition-wizard-use-bootable-cd.html

It's just a pity that your drives are so small in the first place.

For that reason, I agree with DMHolt's suggestion of having all your data on an external drive, which would mean you could delete the F partition and extend C to take up all the drive space.

 

[webgirl]

So should I try to use this Best Free Partition Manager Freeware for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition. ?
I don't know if I have enough space on disk left to install it ...
It's kind of scary, what if I mess up my machine completely

 

[mickey megabyte]

it's pretty bullet-proof - so long as the power doesn't cut out halfway through the process, you'll be fine. even then, things can be restored.

over the years, i've done it many many times on lots of machines with zero problems.

it's a bit worrying the first time, but after you've done it a couple of times, you'll be doing it like a pro.

all you need do is make F: smaller, making sure that the free space gets created next to the C: partition, then make C: bigger by extending it into the empty space.

it may well take some time (several hours) as a lot of data has to be shuffled around.

quick'n'dirty graphic:

 

[Layback Bear]

Who owns this laptop you or the company or organization? From you first post.
several months ago my laptop's hard drive was repartitioned by our tech services/administrators without consulting with me.
If it belongs to a company/organization and that is the way they want it I would leave it alone until you get permission from them to change it. If it's yours I recommend installing a larger hard drive for now and for future needs. IMHO 140 gigs is not much room to work with.

 

[seavixen32]

Layback Bear makes a valid point.

If the computer is your own it would be helpful if you upload your fully expanded disk management layout so that we can give you best advice - Mickey's graphics explains things rather well though.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

I repeat, I do think you or your company should invest in more hard drive space. By today's standards, 140 GB isn't a lot.

Providing you create a system image backup first, repartitioning your hard drive is not a difficult task.

 

[dsperber]

So should I try to use this Best Free Partition Manager Freeware for Windows 7, Windows Vista, and Windows XP 32 bit & 64 bit. MiniTool Free Partition Manager Software Home Edition. ?

Yes.

I don't know if I have enough space on disk left to install it ...
It's kind of scary, what if I mess up my machine completely

How about just downloading the standalone bootable CD ISO to your F drive, and then burn the bootable CD from that ISO image file on F. Eventually you can/should also install the normal Win7 version but for the immediate issue, the standalone bootable CD is safe and 100% usable.

And besides, in order to enlarge C (your Win7 partition) you'd need to be out of Win7 and booted to the standalone CD anyway.

So you just boot to the standalone bootable CD you just burned, and you can do the resizing that's been recommended: (a) shrink F by moving its left edge to the right, and (b) enlarge C by moving its right edge to the right to pick up all space freed up by the shrinking of F.

The Partition Wizard GUI is truly intuitively obvious.

 

[webgirl]

mickey,
thank you so much for letting me know about this program. I used Mini Tool Partition Wizard and it did the magic. I have plenty of space now.

Hugs !!!

 

[mickey megabyte]

happy to help - i told you it was easy!

 

[webgirl]

Thank you everybody for your answers !

 

[mickey megabyte]

cute avatar!

 

[webgirl]

It was a cartoon from my childhood ..

 

[mickey megabyte]

you're russian?