Partition issues....HELP!!!

[Snufffed]

If you have any problems with any of the above mentioned programs.
Consider the use of Acronis Disk Director.
You do have FREE TRIAL time. As I remember it is 30 days Full Function.

http://www.acronis.com/promo/ADDS/?source=us_google&ad=adds&c=2641788107&k=acronis%20disk%20director&gclid=CK_LycTVr5oCFQzxDAodeTIqdA

at least you can read there page... I recommend it to all Noobies but experienced ppl have also found guite effective.
You have several programs to choose from, I personally recommend this program. PS: it works with Win7 v.7106 also.

 

[Night Hawk]

For seeing any secondary partition resized you can use any one of a number of programs there. For the OS/system boot primary however you can't be booted into the OS installed on it when trying to shrink or grow it.

The advantage of a tool like GParted is being booted live from a cd without any part of Windows running referring back to what SIW2 was pointing to earlier about unmovable files. Since GParted is free and versatile it tends to make that a preferred tool for seeing the Vista primary reduced in size. If you decide to boot more then one OS at some point it will be quite useful there as well.

 

[Davy7RC]

I want to try GParted but I read somewhere there are issues with the VGA card getting fried if you use a HP Pavilion computer.....I have a HP Pavilion a6009n Desktop so I'm kinda leery;even though they said it was the HP Pavilion Elite m9340f,something to do with the NVidia 9300 or something like that. Should I even try???

 

[Night Hawk]

I don't where you heard that nonsense. The latest builds automatically detect and adjust to your monitor's native resolution. Other then that the tool simply loads into ram in a non instrusive manner. The latest builds are only about 52mb in size.

For something that would cook a video card you would looking the ATI ocing tool or something along those lines. GParted on the other hand is a lightweight drive partitioning tool. It doesn't change things as far as other hardwares are concerned.

 

[Snufffed]

I am not knowledgable on GPart. but I have used and tested Acronis Disk Director. I also use a NVidia 9300GS Video card. I have increased the partition and decreased the partition more than once... I have never had a problem but I also have not tested on a HP computer. But to FRY the video card. it would seem very unlikely. in fact i'd give you odds of 1 n 10000 will fail.

 

[Night Hawk]

I would try a much, much hugher ratio like "0%"!!! In fact I just finishing resizing the OS primaries as well as recovery partitions on 3 separate drives here with the live GParted cd and then booted into both 7 RCs and Vista each on their own drive without one concern!

You'll notice that the three 500gb drives now all see equal sized partitions; one for OS, the other for backup and recovery and not one issue. It is still a good idea to backup anything you don't want to lose prior to any partition changes in the event of any mishap being seen.

 

[Davy7RC]

I downloaded and burned the GParted disc, but I tried to ues it and there's no clear directions to use it. I know to go into boot menu and bot from the DVD-CD( for me it's (E I can get to the first menu but from there it starts scanning for seems like hours and the only way to stop it was to do a hard reset by holding the power button down til it turned off...Some help????

 

[Night Hawk]

Which release did you go for? Once you first arrive at the main gui all hard drives are being scanned as they are being detected in order to list each one and any existing partitions and size information. The GParted screen should be seen as a large window as well where the first drive like the first ide or number #1 sata is in plain view.

To select a different drive you look on the right side of the menu bar where the button found there brings down the list of drives as sda1, sda2 for a drive with two primaries. Some additional screenshots you should look over for understanding how drives and partitions are shown are seen at GParted -- Screenshots

For resizing any partition you simply click on the intended once and click the resize button seen on the menu bar to bring up the slide bar with up and down arrows with the increments seen on those. For a a quick and easy method you click and hold on one end of the slide bar indicator shown there to see vertical clamps grasp the end and simply move that while watching the drive space counter increments.

Once you have the primary down as far as needed you then click the apply button and answer the confirmation prompt that comes up to watch that go through the routine. It will take a few minutes as you watch the scoll bar going back and forth until that stops.

Before all that take notice of how much free drive space is available on the C Vista primary there. And remember that ubuntu won't require any large partition to run from being a small distro in comparison to the larger server types like Mandriva, Fedora, and other Red Hat distros.

You don't to see a large change for Vista at this point being a first timer with ubuntu and shouldn't need much over 10-15gb. That will be plenty of room for the root/system partition leaving room for the 3-4gb optional extended swap. That also tends to maintain the partition table for the Windows primary not seeing a large change.

 

[myzr7]

I downloaded and burned the GParted disc, but I tried to ues it and there's no clear directions to use it. I know to go into boot menu and bot from the DVD-CD( for me it's (E I can get to the first menu but from there it starts scanning for seems like hours and the only way to stop it was to do a hard reset by holding the power button down til it turned off...Some help????

Davy Here is a link to a good how to resize with gpart. It also has a link to download the gpart iso. It has some pictures and might give you some clues to what you need to get done. I used it and it was strange acting but it got the job done and I have not seen evidence of it since. so it do its job then you take the cd out and its gone. good luck.hope you enjoy!
Using GParted to Resize Your Windows Vista Partition :: the How-To Geek

 

[Davy7RC]

I downloaded the GParted Live 0.4 4.1 ISO and burned it to a disk. When I boot it, it goes to a screen with a few different options, but I don't know which option to choose...when I tried the default mode, it goes to a BIOS-like screen and starts to scan I don't know what....and it goes on, and on and on til I have to stop it......What am I doing wrong????

 

[Night Hawk]

It may have been an incomplete download for some reason, bad burn to disk, even a bad blank you ended up with. Try a fresh download and look at the program you used for burning as well. The few found reliable here for seeing great results are the ImgBurn, BurnOn with the annoyance of an IE window ad after each burn to buy the full version, or StarBurn's free version with none of that.

The last named there can also burn video clips and create data dvds as well as burn iso images without problems. I use that regularly for 7 as well as whenever I need a new live distro burned or a newer version of GParted. Here's the links for those.

ImgBurn is rather limited but free at The Official ImgBurn Website BurnOn is also outdated but still works despite the ad windows. BurnOn CD & DVD - Free DVD Burning Software - Freeware CD burner Windows XP & Vista

And the best out of the three there StarBurn runs well on the 64bit as well as 32bit Windows. :: RocketDivision :: CD/DVD/Blu-Ray/HD-DVD recording and mastering And before anyone else jumps in DeepBurner is another oldie with a free version found at DeepBurner

StarBurn is also a light weight while offering more features over the others. The bios like screen is the main window for the GParted tool that opens up right away as you reach what now looks like a desktop in the latest releases. The old GParted simply filled the screen and was limited to the 1024x768 resolution.

(older 0.3.x.x - 0.3.4.x The 0.3.6.x releases saw problems with the automatic start x screen detection)

 

[SIW2]

Click this link in blue :

Dual Boot using free partitioning software - Vista Forums

Then click where shown in the picture:



It will be easier if you have a ps2 mouse.

 

[Snufffed]

since GPart does not work for you. (It never worked for me either).
I was told Acronis Disk Manager was made for dummies. (that is why i tested it). works for me.

If at first your version does not secede, try another version.
That is what I do...

 

[Night Hawk]

The idea behind using a drive tool like GParted live is for seeing the OS primary reduced in size while not being booted into the OS installed. There is a non guaranteed work around seen for shrinking the OS primary in Vista however. Working Around Windows Vista's "Shrink Volume" Inadequacy Problems :: the How-To Geek

 

[Davy7RC]

Well, it was going to happen sooner or later.....I totally f****d up my Vista partition while trying that Partition Manager....now I have a couple of partitions with all kinds of stuff on it. Now how do I get all these parts together and working?????

 

[SIW2]

Hi Davy,


Depends what you want to do and what you have on all those partitions you wish to keep.

Some options:

1. Easiest and quickest is to Delete B and Copy C to the unallocated space that was B.

Gives a 20gb for 7. That is enough for me as I keep my data on separate partition.


2. If you want 7 to have more than 20gb - you could Shrink D first ( depends how much free space you have on it).

Then delete B - the unallocated space will be the amount you shrank D , plus the 20gb you just got by deleting B.

Then Copy C to the unallocated space.


3. You could Move C to between D and B. This is a longer, more complex operation.

Then delete B and Extend C.

You also need to decide which you want to use as your System partition - that will contain the boot files and will be the partition you "boot through" to start up your chosen o/s.

 

[Davy7RC]

Starting over.....GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!

Oh well, since I totally screwed up my Vista partition from trying to fix my partition problems(See the "Partition Problems....Help!" thread I started a few days ago), Now I've finally have two equal sized partitions and a 7 install I don't need anymore but can't get rid of....in the screenshot it's the D: part. The C: part is now a perfectly good 7 install with plenty of space, the E: part is where I want to install Vista again, and the D: part is my old 7 install where I only have about 7.62GB of space including the installation package. How can I get rid of it??? Tried disk mngr and I can't delete it.....I'm glad there's a lot of patient ppl on here(NightHawk,Scruffy, and the others I can't remember right now...)

 

[SIW2]

Hi,

That's slightly clearer as to what you are trying to do.

You can't delete D because it is the System partition.

NOTE: If you have just copied D to C to get 7 on it, you should only need to mark C active, reboot and C will be the system partition -( you will need to run startup repair before rebooting to correct the bcd entry).



If you installed 7 again - to get it onto C then :

You can make C the System partition like this:

Go to folder options and make sure Hidden files and Protected operating sytem files are showing.

Copy the bootmgr and Boot folder from D to C. (It won't let you copy bcd as it is in use - just skip it).

Open an elevated command prompt and type :

bcdedit /export D:\Boot\bcd C:\Boot\bcd

Press Enter.

Go to Disk Management and mark C active.

Run startup repair.

Reboot - check in Disk Management - the partition on the left

(C in your screenshot) should be listed as System.



You should then be able to remove the boot menu entry for D by typing msconfig in start search - open it, click the Boot tab , highlight the entry you want to remove- Delete, Apply, OK.

You can then delete / format D.

 

[Snufffed]

What I still can not figure is "I have tested Acronis" on several different machines. and have yet to MESS any partitions up.
I'm also sure the other members have fully tested there programs, which leads me to believe that the original problem lies in Not moving -up or down in size the partitions but in the quality of the DVD (possibility lack of a proper defrag before upgrade attempt) - apparently there is a corruption somewhere in the disk or the ISO.

Now I've finally have two equal sized partitions and a 7 install I don't need anymore but can't get rid of....

if you remove that entry from the boot.ini (using which ever method you choose),(I find msconfig the easiest) then you can simply FORMAT the partition containing the 7 you do not want. I would recommend boot to DVD and format. If I was using Acronis, I'd use the Disk Wipe included, after Format.
some ppl use 3rd party programs, which work very well also, I usually show or use the included programs or methods which you can find in most Microsoft tutorials. (makes ppl trust you more), that your not doing some PIRATE things. DOS is still the greatest Windows tool going. today the use of DOS is thru the CMD (right click runas Admin). start -> cmd -> click use as admin -> popup window shows -> type Format
see below to format your way. /p:2 is lots of zeros.

L:\Windows\system32>format /?

Formats a disk for use with Windows.
FORMAT volume [/FS:file-system] [/V:label] [/Q] [/A:size] [/C] [/X] [/Passes]
[/S:state]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/F:size] [/Passes]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/T:tracks /N:sectors] [/Passes]
FORMAT volume [/V:label] [/Q] [/Passes]
FORMAT volume [/Q]
volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
mount point, or volume name.
/FS:filesystem Specifies the type of the file system (FAT, FAT32, exFAT, NTFS
,
or UDF).
/V:label Specifies the volume label.
/Q Performs a quick format. Note that this switch overrides /P.
/C NTFS only: Files created on the new volume will be compressed
by default.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary. All opened
handles to the volume would no longer be valid.
/R:revision UDF only: Forces the format to a specific UDF version
(1.02, 1.50, 2.00, 2.01, 2.50). The default
revision is 2.01.
/D UDF 2.50 only: Metadata will be duplicated.
/A:size Overrides the default allocation unit size. Default settings
are strongly recommended for general use.
NTFS supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K.
FAT supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
(128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).
FAT32 supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
(128K, 256K for sector size > 512 bytes).
exFAT supports 512, 1024, 2048, 4096, 8192, 16K, 32K, 64K,
128K, 256K, 512K, 1M, 2M, 4M, 8M, 16M, 32M.
Note that the FAT and FAT32 files systems impose the
following restrictions on the number of clusters on a volume:
FAT: Number of clusters <= 65526
FAT32: 65526 < Number of clusters < 4177918
Format will immediately stop processing if it decides that
the above requirements cannot be met using the specified
cluster size.
NTFS compression is not supported for allocation unit sizes
above 4096.
/F:size Specifies the size of the floppy disk to format (1.44)
/T:tracks Specifies the number of tracks per disk side.
/N:sectors Specifies the number of sectors per track.
/Passes Zero every sector on the volume passes times. This switch is
not valid with /Q
/S:state Where "state" is either "enable" or "disable"
Short names are enabled by default
L:\Windows\system32>

 

[Davy7RC]

Hey SIW2----which folder do I copy? the one that says Boot or the one BOOTSECT.DAK??? And when you say copy you mean right-click on it and click "copy"? Just want to be sure......don't want to mess it up!