Computer Question-- Partitioned Drive

[atomik kinder]

Okay, my computer has a 120Gb hard drive and it is partitioned into 20Gb for the C drive and 100Gb for the D drive. I have also added a 300Gb drive too. Anyway, my question is...can the partition be easily moved without formatting the drive or anything too time consuming like that? I have a Sony Vaio that I use to do a bit of home video transfer and video slide shows for special occasions, mostly for people I know, I have done a few jobs for family and friends of friends and co-workers. The thing is, my 20Gb space is almost completely filled and the DVD authoring program I use, Nero, transfers all of the file to the C drive, so if any files are particularly large, it will fill up my drive. The reason it seems that it is partitioned is because I have the gigapocket recorder on my computer, which I do use to copy the VHS home video tapes and to record TV.
I was thinking maybe I would just install a new, larger hard drive, but I am looking for a quick fix. Also, even though I installed a second drive, I am just worried that if I install a different one, all of my stuff won't work, like the gigapocket.
Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Yes, long winded I know.

[Hamburglar]

As far as I know, the partitioned drive (120gb) cannot be combined, "unpartitioned", removed, or fused to another drive, without having to wipe out the whole hard drive and starting fresh again, if thats what you're asking.

I was involved in a similar situation and ended up backing up most of my stuff on a external hard drive (they're pretty cheap these days) and just migrating to a larger hard drive.

Hope that helped. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

[Mr. Hanky]

I thought there was some sort of hdd management feature in XP where you can "connect" a new hdd to an existing hdd. The OS will then be able to see the 2 hdd's as one logical hdd. You can tinker with this in the Disk Management console (after right-clicking on My Computer and selecting Manage), but BE CAREFUL! You can mess up your existing hdd partitions if you don't know what you are doing.

You may have to convert your partition from Basic to Dynamic to take advantage of the multi-hdd feature (or maybe you have to format hdd's fresh from the start to get this...I don't quite remember).

On another front, you may also investigate some registry settings for the Nero installation to output to a different drive (a different path) other than the system drive. I would be surprised if there wasn't a hook for this. Again, BE CAREFUL with this, because futzing with registry settings can mess up your computer, too, if you don't know what you are doing.

[IMind]

If you're asking if you can make the 20GB partition larger while making the 100GB partition smaller. Yes you can pretty easily with a third party partition management application like Partition Magic. You can also use Partition Magic to combined two partitions into one, but I've never done that... and I'd be more hesitant to do it.

[redboxcar]

Originally Posted by IMind

If you're asking if you can make the 20GB partition larger while making the 100GB partition smaller. Yes you can pretty easily with a third party partition management application like Partition Magic. You can also use Partition Magic to combined two partitions into one, but I've never done that... and I'd be more hesitant to do it.

I have used Norton's Partition Magic and it works perfectly. It doesn't erase or format your hard drive (it CAN, but it doesn't ALWAYS)... there is a merge function that allows you to merge the two partitions together. I have used it a number of times, and the only thing I would say is be cautious because there is a very particular way you have to do it. But it will definitely work.

[atomik kinder]

Thanks for all of the information. I will look up the partition magic software. Also, I decided that I am going to get a larger hard drive for my notebook. I have already replaced it once since it died on me less than a month after getting the computer, so I know it is easy to change. I don't use if for much other than for itunes for my ipod and the hard drive is the same size as my ipod. It is almost filled! It is time for my notebook to get a workout too!

[JasonR]

You might be able to get somewhere by right clicking My Computer, going to manage, then disk management, and deleting your extended volume. If you have Vista you can expand and shrink partitions.

[UlicBelouve]

Try GPartEd, that's free, straightforward, linux-based. I'm fairly certain you can first shrink the 100GB partition, hit apply, then enlarge the 20GB partition, and hit apply. Then you're set.

Again, with any drive management tool, you get more utility out of it if you have more free space. Trying to mess with two partions that are nearly full is a pain (not implying that yours are near full on both).

I've used GPartEd (just Google it and download the ISO file, burn and boot) to make a dual-boot for Linux / Windows / Vista. You can certainly resize partions at ease. And the software is very straightforward.

[alan2308]

A lot of good info in this thread, but I didn't see it mentioned to BACK UP anything you value before trying gparted or partiton magic. They work great 99% of the time, but theres always a chance of things getting messed up.