# Solved: Partitioning unallocated space



## Little Owl (Sep 6, 2007)

Well, I say 'partitioning', but I'd rather not have to!

I have about 20GB of unallocated space on my laptop hard disc, running XPsp2 . How do I allocate it without having to reinstall all the stuff that is currently on the allocated part? 

I've never tried doing anything like this, so I'd be grateful if you could keep it simple!

Thanks!


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## Triple6 (Dec 26, 2002)

If you just want to use that space as a second partition with its own drive letter its really easy. You can use Disk Management to create a new partition, format it, and assign it a new drive letter.

Here's more info on Disk Management and how to get to it: http://www.theeldergeek.com/disk_management.htm

Once there just right click on the Unallocated Space and create a new partition and format it.


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## mt2002 (Sep 14, 2005)

With Windows, you can create it as a separate partition, and create a logical drive for it. i.e., It will have another drive letter (i.e., F: ).

You can also use software like Partition Magic (Cost money) to resize the primary partition.

There might be other options--It really depends on what you want to do.


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## Little Owl (Sep 6, 2007)

That's great thanks - much easier than I expected. I decided to settle for a new partition, and it is currently formatting.

Cheers! :up:


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## bearone2 (Jun 4, 2004)

or you could have merged it, which is what i did.


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## Little Owl (Sep 6, 2007)

How did you do that?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

The merge finction is part of Vista's Disk Management, but not XP's. If you have XP, you'd need to do it with a third-party partitioning tool or a Vista DVD.

Do you want to merge?


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## Little Owl (Sep 6, 2007)

Ideally, yes, but I have created a second partition now. I don't have Vista, so that's no go.


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## bearone2 (Jun 4, 2004)

Elvandil said:


> The merge finction is part of Vista's Disk Management, but not XP's. If you have XP, you'd need to do it with a third-party partitioning tool or a Vista DVD.
> 
> Do you want to merge?


i did it within xp/disk management and have posted the story before.

no 3rd party software was used.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

bearone2 said:


> i did it within xp/disk management and have posted the story before.
> 
> no 3rd party software was used.


Can you post instructions?


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## bearone2 (Jun 4, 2004)

Elvandil said:


> Can you post instructions?


it's been 6-7 years when xp 1st came out.

i had a 40g hd but only formatted 4g for win98, not sure i'd like xp and left the rest unallocated.

this is what i remember doing.

To extend a basic volume
Open Command Prompt. 
Type: 
diskpart

At the DISKPART prompt, type: 
list volume

Make note of the number of the basic volume you want to extend.

At the DISKPART prompt, type: 
select volume n

Selects the basic volume, n, you want to extend into contiguous, empty space on the same disk.

At the DISKPART prompt, type: 
extend [size=n]

Extends the selected volume by size=n megabytes (MB).

Value Description 
list volume Displays a list of basic and dynamic volumes on all disks. 
select volume Selects the specified volume, where n is the volume number, and shifts the focus to it. If no volume is specified, the select command lists the current volume with focus. You can specify the volume by number, drive letter, or mount point path. On a basic disk, selecting a volume also gives the corresponding partition focus. 
extend Extends the volume with focus into next contiguous unallocated space. For basic volumes, the unallocated space must be on the same disk as, and must follow (be of higher sector offset than) the partition with focus. A dynamic simple or spanned volume can be extended to any empty space on any dynamic disk. Using this command, you can extend an existing volume into newly created space. 
If the partition was previously formatted with the NTFS file system, the file system is automatically extended to occupy the larger partition. No data loss occurs. If the partition was previously formatted with any file system format other than NTFS, the command fails with no change to the partition.

You cannot extend the current system or boot partitions.

size=n The amount of space, in megabytes (MB), to add to the current partition. If you do not specify a size, the disk is extended to take up all of the next contiguous unallocated space.

Notes

To open command prompt, click Start, point to All Programs, point to Accessories, and then click Command Prompt. 
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure. 
To extend a basic volume, it must be formatted with the NTFS file system. 
You can only extend a basic volume onto the same disk. 
You can only extend a basic volume if it is followed by contiguous unallocated space. 
For more information about DiskPart, click Related Topics. 
Related Topics


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## Little Owl (Sep 6, 2007)

Thanks - unfortunately this seems to need the space to be unallocated, and I (rashly) created a new partition last night. I can't delete the partition through disk management ('delete partition' is greyed out for the new drive), even though it contains nothing visible (but 1.5GB of something invisible). I really don't want to be trying to use Fdisk.

Looks like I've got to buy Partition Magic or get used to having a second partition.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Don't use Partition Magic. It has caused nothing but problems. Take a look around the forum and see how many systems were lost because of it. Gparted, in all its incarnations (including Parted Magic) is a much better tool.

The new partition should not be grayed out. What type of partition? Do you have a page file on it? How is it designated in Disk Management?

Partitioning Tools-->

Free:

CloneZilla GParted LiveCD (Complete partitioning and drive imaging/restoration tools)
SystemRescueCD
Gparted LiveCD
Parted Magic
Vista Recovery Disk (Shrink, expand, create, delete partitions)
Free Paragon Hard Drive Manager 8.0 Special Edition (Make recovery CD for offline partitioning or defrag.)
XP Recovery Console CD image (Create and delete partitions with diskpart.exe)
Partition Logic
Ranish Partition Manager
Cute Partition Manager

Shareware:

Paragon Partition Manager
Paragon Hard Disk Manager
Terabyte BootIt NG
Acronis Disk Director
V-Com (Avanquest) Partition Commander
EASEUS Partition Manager
7Tools Partition Manager
Spotmau Partition Genius


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## Little Owl (Sep 6, 2007)

I don't know what some of this means, but the info in Disk Management describes it as 'New Volume' and says that it is a basic, NTFS, Healthy (Page File) and 95% free.

Thanks for the list of software - I'm investigating the GParted-Clonezilla LiveCD.


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

Just to clarify, you can use diskpart to extend a partition into contiguous unallocated space however you cannot extend a system partition ie C:


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

If you remove the page file from the drive, you should be able to manipulate it in Disk Management.

How did the page file get assigned there?


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## Little Owl (Sep 6, 2007)

Crjdriver, will I be able to extend the system partition using third party software?

Elvandil, I created the partition and told it to format, then I put a spreadsheet in there and loaded some software to test the partition, but removed them. I'm not really sure what it means when it says page file.

How do I remove the page file? Going through My Computer shows that there is nothing in there.


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

Little Owl said:


> Crjdriver, will I be able to extend the system partition using third party software?
> 
> Elvandil, I created the partition and told it to format, then I put a spreadsheet in there and loaded some software to test the partition, but removed them. I'm not really sure what it means when it says page file.
> 
> How do I remove the page file? Going through My Computer shows that there is nothing in there.


Sure, you can use something like acronis disk director to expand the system partition. You just cannot use the MS tool diskpart to expand a system partition. Diskpart has an expand function however it does not work with system partitions.

As posted above do not use partition magic. It used to be a decent app before being purchased by symantec. It is no longer worth anything.


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## Little Owl (Sep 6, 2007)

crjdriver said:


> As posted above do not use partition magic. It used to be a decent app before being purchased by symantec. It is no longer worth anything.


Thanks for that - symantec, the kiss of death.  It took me _years_ to recover from the trauma of fighting to get Norton off my system... 

Do you think I'll be able to delete the partition as it stands with something like acronis or GParted, or have I still got to sort out this page file stuff?


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

Post a screenshot of disk management. A page file should not be on this new partition unless you moved or created one there.


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## Little Owl (Sep 6, 2007)

Here it is.


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

Ok, you are going to have to change the page file from E to C. Since C has only about 1.5gig free, it is going to have to be a very small page file. Once you get this sorted out, you can increase the size of the page file.

*Before doing anything, I would make a backup of anything important ie docs, work files, etc.* Next do a disk cleanup and delete all but the latest restore point. This will help you with the space on C. The next is from memory since I do not use xp. Go to control panel>system>advanced and choose the performance tab or button. You are going to have to set a custom page file size on C and remove the page file from E. Just set the page file to a size of something like 250 meg or so. Once you are all done, you will need to restart. After the restart you should then be able to delete the E partition and expand C into the unallocated space. Once all finished, you can then change your page file back to windows managed or set whatever size you want.


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## Little Owl (Sep 6, 2007)

Aah - thanks! I have got rid of the partition. I have to go out now, but I will be downloading acronis or GParted later to try to expand c: into the space that is once again unallocated.

I'll report back when (I hope) it is all sorted out.

Thanks again.


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

Good work.


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## bearone2 (Jun 4, 2004)

then what is the 2nd, extending a system partition, how are they different as, in my case, the partition grew/changed (probably not the right term) from 4g to the full 40g.


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## managed (May 24, 2003)

Just to be different Microsoft use 'System' for the partition that has the _Boot_ files on it (in XP Boot.ini, NTDETECT.COM and ntldr)

They use 'Boot' for the partition with the _Windows System_ files on it (ie the \Windows folder plus all the rest)

The same partition can be both Boot and System (or System and Boot )


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## Little Owl (Sep 6, 2007)

It's all sorted out now. I have most of my unallocated space in my system (boot) partition, just waiting to be filled up.

I tried every one of the free software programs, and had problems with them all - research showed that they were insurmountable problems based on my hardware or drive type, or other mysterious factors. I'm sure they're great if they fit your profile, but they didn't fit mine.

I ended up buying Acronis Disk Director, which was unbelievably simple to use - so, for anyone having the same problem, this is a very big recommendation. I paid £9.99 on Ebay for a new copy without a manual, and it took literally seconds to resize my partition.

Thank you so much to those who have helped me on here - especially Elvandil and crjdriver. It never ceases to amaze me that there are so many people on the internet who are happy to freely share their expertise. I've learned a great deal from such people - and a little bit more now.

:up:


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## crjdriver (Jan 2, 2001)

You are welcome; glad it worked for you. Yes, acronis it a very good app. That is why I recommend their products.


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