partitions

Hi,
My 80GB hard drive is partitoned into 20GB & 60GB. I would like to make it
40 GB & 40GB. I s this possible without losing any data? The 60GB partition
is currently unused.
--
kelk.

"kelk" wrote in message
...
Hi,
My 80GB hard drive is partitoned into 20GB & 60GB. I would like to make it
40 GB & 40GB. I s this possible without losing any data? The 60GB partition
is currently unused.

There are 3 ways that I know of doing what you want. A 3rd party
partitioning app. like Partition Magic, any of the many imaging programs can
be used to image what you have to cd/dvd/2nd hard drive and then re-image
and change the partition size or do a reinstall and changing the partition
size during the process.
If you currently have a 60gb partition that you are not using why not just
make 1 80gb partition and not worry about it becoming too small down the
road.

XP does not allow you to resize or merge partitions. You will need a
utility like Partition Magic 8. However, nothing is guarantied so a backup
of your files would be recommended.


"kelk" wrote in message
...
Hi,
My 80GB hard drive is partitoned into 20GB & 60GB. I would like to make it
40 GB & 40GB. I s this possible without losing any data? The 60GB
partition
is currently unused.
--
kelk.

Hi, Kelk.

The only tool WinXP offers for resizing a partition (as opposed to creating
and deleting partitions) is DiskPart.exe, which you can enter from a "DOS"
window. But it has so many gotchas that it must be used with great care.
Search Help and Support for "extend" - and don't stop reading after the
first screen! Then open a "DOS" window and type Disk to enter that shell.
(Type Exit to return to the Command Prompt.) In the shell, Dir will get you
a list of nearly 2 dozen functions. (Note that Disk.exe is NOT the same as
the more-limited Disk command in the Recovery Console.)

The main gotcha in your case is that it won't work on the System Partition
or Boot Volume - and that's what your 20 GB partition is. You'll need to
physically remove your HD and add it temporarily as a secondary drive in
another WinXP computer, where that partition will be "just another
partition" to that copy of WinXP. Run Disk /extend there, and then move the
HD back home. But first you'll have to delete the 60 GB partition so that
there will be nothing but unallocated space following the 20 GB partition;
even if it is "unused", space within a partition is still allocated to that
partition and not available to disk /extend.

If this is not a feasible solution in your case, you'll need third-party
software, such as Partition Magic or BootItNG. Or the old faithful:
backup; repartition; reformat; restore.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"kelk" wrote in message
...
Hi,
My 80GB hard drive is partitoned into 20GB & 60GB. I would like to make it
40 GB & 40GB. I s this possible without losing any data? The 60GB
partition
is currently unused.
--
kelk.

Another option is to move programmes, data files etc to the second
partition leaving the each partition as it is. If you wants details ask.


--


Hope this helps.

Gerry
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"kelk" wrote in message
...
Hi,
My 80GB hard drive is partitoned into 20GB & 60GB. I would like to
make it
40 GB & 40GB. I s this possible without losing any data? The 60GB
partition
is currently unused.
--
kelk.

Splitting your drive into partitions has disadvantages. Keeping your data
all in one partition in separate folders is much slicker.

By today's standards 40GB partitions are small and fiddly and probably not
worth the effort. Think again.


"kelk" wrote in message
...
Hi,
My 80GB hard drive is partitoned into 20GB & 60GB. I would like to make it
40 GB & 40GB. I s this possible without losing any data? The 60GB
partition
is currently unused.
--
kelk.

On Sat, 5 Mar 2005 12:23:33 -0000, "Bad Wind"
wrote:

Splitting your drive into partitions has disadvantages. Keeping your data
all in one partition in separate folders is much slicker.

By today's standards 40GB partitions are small and fiddly and probably not
worth the effort. Think again.


The above is a poor opinion not fact.

"kelk" wrote in message
...
Hi,
My 80GB hard drive is partitoned into 20GB & 60GB. I would like to make it
40 GB & 40GB. I s this possible without losing any data? The 60GB
partition
is currently unused.
--
kelk.

A pay for program called Partition Magic can easily do this and much
more. I happen to use 4-5 partitions per drive, keeping C small for
imaging, one for applications downloaded, one for mps, one for photos
etc.