Increasing Partitions the EASY way...

AstaLaVista · May 30, 2009

It seems today is my day for asking goofy questions

My windows 7 dual boot OS is the one I use to play all my games now, which by the way, I did not know this would be the case, hence, why I only made it about 40 GBs, leaving the Vista partition the bigger of the two.

Well, it has come time to install, yet, another game but I only have about 5 GBs left and the game needs 10GBs to install. Sure, I could uninstall the other 2 games I have already installed but, I am only half way done with them.

Anyways, I have plenty of space on my Vista partition and I would like to know if Acronis Disk Director is as easy to use as I have read. Aside from this, do I need to be worry about loosing any info (images, documents, etc, etc) on my Vista OS once I start the process or should I stop worrying so much.

Thanks and enjoy the rest of the weekend folks

The Cool Guy · May 31, 2009

Did you try the disk management method?

AstaLaVista · May 31, 2009

The Cool Guy said:
Did you try the disk management method?

As in the one that probably comes with Vista or windows 7? if so... Nope.

The question still stand though... am I safe to run it w/o having to make a complete or some sort of back up?

Edit: I did check it out but it seems this only works for Offline files and not for making a partition bigger... did I look in the wrong section?

The Cool Guy · May 31, 2009

You don't have to back up your files or something, just resizing the partition won't bring you any harm.
Look here- http://www.vistax64.com/tutorials/95398-disk-management-shrink-partition.html?ltr=D

AstaLaVista · May 31, 2009

Ok, thanks... I'll try that.

The Cool Guy · May 31, 2009

Your welcome, AstalaVista

AstaLaVista · Jun 19, 2009

I am sorry it took a while to comeback to this, I have been unable to try this until today and just when I was ready to do it, I had another question that I want to ask before I cry the weekend away.

I read on that tutorial that you won't loose any data, which is great, but I also read that it will create a new partition and that is not what I really want.

Keeping with my initial request, if I were to shrink the partition on Vista (80.4GB), would that increase the partition I already have on win 7 (38.1GB) or would it just create a new partition leave win 7 the same size?

In other words, what I really want to do is increase the Win 7 partition w/o loosing anything on the Vista OS.

Sorry again for going on tangents, I know how much of a pita I can be trying to explain what I want.

stew2 · Jun 19, 2009

Hi astalavista

Using the built in windows partition manager you can shrink any partitition but you can only extend a partiition to the right. For example if you have two partitions C: containing Vista and D: containg windows 7 then you can shrink either one but youll only be able to extend the C: drive into the new space.

If you want to extend D: then you'll need Acronis Disk Director or something else. I use the one by Acronis and its really simple to use and i didnt lose any data. Im going to do this myself tomorrow as i just installed the Orange box and the hl2 mod and it takes up 32GB :shock:

so im running low on space.

garysgold · Jun 19, 2009

Disk management can only add space that is to the immediate right of the partition you want to add the space too. Since shrinking the Vista drive will create unallocated space to the right of the vista partition, you will not be able to add it to the W7 partition. In order to add space to a partition that is to the left of the partition requires a third party partitioning tool. This is because files will need to be moved and disk management can't do that. I use Paragon, but it's not free. Gparted live boots from CD if I remember correctly. So could try that. I recommend a backup if moving stuff around. Just in case.

SIW2 · Jun 19, 2009

Hi AstaLaVista,

The best of doing it free may be;

1. use Vista Disk Management to shrink Vista partition the required amount. Leave it as unallocated space.

2, Download Gparted free, burn the .iso image to cd .

SourceForge.net: GParted: Downloading ...

SourceForge.net: GParted: Files

Boot the Gparted cd and use it to incorporate the unallocated space you just created into the 7 partition . It may take a while to complete.

3. Boot the 7 dvd and do a startup repair.

jblim1980 · Jun 20, 2009

^Totally agrees!!!

AstaLaVista · Jun 20, 2009

stew2 said:
Hi astalavista

Using the built in windows partition manager you can shrink any partitition but you can only extend a partiition to the right. For example if you have two partitions C: containing Vista and D: containg windows 7 then you can shrink either one but youll only be able to extend the C: drive into the new space.

If you want to extend D: then you'll need Acronis Disk Director or something else. I use the one by Acronis and its really simple to use and i didnt lose any data. Im going to do this myself tomorrow as i just installed the Orange box and the hl2 mod and it takes up 32GB so im running low on space.

OK, I have Acronis suite & Disk Director and I have used it a couple of times to make an image of my fresh install but never
to make a partition so I am a little skeptical to use it but, hey... you only live once, right!

SIW2 said:
Hi AstaLaVista,

The best of doing it free may be;

1. use Vista Disk Management to shrink Vista partition the required amount. Leave it as unallocated space.

2, Download Gparted free, burn the .iso image to cd .

SourceForge.net: GParted: Downloading ...

SourceForge.net: GParted: Files

Boot the Gparted cd and use it to incorporate the unallocated space you just created into the 7 partition . It may take a while to complete.

3. Boot the 7 dvd and do a startup repair.

Hmmmm, I also have Gparted since I used it to make my Dual Vista + Windows 7 boot but, I was following a HOW TO and I didn't really care if I botched the thing cos I had nothing to loose.

This time around though, I do and it doesn't look to be to user friendly for a layman like me... Arrrggghhhh, I so want to try that new cinematic mod for HL2 but I don't want to make a backup or anything, I am to stressed out this week.

I may just installed the game on my other drive even if is not as fast as the velociraptor.

Thanks folks, don't think that I am an ingrate, I really, really do appreciate all the help I get from you all.

stew2 · Jun 20, 2009

Heres what i did today, its dead simple:

Defraged both my partitions fully with PerfectDisk
Launch Acronis Disk Director and choose Automatic mode
Click Increase Free Space on the left hand side
Click on D: drive as i wanted to make it bigger and then clicked Next
Click on C: drive then click Next
In the box that then appears i typed in the size i wanted D: drive to be (or you can use the slider) and then clicked Next
Then click on Finish and it will take you back to the start page where there is a checkered flag. Click on it to confirm the changes and your system will reboot and begin the process of changing the partition sizes.

And thats it, its so simple it should have been built into Vista in the first place.

The Cool Guy · Jun 20, 2009

stew2 said:
Heres what i did today, its dead simple:

Defraged both my partitions fully with PerfectDisk

Launch Acronis Disk Director and choose Automatic mode

Click Increase Free Space on the left hand side

Click on D: drive as i wanted to make it bigger and then clicked Next

Click on C: drive then click Next

In the box that then appears i typed in the size i wanted D: drive to be (or you can use the slider) and then clicked Next

Then click on Finish and it will take you back to the start page where there is a checkered flag. Click on it to confirm the changes and your system will reboot and begin the process of changing the partition sizes.

And thats it, its so simple it should have been built into Vista in the first place.

My word, why didn't I even think about that??

I've used that like so many times, and I never even thought about it. Sorry AstalaVista, I could have said this long ago, but say your thanks to Stew here, doing a great job everyday.

stew2 · Jun 20, 2009

The Cool Guy said:
doing a great job everyday.

Lol, thanks CoolGuy

The Cool Guy · Jun 20, 2009

stew2 said:
The Cool Guy said:

doing a great job everyday.

Click to expand...

Lol, thanks CoolGuy

Welcome, Stew.

AstaLaVista · Jun 20, 2009

Tomorrow is Fathers Day and the wife has told me she has something special planned for me, hinted that the kids will be out of the house after lunch, and since I almost know what it is, I will try to do this during the week, otherwise, if I botch this and loose any of her pictures or documents, I will miss out on some serious adult time... I am sure I don't have to draw you married man a picture, right?

You have my thanks gentleman :D

Increasing Partitions the EASY way...

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