reformatting hard drive??? Help?

adamussg · 12-25-2007, 04:14 AM

I have an old sony vaio pcg-fxa63 laptop. It has a 20 gb hard drive in it but it has two partitions. c: is pretty much full and only has about 2gb remaining on it..........D: has 8.63 gb free and is not being used at all. Is there a way for me to reformat this hard drive so there is only one partition without losing any of my files in the process?I have 8gb right now that I am not even using and it seems like a big waste... Is there a way to do it from the administrative options in the control panel? Someone please help... I am sick of my hard drive being full every three days.

johnb35 · 12-25-2007, 04:48 AM

Back up your data to a cd or external hard drive and buy a larger hard drive. They are cheap these days even for a laptop. You would not be able to repartition your drive without losing your data. Are you sure that the second partition doesn't have your system restore data on it, in case you ever wanted to do a factory reset?

PC eye · 12-25-2007, 04:51 AM

Eliminating the 8gb and expanding the primary with all your files would be the fast means of seeing that done. You don't want to reformat anything at this time and inadvertently wipe the wrong partition or needlessly reformat the second 8gb you want to see removed.

The smart move first would be backing what you can up onto removable media if you don't have desktop where you can store files as well as copy them off of the 2.5" drive seen in the laptop. If your portable has a cd or dvd burner you can create data disks with data dvds holding far more there.

Retail programs like Partition Magic or the free Linux drive tool GParted are commonly used for resizing, creating, and removing partitions as well as the Disk Management tool found in the "Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Storage" section. Vista now sees the option to resize second or other partitions while Windows is running while XP can only delete, create, and format them. Both can see drive letters changed using the Disk Management tool.

12-25-2007, 04:14 AM	#1 (permalink)
adamussg New Member Join Date: Jan 2007 Posts: 24	reformatting hard drive??? Help? I have an old sony vaio pcg-fxa63 laptop. It has a 20 gb hard drive in it but it has two partitions. c: is pretty much full and only has about 2gb remaining on it..........D: has 8.63 gb free and is not being used at all. Is there a way for me to reformat this hard drive so there is only one partition without losing any of my files in the process?I have 8gb right now that I am not even using and it seems like a big waste... Is there a way to do it from the administrative options in the control panel? Someone please help... I am sick of my hard drive being full every three days.

12-25-2007, 04:48 AM	#2 (permalink)
johnb35 Platinum Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: IL, USA Age: 38 Posts: 739	Back up your data to a cd or external hard drive and buy a larger hard drive. They are cheap these days even for a laptop. You would not be able to repartition your drive without losing your data. Are you sure that the second partition doesn't have your system restore data on it, in case you ever wanted to do a factory reset? __________________ Motherboard - Asus P5B-E CPU - E6600 Memory - 2GB Corsair XMS2 (2x 1gb) Graphics - x1650 pro 256mb Hard Drives - 250GB WD and 250GB Samsung in Raid 1 DVD Drive - Lite-On DVD Burner - Lite-On Power Supply - Ultra 425 watt - upgrading to at least 550-600 Watt 22" Acer widescreen AL2216WBD

12-25-2007, 04:51 AM	#3 (permalink)
PC eye Diamond Member Join Date: Apr 2006 Location: Inside a pc Posts: 18,938	Eliminating the 8gb and expanding the primary with all your files would be the fast means of seeing that done. You don't want to reformat anything at this time and inadvertently wipe the wrong partition or needlessly reformat the second 8gb you want to see removed. The smart move first would be backing what you can up onto removable media if you don't have desktop where you can store files as well as copy them off of the 2.5" drive seen in the laptop. If your portable has a cd or dvd burner you can create data disks with data dvds holding far more there. Retail programs like Partition Magic or the free Linux drive tool GParted are commonly used for resizing, creating, and removing partitions as well as the Disk Management tool found in the "Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Storage" section. Vista now sees the option to resize second or other partitions while Windows is running while XP can only delete, create, and format them. Both can see drive letters changed using the Disk Management tool. __________________ Geek Goliath: Gates Says G'Bye to Microsoft http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/sto...5246378&page=1 Nitendo DS hits the classroom http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=5250297

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