Partition question
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First of all you should be seeing less then 320gb actual on a 320gb drive. After partitioning and formatting that should be just under 300gb actual. To shrink one partition from anywhere near 160gb down to a 20gb practically requires an empty partition. Yoiu may want to consider copying all files to the intended larger one for safe keeping, delete the intended one you plan to shrink if not already OSed, and create a new smaller one.
For expanding an existing partition a good drive tool will do that easy enough. On one 250gb drive the single partition was shrunk to about 157gb in order to have room for the second. It takes a good long time to shrink one down. Once the intended 2nd partition didn't owrk out and was removed the primary was then resized back to the 238gb original size without problems. From 238gb down to 157gb is a large jump but left plenty of space for files already on the drive. If you have some 18gb of files there you are better off backing them up first to avoid any problems.
For expanding an existing partition a good drive tool will do that easy enough. On one 250gb drive the single partition was shrunk to about 157gb in order to have room for the second. It takes a good long time to shrink one down. Once the intended 2nd partition didn't owrk out and was removed the primary was then resized back to the 238gb original size without problems. From 238gb down to 157gb is a large jump but left plenty of space for files already on the drive. If you have some 18gb of files there you are better off backing them up first to avoid any problems.
If you have only one on the second drive instead of having the drive split into two even partitions the shrinkage of the present isn't much to worry about. To reduce a 160gb down to 20gb would be.
The 238gb primary then with XP Pro was reduced to 157gb to create first a root and swap pair for Mandriva and later a second primary for Vista. When Vista refused to go onto the second partition for the dual boot that partition was removed after Vista replaced XP seeing the 157 returned to the original 238gb. No problems so far. But this was on a second drive with nothing on the second partition there.
Knowing how much drive space is used at the present moment for files on the second partition is what to look at. If you have 80gb of files you know the answer right away. Since 20gb is small in comparition to 160gb temporary storage for a small amount of files would be the idea. Once you shrink or replace the second one you then copy the files back to the smaller 20gb space available. It sounds like the second partion being used for storage and backup would see over 20gb of data/files there.
The 238gb primary then with XP Pro was reduced to 157gb to create first a root and swap pair for Mandriva and later a second primary for Vista. When Vista refused to go onto the second partition for the dual boot that partition was removed after Vista replaced XP seeing the 157 returned to the original 238gb. No problems so far. But this was on a second drive with nothing on the second partition there.
Knowing how much drive space is used at the present moment for files on the second partition is what to look at. If you have 80gb of files you know the answer right away. Since 20gb is small in comparition to 160gb temporary storage for a small amount of files would be the idea. Once you shrink or replace the second one you then copy the files back to the smaller 20gb space available. It sounds like the second partion being used for storage and backup would see over 20gb of data/files there.
The process itself is easy. You simply have to know how much drive space is currently being used on the second D partition there. You can't shrink any large partition down to 20gb if you already more then 20gb of files on it. You would first move those to the C for temp storage there and then shrink the second partition expanding the C primary afterwards. With over 20gb of files you will no longer have room for those on the D partition then reduced in size.
A good program for setting partitions is "partition magic". Google the name and go to their website.
It's not as hard as they are saying, but you do have to be careful. Read the directions for the program and it will walk you through it.
Edit:
I am linking the program for you. It will not work on vista, so if your running that you will need something else.
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=sp&pvid=pm80
It's not as hard as they are saying, but you do have to be careful. Read the directions for the program and it will walk you through it.
Edit:
I am linking the program for you. It will not work on vista, so if your running that you will need something else.
http://www.symantec.com/home_homeoffice/products/overview.jsp?pcid=sp&pvid=pm80
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Partition magic will do all of that for you. It will ask you what you want to do, and let you make the selections you need, to do what you want.
It is a very simple program to use.
Also, if your going to reformat and install XP. then you can do that when you format. It will give you an option to partition it. That is built in to the XP install disk.
It is a very simple program to use.
Also, if your going to reformat and install XP. then you can do that when you format. It will give you an option to partition it. That is built in to the XP install disk.
A free drive known as the Gnome Partition Editor or simply GParted live for cd will easily move, resize, delete, and create MS type partitions with a platform independent version. The 0.3.3.0 release found amoing several others is seen at http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=115843&package_id=173828
The screen shots for GParted are seen on the home page at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php The image here is a screen shot from the download page showing how to pick the multiple OS version and not downloading a strictly Linux version there.
At first it sounded more like you wanted to shrink the D not C primary there. But with any partition knowing how much is on matters before trying to shrink it. For removing Vista and the files and boot folder that XP can't remove you should save any file currently on C to D that can be used on the XP install later.
GParted itself will delete C and expand the current D partition easy enough once you get familiar with it. Once burned to a cd with a program like BurnOn you boot from the 35mb iso burned to cd-r bootable cd and simply press the enter key at each prompt to reach the main gui there. Ignore the 24bit-32bit settings as that will simply send you on a wild goose chase trying that.
The default 1024x768 resolution shows every menu item over the 1280x1024 which seems to hide the button to look at different hard drives if more then one is installed. Right away you will see the first ise or sata listing the partitions on your drive there. Once you highlight the C partition click the delete button and the apply and answer yes to the confirmation prompt. That will work fast so make sure you delete HDa1 if C is the first. Once that is finished click on the new button to create a new smaller primary.
You have to choose NTFS from the list of partition types from a dropdown list. That and the small size you want can be adjusted with the small up and down arrows. The click on the tab for the D partition later will see that expand into the empty drive space fast there. The XP installer will format the new primary you create with GParted when going to install Windows later. First when everything is the way you want it simply click the apply button again. The red button at the bottom right side is for ejecting cd and rebooting the system.
For a free iso burning program that works great with the GParted tool BurnOn is found at http://www.burnworld.com/burnoncddvd/
The screen shots for GParted are seen on the home page at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php The image here is a screen shot from the download page showing how to pick the multiple OS version and not downloading a strictly Linux version there.
At first it sounded more like you wanted to shrink the D not C primary there. But with any partition knowing how much is on matters before trying to shrink it. For removing Vista and the files and boot folder that XP can't remove you should save any file currently on C to D that can be used on the XP install later.
GParted itself will delete C and expand the current D partition easy enough once you get familiar with it. Once burned to a cd with a program like BurnOn you boot from the 35mb iso burned to cd-r bootable cd and simply press the enter key at each prompt to reach the main gui there. Ignore the 24bit-32bit settings as that will simply send you on a wild goose chase trying that.
The default 1024x768 resolution shows every menu item over the 1280x1024 which seems to hide the button to look at different hard drives if more then one is installed. Right away you will see the first ise or sata listing the partitions on your drive there. Once you highlight the C partition click the delete button and the apply and answer yes to the confirmation prompt. That will work fast so make sure you delete HDa1 if C is the first. Once that is finished click on the new button to create a new smaller primary.
You have to choose NTFS from the list of partition types from a dropdown list. That and the small size you want can be adjusted with the small up and down arrows. The click on the tab for the D partition later will see that expand into the empty drive space fast there. The XP installer will format the new primary you create with GParted when going to install Windows later. First when everything is the way you want it simply click the apply button again. The red button at the bottom right side is for ejecting cd and rebooting the system.
For a free iso burning program that works great with the GParted tool BurnOn is found at http://www.burnworld.com/burnoncddvd/
Just pop your XP cd in and boot to it. delete all the partitions, create a 20gb partition and install windows XP on it. After XP is installed go into disk management in windows, partition and format the rest of the drive. There you go, its that simple! Instead of all that long drawn out crap above!!
He doesn't want to delete all partitions but simply resize them. The Disk Management or installation tools for XP can't move or resize partitions.
He doesn't want to delete all partitions but simply resize them. The Disk Management or installation tools for XP can't move or resize partitions.
Read post 8 really slow!
You can just boot to your XP cd delete the first partition, create a 20gb partition, in stall XP on it. The unallocated space left merge it with your D, But when you resize a partition its always good to back up your files. But then again if you backed them all up whats the point of resizing it when you have them backed up already.
GParted can easily shrink the C primary down onve you boot with the Vista reovery or installation disk and choose the format option. Once C is shrunk down to 20gb you then install XP onto the now smaller primary. First you click the slider tab for D seen and expand D to fill in the large gap then seen followed by clicking the apply button. That's a fast shot there unless you prefer a totally new partition created as described earlier.