question on primary partion

S

sandcracker21

Member
I have a quick question....I have a dell computer and they have put 10 gigs of my HDD as a partion for 'backup' purposes

I would like to get back those 10 gigs since I have just got a second HDD for backup purposes...how would I go about doing this?

NOTE: I have vista running
 
I believe Vista will let you resize your partitions, just delete the 10GB one and resize your main partition. Backup all your important data first.

If Vista will not let you, you may have to use a 3rd party tool like partition magic or gparted.
 
That 10gb is likely the hidden recovery partition used for bringing the system back to factory condition when and if Windows has a glitch or gets hit with a virus. If you are using the branded recovery disks or as now seen on the XPS models a key combo for a complete system restore that has to remain intact for the preinstalled OS.

If you have your own full install dvd for Vista and not one locked to the machine then you could use a disk imaging program like Norton Ghost or Acronis in order to preserve the 10gb on a second drive and simply use the drive tools on the Vista dvd or a 3rd party tool like Cromewell pointed to there for seeing the primary expanded.

If this is on a new or model recently bought still seeing the original Dell service warranty you would simply ignore the 10gb and utilize the second drive added in to see the extra space there rather then voiding the warranty. If out of warranty and you do have a full install retail or unbranded OEM disk then you can simply wipe the 10gb since that is no longer needed and simply expand into the then non allocated drive space using the Vista dvd's tools or a 3rd party drive tool.

One thing to add further is Vista can not expand the primary OS partition while booted in Windows. You can work with any other partitions with the Disk Management tool however for creation, deletion, formatting, reformatting, and resizing. This is also seen with the drive tools on the installation dvd as well where you simply boot like you were installing fresh and cancel the installation once finished with the drive tool options there.
 
PC eye said:
If this is on a new or model recently bought still seeing the original Dell service warranty you would simply ignore the 10gb and utilize the second drive added in to see the extra space there rather then voiding the warranty. If out of warranty and you do have a full install retail or unbranded OEM disk then you can simply wipe the 10gb since that is no longer needed and simply expand into the then non allocated drive space using the Vista dvd's tools or a 3rd party drive tool.
Click to expand...

I guess I will just leave it then, as this is a brand new XPS system. I was just wondering because my primary drive is a WD Raptor and it is much faster than my backup drive

Also, how exactly would I use my new drive to create a partion that can mirror my OS and all the important system files and whatnot?

sorry for sounding stupid, but I have never done this and I got the drive bare OEM
 
No you wouldn't want to viod the warranty on a new XPS for sure. This is why I had to jump in fast about the 10gb recovery files stored in a compressed form there for the preinstalled copy of Vista as well as the software/device drivers that were included there.

If you have never worked with a drive partitioning tool before the best for you is simply learning how to use the Disk Management tool where you can review the information at the MS page.http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-US/Help/3ccec49c-2c67-4ff7-b672-ea1d32977aa81033.mspx

The Disk Management tool is found in the Control Panel under "Administrative Tools>Computer Management>Storage" where you then click the + plus sign next to Storage to open that up. The image here shows how that will look.



When you look at the image there you will see the Vista primary drive as the first with XP on the second drive here, two optical drives, and even the external usb drive in use. Note these already have working partitions where you will see one drive will be showing a total for the actual amount of unallocated drive space(bare, blank drive space). You can simply right click on that to choose the create primary partition type folowed by right clicking again to select the format option.
 
PC eye said:
One thing to add further is Vista can not expand the primary OS partition while booted in Windows.
Click to expand...

Yes, it can. It think this has been covered before.

But if it is actually a recovery partition, it is probably located before the OS partition, and then the problem is different. And then Vista will not be able to expand, but if the free space is located behind the OS partition, it is very possible
 
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tyttebøvs said:
Yes, it can. It think this has been covered before.

But if it is actually a recovery partition, it is probably located before the OS partition, and then the problem is different. And then Vista will not be able to expand, but if the free space is located behind the OS partition, it is very possible
Click to expand...

You can't make any changes to the OS primary while you are loading Windows from it. This is where booting up with the Vista dvd or use of a 3rd party tool comes into play. I don't who told you otherwise. All you would end up seeing is the access denied/partition in use type errors when trying.

As far as seeing the primary expanded that always depends on how free drive space is seen following it not proceeding it in general unless the proceeding space is empty where you then would be moving the primary back to the beginning of the drive. no thanks! I'll simply delete the primary and created a new larger replacement taking far less time.
 
Why would I say it was possible, if it were not? Don't you think I have tried or have read any documentation about it?
 
It wasn't any MS documentation. It's simply referred to as "unmovable system files". Those are seen at the ends of the OS volume. For seeing a Vista primary shrunk there is a workaround however seen at http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/wind...ows-vistas-shrink-volume-inadequacy-problems/

Even Microsoft points to a 3rd party tool for the Ultimate and Enterprise editions with SP1 as well as Server 2008 for seeing primaries resized. The information on the BitLocker tool is seen at http://support.microsoft.com/kb/933246
 
Someone simply threw that on a page for a quick reference without getting some facts apparently. This has to do with what was mentioned before about unmovable system files seen at the end of the boot/system primary. For someone new the following should be heeded.

"MOVING OR DELETING OCCUPIED (SYSTEM) FILES

The (system) files which are stored on the last occupied sectors of the partition are deleted or moved safely by (temporarily) disabling the specific process which holds the file (visit the page disk cleanup (Vista) / disk cleanup (XP) for more information about disabling the mentioned features). The defragmentation tool VOPT (download: www.vopt.com) can be used to tell which files are stored on the last occupied sector. These are the files to move or delete to be able to shrink the partition." http://www.optimizingpc.com/miscellaneous/resize_windowspartition.html

The best part is what Cromewell already suggested before namely selecting a 3rd party tool and getting familiar with that since those will work without Windows being active.

The free partitioning tool GParted

When the Windows Disk Management tool doesn't result into the preferred resized partition, then it is time to apply more advanced partitioning tools. In case of free software, the tool GParted is most used at this moment. GParted is integrated into multiple bootable Linux distributions, like the GParted Live CD (download: http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php). After starting the computer from the CD, the Windows operating system is not active anymore. Because the files which were previously occupied by a process are now free, they can be moved by the partitioning tool."

Unless you are experienced you wouldn't be going around deleting system files or disabling certain processes in order to see the DM shrink the boot volume when there are effective tools that run independently. The continued advice for sandcracker21 would be to review the documentation on GParted being a free drive tool readily available for the cost of a blank cd-r seen at http://gparted.sourceforge.net/larry/generalities/gparted.htm
 
This will be my last reply.

We are not talking about shrinking. We are talking about extending. The problem you can run into with shrinking doesn't exist when you extend.

And the original question: is it possible to extend/shrink a system partition in vista? Yes, it is.
 
With the 10gb being a necessary part of the prepackaged OS and softwares/drivers the idea of extending anything isn't there to start with. For seeing a second primary for a dual boot of OSs the Vista primary would first need to be shrunk in size as part of that process where the information explains the problem with using the DM.
 
With Vista, YES you can extend the primary partition using disk managment. As long as the 10gb. space is contiguous to the primary partition.
 
You can't delete the 10gb at this point since the system is still under Dell's warranty and service plan ruling that out since the drive space is otherwise already occupied by the Vista primary itself. For later considering a possible dual boot or simply seeing a second partition added the primary would be shrunk not extended in order to make free drive space available. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
 
And you definitely are not a rocket scientist. You have been proved time after time wrong in post but you just keep pounding on and on. I have no interest in arguing with you, its completely pointless and non productive.
 
Then why do you persist on coming in on threads simply to see them trashed were smear attacks? :rolleyes: Now that's quote: completely pointless and non productive."!

If sandcracker21 eventually decides to dual boot with Linux or upgrade to Windows 7 with a dual boot of Vista in order to try out the next version then he would need to buy a separate Vista dvd as well as the install disk for the edition of 7 he decided on in order to see the 10gb recovery partition reclaimed once the warranty was expired. That would still be a waste since the XPS models see the one key system recovery option at post time with that remaining intact.

The original recommendation by Cromewell remains the best advice for the OP simply since while MS threw an improved disk tool in Vista a 3rd party tool like GParted runs without Windows involvement and the need for any workarounds due to unmovable system files. GParted itself is about the best available along with being cross platform with some of the releases and yet free of charge except for the simple cost of a blank cd-r.
 
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