Resize Partitions - Step-by-Step
I have an XP system with SP3 and 3 partitions (all NTFS) a small recovery partition (4.657 GB); C: - 15.01 GB active partition with the operating system, progrm files, and data; D: - 92.12 GB logical partition with data only. There's about 85GB of free space on the D: drive. The user (my neighbor) is almost out of free space on C: so she wants to know if I can create one large C: drive for her.
I did this about a year ago on another system and it worked perfectly. Unfortunately, I can't find my notes but I seem to recall that the recommended approach is to do one action at a time rather than multiple actions in one step. In other words, reduce the size of D: first, reboot, and then increase C:, etc. I think I understand how to do this but I thought I'd get some current feedback from the experts before I try it. Here's what I plan to do (based on my feeble memory).
Prep Work:
1. Run chkdsk /f /r on both drives to find and fix any disk errors, bad sectors, etc.
2. Defrag both drives.
3. Make an image back up of each drive with True Image Home 2009.
Resize Partitions:
1. Boot from Disk Director 10 CD (bootable media disk created with build 2239). Run Manual Mode.
2. Decrease size of D: to create unallocated space between C: and D: by grabbing left side of D: and sliding it to the right.
3. Commit changes and reboot.
4. Increase the size of C: by grabbing right side of C: and sliding it right to fill space between C: and D:.
5. Commit changes and reboot.
6. After Step 5 I will still have two partitions, a much larger C: and a much smaller D:. No change to recovery partition.
Move Files from D: to C:
1. Restart PC normally in Windows XP.
2. Move all files from D: to C: (no program files, mostly photo's, MP3's, etc.).
3. Make a second image back up for safety.
Delete D: and Resize C:
1. Boot from Disk Director 10 CD. Manual Mode.
2. Delete D:.
3. Commit changes and reboot.
4. Increase the size of C: to fill all unallocated space.
5. Commit changes and reboot.
6. After Step 5 I will have C: drive only.
Any suggestions or feedback will be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.
Thanks for your comments. I appreciate them. I was wondering if in fact I really did need to reboot after Step 3 under delete D: partition. I believe the reboots under resizing C: and D: are necessary.
One question popped up after I posted. I'm assuming I should reboot with the DD 10 disk in the drive after each operation? At least that's what I think I remember from the last time I did this.
Thanks again.
Robert:
No, you should let the PC reboot into Windows so that it can register the updated volumes with changed partition sizes.
Ok, got it. One last question. Could I shrink D: and increase C: in the resize operation and do one reboot or should I reboot after each change? Thanks again.
Since you're not changing the starting offset for the C: partition, you should be okay. Only the D: partition would be detected differently by Windows.
Rebooting and letting Windows adjust is especially important when a partition required by Windows (the booting partition, for example) is going to be redetected. This is because making changes to multiple partitions can cause Windows to assign the wrong drive letter to the booting (Windows) partition.