My old roommate repartitioned my hard drive when we formatted my computer about 3 years ago, but he only left 3.9 gigs on my C drive. Now with windows and other programs taking up more room on the C than back then, I am left with under 200 mb free space which adversely affects the performance of my computer. I'd like to repartition my hard drive, and make my C drive about 5 gigs. Is there any way to do this without reformatting my whole hard drive again? Probably will be buying a new computer in the next year but want to improve this one's performance while I still have it, and don't want to go through backing up everything and so on. Can I simply "move" space between drives? Is there any program that allows me to do this? Please let me know how to go about doing this. Thanks.
2007-10-27 04:21:01 · 6 answers · asked by Mortel_LS 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Other - Hardware
Partition Magic
2007-10-27 04:24:31 · answer #1 · answered by wld_jkr 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes, there's a program called Partition Magic that will do this.
There is also a partition manager included with most Linux distributions that will do the job at no cost other than the cost of a blank CD. Get a copy of Ubuntu Linux and burn a CD from the .ISO file. Boot to the CD and dig around in the system tools for the partion manager. The interface is very similar to Partition Magic's.
You can also look for a folder in the Windows folder called Software Distribution. It's part of Windows Update. Normally it should hold considerably less than 200 megs of files however if WU isn't working properly it can easily grow to over a gig with time.
You can safely delete the Software Distribution folder to regain any space that it used. Proceed as follows.
1. Go into the Services applet -- Control Panel - Administrative Tools - Services. Right-click the Background Intelligent Transfer Service and select 'Stop' from the context menu. Do the same with the Automatic Updates service.
2. Using Windows Explorer, go to the C:\Windows folder. Locate the Software Distribution folder. Right click it and select 'Rename' from the context menu. Just append '.old' to the name.
3. Reboot the machine. If the machine restarts normally, the folder will be re-created during the reboot. Go back and delete the renamed folder and then dump the Recycle Bin.
The Software Distribution folder will start to fill up again but normally will stabilize at well under 100 megs.
2007-10-27 11:36:02 · answer #2 · answered by Bostonian In MO 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As everyone else says Partition Magic (which was originally written by Powerquest - which was subsequently taken over by Symantec) will do the job. As will Acronis Director Suite 10.0. Neither of them will, generally speaking, lose data. There is another way to do it in XP if you are lucky enough to have free space right next to your C: Partition. The program partmgr (which must be run in a Cmd window) will allow you to extend your partition without losing data. However I don't recommend this unless you have some technical knowledge. Irrespective of the way you choose to do it back up your data first.
2007-10-27 12:22:37 · answer #3 · answered by JOHN R 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Software called as PARTITION MAGIC will allow you to re-partition the hard drives without losing the data.
Still to be on the safe side make sure you backup your data, juct in case.
2007-10-27 11:24:39 · answer #4 · answered by Gooogled 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You could burn some programs onto a disk or junk drive.... Or delete old stuff, OR there is a way to make your computer start back at day one when you bought it, which deletes everything but the beginning programs..
2007-10-27 11:26:11 · answer #5 · answered by edufish94 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
get a partition manager from the internet "maybe symantec partition manager"
PS. IM NOT SURE HOW IT WILL WORK OUT ON EDITING YOUR PRIMARY PARTITION, YOU MAY HAVE SOME PROBLEMS WHEN YOU REBOOT.
2007-10-27 11:25:05 · answer #6 · answered by BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋