How to work with partitions in Windows Vista / XP when Disk Management doesn’t work
Windows Vista’s Disk Management tool can be quite deceiving. It allows you to work with partitions at ease in a presentable GUI format - but with problems. There have been a lot of complaints and confusion as to why Windows Vista grays out the extend volume and shrink volume properties. In response to this, I have found an alternative way to work with partitions, allowing you to easily resize, delete, and create partitions.
Diskpart.exe does a very good job at working with partitions. Unlike Disk Management, Diskpart actually works!
Before continuing, make sure that you:
- Backed up all important files
- Do not run diskpart.exe with Dynamic Disks
1) First, you’ll want to pull out your Start Menu and type diskpart.exe
(Windows XP users might have to download diskpart.exe )
This will open a command-prompt like window. At this window, type list disk. This will list all your available hard disks.
2) Proceed by typing select disk <disk number> to select the disk you want to work with.
Creating a Partition or Volume: (skip)
At this point in time, you can create a partition. Type create and a set of new options will be presented to you. To proceed, just type create <new option>. (e.g. create volume)
What kind of partition should I create?
Primary: Primary partitions are limited to four per hard disk. If you are planning to install an operating system into a partition, you’ll want to choose primary since it is the only one that can be made bootable.
Extended: If you are planning to have more than four partitions, you’ll want to work with extended. An extended partition counts towards the limit of four, but you are then allowed to create logical volumes within these extended partitions. You’ll want to use extended partitions for backup or storage purposes only since they are not bootable.
3) Now we want to see which number is associated with the volume we want to work with. To obtain this list, type list volume
4) Select the desired volume by typing: select volume <number> or select partition <number>
You then have a list of options to choose from. Below is a list of commands you can type in depending on what you want to do with your selected volume. If you don’t input a number for size, the program will automatically use all the space available for your operation. For the purpose of this tutorial, I have decided to work with 10GB. (1000MB = 1GB)
- Shrink desired=10000 minimum=2000 (Shrinks the volume by 10GB. If that’s not possible, this command makes sure that you at least shrink the volume by 2GB.)
- Extend size=10000
- Delete Partition
- Format
Disk Management can be quite a nuisance since it decides to gray out certain properties on any given day. Please spread the word about diskpart.exe if you know someone who has had trouble working with partitions; as I am sure there are lots who are having similar problems.
If it still doesn’t work for you, and you haven’t given up, there’s always method 3 =)
Still need help? Check out our new forums where you can get an even faster and better response!
April 7th, 2007 at 3:59 pm
This still does not work for me, and I am still having the same problems as before. Of 120 gigs, I can only shrink it by 6. This is a brand new system, and it only came with HP recovery discs. Thank you for trying though, and I’m looking forward to this problem being resolved. Anyone else know how I can shrink this partition?
April 7th, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Ugh. I am getting frustrated too because each time I find a solution, there is always someone else with a problem! Perhaps you are using that space for system restore, backup, or something like that?
April 7th, 2007 at 5:05 pm
Hi all, after reading this and the previous port on the same topic, something is holding onto and not letting go of the disk space therefore a different approach is needed. I recommend GParted.The LiveCD uses Xorg,
the lightweight Fluxbox window manager, and the latest 2.6 Linux Kernel. Get it here http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php And a great How to is here http://gparted.free.fr/screenshots/VISTA/Howto_move_VISTA.html Remember always backup you data first.
Good luck.
April 11th, 2007 at 8:06 am
Though many sites are parising the Partition Magic like features in Vista’s Disk Managment (extend volume and shrink volume, delete, and create partitions.) I need to know is there any software capable of MOVING Partition… not changing partition-letter. This will enable one to move a partion close to or far from outermost/edge/track/cylender/leading/farthest/track-zero of the plater. http://partition.radified.com/
Also the software could show graphically….
1. “where on plater”
2. “from where to where on plater”
3. and “on which sides of the plater”
the partions is located. Same with the creation of partion i could tell where to create the new partion on plater, and no problem if it causes unpartioned space in between.
Muhammad Imran
Islamabad, Pakistan.
April 12th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
[...] disk <disk number> to select the disk you want to work with.Creating a Partition or Volume: (skip) At this point in time, you can create a partition. Type create and a set of new options will be [...]
April 15th, 2007 at 5:22 pm
Hi there ,
I have used disk management and carefully followed all the steps in an effort to load windows xp on my machine with vista preloaded. I hate vista and want to use windows xp. After creating successfully a primary partition of 100 gb out of total 160 gb on my machine when I went to install windows xp I get the message windows does not recognise any hard drive on my machine , what should I do? Properties of this new partition show it is well created and of desired volume. Please let me know if I should start afresh and how ? Thanks
anil
April 17th, 2007 at 6:32 pm
The trial version of Acronis works, but I do not want to pay 50 bucks for a one time resizing. Gparted doesn’t work either. It give me a little “!” next to the drive and will only allow me to expand it. This is aside from the fact that I do not have a Vista disc, this is a HP that came with recovery discs. I have looked for a solution for a while now.
April 26th, 2007 at 1:56 pm
I had problems with my hardware when I loaded Vista, network drive, scanner, printer all would not work. I have the drivers now, but as an interim solution I downloaded Virtual PC 2007 (its is free from Microsoft) on to Vista and re-loaded my XP in that. I could then run both systems on the same PC without conflict. I did though upgrade the memory to 2 gigabytes so that I had the performabce back, but I wanted the memory anyway.
Hope this helps
April 26th, 2007 at 2:14 pm
I’m a little hesitant to use Vistas built in partitioning tool - especially when it comes to resizing or moving partitions. At least the Disk Management tool isn’t worth squat.
But there’s hope! Like Kevin above I warmly recommend GParterd. It’s worked flawlessly with resizing Ubuntu filesystems. I guess it works with NTFS filesystems as well.
April 29th, 2007 at 11:34 pm
Thanks, mate! This was very helpful - concise and accurate!
cheers,
Gautam
May 5th, 2007 at 10:38 am
hey everyone…i just got a new HP laptop with Windows Vista…the problem is my vendor refuses to create partitions…since its a 120GB HDD i’m definetly gona need partitions..he says the D: is for system recovery n no other partitions can be created…plz help…
May 31st, 2007 at 8:43 am
diskpart.exe also cant help me for expanding my vista loaded volume to its full capacity.but in no vain tried many things like gparted live cd disk management and diskpart for sure but for no gain.looking for somebody who can help me
June 1st, 2007 at 11:35 am
ok i just got my computer and my printer. i know nothing about these items. But I need to find were to get a disc for my printer to work with windows vista. GOT ME . Any help would be wonderful. Thanks
June 1st, 2007 at 2:24 pm
is any one going to answer me ?
June 2nd, 2007 at 1:47 pm
Dear Customer Servent,
I just got a new laptop with windows Vista Home Premium.I am facing some of the problems listed below.I will be thankful if you can help me out as i am posted away and is out of reach of your executives and service centres.
(a).While installing printers it say “The OS you are using doesn’t supports this”.
(b).I was installing SONY Picture software while installing the drivers for USB it makes sounds.
(c).Also please tell after installation of the software if i want to delete the same from where we can do it,as i didn’t found “Add and remove software” in the Control Panel list.
(d).Inspite of having 1GB with 120GB SATA harddish why is it slow?,How can i make it functioning fast,as i frequently works with “Google Earth” which requires fast processing.
(e).Also do let HOW to create Partitions in the hard disk..As per the vendor we can’t create partitions then how can i manage the data,as the size of ‘C’ is 100Gb.
With wishes,
Lt Brajesh Tripathi.
June 6th, 2007 at 8:01 am
Hi Everybody
I just bought a HP Pavilion dv9300 with vista home premium and a 150Gb DD. Looking to install XP I deleted the 5Gb system recovery partition (after making recovery cds) and then tried shrinking the 150Gb Vista Partition. It wouldnt let me shrink more than 5Gb (leaving 145Gb for vista) !! I tried PM, GParted… there was always an error.
On GParted I got rid of everything, created 2 equal partitions and reinstalled HP Recovery CDs hoping it would use one… it didnt. It gave me the previous config 145Gb for vista and 5Gb for HP recovery.
With the Vista tool I tried again to shrink the vista partition (this time before deleting the HP recovery partition !!) it worked !!.
I have no idea if this happens to all people with Pavilion dv Notebooks, if it does remember to shrink your vista partition before getting rid of the HP Recovery partition.
ciao
June 11th, 2007 at 6:10 am
works great thanks for easing my fustration
June 12th, 2007 at 8:25 am
#5 anil bhargava : it looks like you have a sata hard disk and windows xp has no drivers for that controller, go get you driver floppy and tell windows xp you have the disk, at the very beginning of the install (press F6 or something like this)
June 12th, 2007 at 8:27 am
#3 thnx kevin for _that_ how to
June 15th, 2007 at 6:33 am
Hi,
I’m using Window vista on brand new Y400 Lenovo notebook. Very sad to say manufacturer only partition C: drive for ONLY 20G bytes only ?)( why 20G onand available spare only left 2.18G in C: drive. Currently, my d: drive still a lot of space 80G bytes.
Can I increase the size for partition C:? what software should i use? or can use Window Vista cammand to increase size? pls advise
June 24th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
While installing printers it say “The OS you are using doesn’t supports thisâ€.
Then it is time to STOP AND GET A NEW PRINTER… Suks but if it is not supported tell the manufacture…
HP 672C is not Vista ready.- I’m screwed - bought a Vista Ready Brothers.
June 25th, 2007 at 12:30 am
Awesome! I’ve been looking all over for some way to get rid of partitions on my vendor set-up Vista computer. Disk Management lets you shrink partitions and only to a certain size. Diskpart.exe was the simplest and easiest way to do it. Thanks so much!
June 28th, 2007 at 9:49 pm
The problem is the following ….
The volume you have selected to shrink may be corrupted. Use Chkdsk to fix the corruption problem, and then try to shrink the volume again.
Vista doesn’t allow me to run chkdsk. It says you don’t have privileges and I should “elevate mode”, even though I am admin. How do I “elevate mode”?
June 29th, 2007 at 11:05 am
Ok I have about 20 GB of unallocated space on my laptop, I want to move that available space to my C drive? How do I do that. I have a 100GB hard drive… 20GB unallocated?
July 1st, 2007 at 11:59 am
I have shrunk the drive but when i boot XP it only sees the shrunken c: drive and not the f: drive
how can i get XP to see the light
please help
July 1st, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Boot XP to install it dosent see the new drive F: do i need to activate the new drive as when i click on this it saya it could stop my PC from working if it dosent have a OS system installed
both shruken drives have over 100GB on them
July 2nd, 2007 at 2:10 am
Hi, I just got a new PC and it has 120gig HD. I want to partition it to put my data. When I used the management tools of Vista I can only see that the available space is the one vacated by the restore disk. How do i increase the second partition without destroying my Boot system? thanks
July 10th, 2007 at 6:20 pm
I am trying to automate the process of setting up partitions on many workstations. I have setup a script the sets the partitions that looks similar to this:
select disk 0
select volume 1
assign letter=d
select volume 2
assign letter=e
My problem is after imaging each workstion, the C: drive is not always volume 0 it sometime takes volume 1 while my dvd drive takes volume 0, thus killing my script. It doesn’t seem to be consistant in assigning volumes.
What can I do to automate my partition setups?
August 4th, 2007 at 8:30 pm
HI
i baught a new laptop from acer and windows vista is installed and 120 GB hard drive with only primary partition and i want to make some other partition with this windows make me some help urgently
Regards,
Irfan Hameed
August 5th, 2007 at 11:54 pm
I have facing the problem after running the Partition Commander Professional 10.1, after doing the reside, can’t recover back the unallocated space.
The reason that I create another partition on that unallocated space is because I already have 4 partition in my drive. I can only have 4 primary partitions per driver, How can I have 3 primary and one extended from where How can I create multiple logical partitions? This is my case; I have 3 primary partitions and one extended. How I could expand that extended partition at the end to take the unallocated space and then create more partitions inside the extended? Please advice.
August 9th, 2007 at 2:44 pm
I made partition of my 120gb hdd , through windows vista own partition system.
It just happened , by luck i suppose, Here is how i did it
Right click your my computer icon and click on MANAGE. Then goto Disk Management , There you`ll see
the number of partition that you currently have. In the list form aswell as in section form.
Right click the drive of which you want to do partition and shrink it first , After shrinking a new section will be formed with the shrinked volume space. Right click on it and choose the only available option.
and there you go , Thats it .
Incase of any help , Contact me on my email adress : dirt.coveredeyepiece@hotmail.com
August 14th, 2007 at 3:23 pm
im having trouble with getting the arguments correct for the diskpart in extending a pre-existing partition. the machine im working on is a compaq presario sr2173wm, and the owners have filled the backup/recovery partition and would like it extended. my problem is that vista will not allow me to extend it through the disk management tool, and im fighting with command arguments in diskpart.exe. if any one has any fix for this problem id be incredibly happy to recieve any help.
August 16th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
Hi
I have 2 partition C drive with 100GB and D Drive with 10 GB other 10 GB is backup by dell manufacture, and my os is window vista. I was trying to shrink my C drive where Os is loaded. It allow me to shrink using computer manager but when I try to make new volume to this unallocated space it gives me error message ” there is not enough space available on the disk to complete this operation ”
will any one help me how to partition in window vista . I don’t mind to reinstall the OS as well.
August 17th, 2007 at 1:48 am
Hi
I just got confused on the part when it asks me to select wat type of partition i want 2 create.
how do i select primary. it just comes with a list of help when i type primary
thx
August 19th, 2007 at 3:08 pm
hi all !
i would really appereciate if someone please help solving my problem !!
the problem is that-> My laptop came with windows vista with only 1 primary partition with 143 gb and a recovery disk of 5 gb
i created 1 extended partition and 2 logical out of the extended using GPARTED (parted magic)
now i have 4 drives namely c:(primary) d:(extended) e:(extended) and f:(extended)
now if suppose in future i have to format the computer, i’ll use recovery disk to recover the original contents to factory settings. If i do so then i suppose my system recovery setup will again bring old partition i.e 143 gb primary and 5 gb recovery and my rest of the partition which i created will be lost ??
resulting in loss of data in d: e: and f:
is there any solution that i shud not lost my partitions !!
or any option that recovery manager only work on primary drive i.e C: and dosent affect d: e : and f:
need help urgently !!
Regards
Dhruv Sahai
E-Mail dhruvsahai2005@gmail.com
Thanx in advance !!
please reply !!
wating eagerly !!
August 27th, 2007 at 12:17 am
Hi
I have 2 partition C drive with 100GB and D Drive with 10 GB other 10 GB is backup by dell manufacture, and my os is window vista. I was trying to shrink my C drive where Os is loaded. It allow me to shrink using computer manager but when I try to make new volume to this unallocated space it gives me error message ” there is not enough space available on the disk to complete this operation ”
I’m also facing similiar problem. Anyone can help?? Plss… : (
September 1st, 2007 at 3:37 pm
hey guys, i have been trying to partition my disc so i can run run two OS,
a legal copy of home premium 32-bit that came with my computer
and a not so legal vista ultimate 64 bit, the only reason i want to use 64 bit is so it can read all my 4 gigs of RAM
home premium 32-bit only reads about 2.5
i tried doing it the way vista intends and shrinked a volume but it only lets me get a max of 180mb
i have a 250 gig hard drive and need to partiton it to be 100 gigs for the ultimate 64 bit and the rest for home premium
wat would be the cheapest and easiest way to do this?
ive been looking for solutions for a week now but no prevail
any help would be appreciated, thanx
September 9th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Hey ppl, guess everyone here has some problem or the other, but trust me Vista is just Awesome, it is not so well accepted as Windows XP though.
to create partitions you can visit this link: http://www.zolved.com/synapse/view_content/25298/Can_I_create_a_new_Drive_or_Partition_in_Windows_Vista
I tell you, it really works.
and for those who have been facing issues with devices like printers, scanners and other USB devices need to contact the manufacturer to see if they have released any new driver s/w for Windows Vista, or you can also look up the respective websites for updates.
We can all soon expect these devices to work just as it works on Windows XP or any other OS for that matter, i’m leaving my email address here, in case you have any questions:
knightthrone-office@yahoo.co.in
You can mail me questions that you have and i shall try to find a solution for them, but pls no spams.
Thanks.
September 13th, 2007 at 10:37 am
JK
I have 2 partition C drive with 112GB and D Drive with 10 GB other 10 GB is backup by DELLl manufacture, and my os is window vista Home Basic. I was trying to shrink my C drive where OS is loaded. It allow me to shrink using computer manager upto 54 GB & created un allocated space of 43GB .
1. when I try to make new volume to this unallocated space it gives me error message ” there is not enough space available on the disk to complete this operation ”will any one help me how to make additional partition in window vista with losing the exisiting data/reformatting.
2.My drive C has simple,Boot,Pagefile,Active,crashdump,primary partition.I am not able to shrink beyond 54 GB,where in I wanted to keep max.30GB in C drive remaining i want to make atleast 3 partition.
Please help with correct procedure.Infact i tried both diskpart as above & disk management as expained but i am not sucessful.
Rgds
JK
September 16th, 2007 at 10:52 am
Hi,
I got a new laptop from Lenovo with XP with 120 GB HDD. Out of this 10GB is in C: and rest is in D:\.
Now my laptop has become very unstable as there is less than 400 MB remaining free in C:\
How can I allocate space from D: to C:\ without formatting the entire system.
If I format, I only have the recovery CD and it would not install the OS.
Please help.
Thanks in advance
September 17th, 2007 at 10:38 pm
This is a pretty cool tip, thanks for the help.
Wox
http://www.twj.us.tc
September 18th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Hi…i have following situation
C: –>100 GB–>Vista
D:–>11 GB–> Installed XP (thnx a lot to this forum)
Now i want to extend D: (XP) size…
wanna use disk space of C:(vista)…
bt as usual vista’s partition facility gives msg ” not enough space to perform this operation”….
ne one hav any idea?…how can i get my free space of C:(Vista) to D: (XP)?….
or i will need to format vista…(after all it none of use)….
thhnx…
September 20th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
thank you very much.
September 22nd, 2007 at 1:28 pm
i have 120GB of free space on my external hard disk…. if i try to create a new simple volume, vista says “insufficient disk space to perform this operation!!!!”….. can u suggest something??
October 2nd, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Great site - it helped me on the way to finding a solution. I had followed your methods 1 and 2, but got the “Extend Volume” option grayed out in 1, and “…not enough disk space to extend…” in method 2.
I then searched further and found this information on a website (http://www.pro-networks.org/forum/viewstory.php?t=78111), “*Note: If the partition you want to extend is a boot or system, or cannot be converted to dynamic, you will only be able to extend the volume to the immediately adjacent free space.
So since it was my boot partition (C:) that I was trying to extend and the immediately adjacent free space was being used as my D: drive for my data, I proceeded to back up D: and delete it. I I was then able to extend C: using option 1 (two will work as well now too I am sure, but hey, it’s Windows, why should not try the GUI first and stop there if it works. :)). And then I recreated D: and restored my data.
October 8th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
has anyone figured out how to troubleshoot the dual boot operation? I get the same error “There is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation.” Plz help.
Thanks
October 15th, 2007 at 2:11 pm
I have a problem. Im trying to increase the size of my c drive using partition magic 8 but unfortunatly it wont work. I then tried using the manage software in vista but i can only shrink my c prompt with this as the increase button is disabled.
can anyone tell me how i can fix this problem
thanks for your help
October 16th, 2007 at 12:28 am
Beautiful, this worked for me where disk management wouldn’t. I was able delete the recovery partition on my laptop and then extend my single partition to take up the left over space. So in the end I’ve reclaimed 8GB’s of usable space.
It’s been a day full of vista headaches, thanks for giving me a little break.
October 23rd, 2007 at 1:52 pm
I have en emachine 190 with a 60gig hdd and the hard disk has packed. Consequently I have purchased another 160 Gig ATA (PATA) HDD to replace the faulty one. The problem am having is that when I try to restore XP using the restore Cd’s, the computer can only give me a 8gig and 32 gig partiotions. What can I do to use the rest of the HDD. Can I go ahead and install on the 33 Gig and then run disk manager in XP, or there is another way of doing it. Please help.
Fungus
November 7th, 2007 at 7:03 pm
does anyone know how to make a MS small biz server 2003 from 2 partitions into one without reinstalling or reformatting the hard drive? I have the c and e drives and just want one c drive
November 7th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
If Extend is grayed out in Disk Management, make sure the volume is deleted (not just the partition). It should say “unallocated”, not “free space”. If it says free space you won’t be able to extend. You need to “delete” the free space (odd that, huh?) to get it to work. Good luck
November 9th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
i’ve purchase the HP DV6500 series, the problem is not i do not know how to partition my hard disk.
it only come is C: 224GB and D: HP recovery (9GB).
I’ve talk to the HP online technician but they didnt able to help.
One told me to purchase another genuine windows vista to reinstall the whole vista again.
Which i think that is not a good idea as i need to pay again for the Vista.
Then he ask me to try the partition magic.
But the other technician say this third party software doesnt support my HP recovery cds.
I’m confused right now and dunno wht to do. Please help. I dare not to install any third party software yet as worried it might not compatible with the HP recovery CD. Anybody has the same problem with me? If you found the answer please help me..
November 9th, 2007 at 11:24 pm
Thanks for the tuts, but I still have a problem, the diskpart can’t make a partition just like i want, for your info, i have a 140 GB space in first volume of my disk, and i want to divide it into three partition : 40:50:50 , but i can only make a maximum partition only until 70Gb, so i still have a 70 Gb left in my first volume…Any clue to force tha maximum amount of partition ?? help me please..
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:15 am
euh, im trying to create partitions to pur vista AND xp, but when usuing the diskmgmt.msc from vista it says the biggest partition i can do is 1.3gig,/ … ? help! landrystephane92@hotmail.com
November 23rd, 2007 at 1:17 am
i highly recommend defragmenting using the trial version of perfectdisk 8.0 (using the defrag after reboot for better shrinking) then use this diskpart.exe utility!!! thanks to all…
December 4th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Thanks for posting this tut! and Steve thank you SO much for your advice. being a comp idiot i couldnt figure out what was wrong until you mentioned that the “free space” partition had to be deleted. vital information there.
btw mine’s a lenovo Y400 notebook too with a 20GB c drive. this problem has been bothering me for ages
thank you for sharing the solution (:
December 5th, 2007 at 1:03 pm
I’ve read all these posts carefully. They all seem to talk about the same feature over and over again — extending a partition “to the right”. One post 47 (http://vistarewired.com/2007/04/07/how-to-work-with-partitions-in-windows-vista-xp-when-disk-management-doesnt-work/#comment-23889) says that a person was able to extend it to the left to reclaim that stupid restore space (10G in my case).
But no indication on how this was accomplished… I assumed that 44 offers the link to explanations — but alas, same stuff there — just extending to the right. Command line utility says “not enough space”, and obviously I deleted the partition, the whole volume to the left etc… Any extra input on this problem would be greatly appreciated.
December 9th, 2007 at 5:41 pm
THANX ALOT….I was having troubles trying to create a primary partition in comp managment but this did the trick…you directions werent to clear but it has its own help info that tells you alot. once again thanks
December 9th, 2007 at 11:58 pm
Help! My C: was pre-parition by vendor and after I switched over to Vista and installed some others programs now is running out of space (only less then 1G). Tried to use method 1 and 2 to expand C: but failed. Can anyone help?
December 25th, 2007 at 2:48 pm
To anyone that wants to copy partitions or drives try the data lifeguard software from google. I used it and it worked great.
December 30th, 2007 at 11:13 am
see
http://news.softpedia.com/news/Install-Windows-XP-On-SATA-Without-a-Floppy-F6-47807.shtml
January 1st, 2008 at 3:51 pm
Vista is really anoyoing I have 50+ GB free and it still won’t let me shrink it even by 5 GB wth?
January 24th, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Nice tip, but didn’t work for me!
It actually ruined my computer!
January 31st, 2008 at 7:09 am
i have some space that says its ‘unallocated’ (is that the word?) but it wont let me add it to my (C:) drive… can any1 help?
February 7th, 2008 at 6:10 am
Hello
I using Dell system and vista OS.
There are already 4 partition(primary). I want to create anothers partition so i shrink the C partion and get the unallocated space. Then trying to format and get the error “There is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation.”
Please someone How to change the UNALLOCATED space to FREE space?. I think this is the problem.
February 8th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
For those asking about unallocated, if the unallocated is not beside the drive you wish to expand, it won’t work.
For example you have:
C Drive D Drive Unallocated
As far as I know, you can only expand your D Drive. Yes it’s weird. That’s why I suggest setting your C Drive to 100GB or whatever is appropriate. Then make an extended partition with the rest of your space, where you won’t have much problem resizing.
March 16th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
****ATTENTION****
for some reason, all of my 149gbs of hard drive are dedicated to vista … and i can only shrink it by 615MBs … and doing so gives me an error … i am trying to install a diff OS soo i need a partioned hard drive of atleast 10gbs … any one else having trouble with this?
ps i have an hp dv6000 with vista premium
*************************************************************
March 21st, 2008 at 10:15 am
So you can’t transform free space into unallocated space?
March 28th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
I bought a machine preloaded with Vista. Going to goof around with it but the boot partition was only 29 gigs with 7 free. Extend was greyed out. I was looking for products like partition magic supported by Vista. Found this first. Great Luck!! Worked grrrrrreat! Thanks
April 1st, 2008 at 4:22 am
Hello, got a probelm with partitioning that neither of the methods above will solve…
The HDD has come partitioned in C (Vista) and E (Data).
TBH, I want just 1 drive. I’ve used the disk management function in Vista, and I’ve even done it manually in the cmd prompt, however I cannot extend the C drive. I can erase E, I can split it, I can create new drives, extend them, shrink them or whatever. I can do anything and everything to the E drive. However the extend options for the C drive are greyed out. In the cmd prompt if you try to extend the C drive it says there’s insufficient space, yet if you try with the E drive it works fine.
Any ideas? Toshiba P200D-139. IIRC the drive is a 5400rpm SATA jobbie.
(Aside: There’s also a third partition I can only see in the Disk Management screen, and not say, Explorer. It’s about 1.46gb in size IIRC, and seems to be empty. ?)
Thanks for any reposnse.
April 10th, 2008 at 7:56 pm
I am having the EXACT same problem as Stephen.. i want to increase the size of my C: Drive.. i can create different partitions from different drives shrink them, extend them rename them format them etc.. But i wanted to take 10gb from my E: and put it into my C: so i can increase the size of my C: but it doesnt work it says insufficient space
Please help would really really appreciate it
April 17th, 2008 at 8:46 am
people before buying any machine it’s always a thing in mind to check what to expect before taking it home.So it’s a good learning experience to ask the vendor the menu to avoid further complaints.I’m running vista ultimate 32 bit for quite sometime now with no headaches.
April 25th, 2008 at 6:08 pm
ULTIMMMMMMAAAAAAAATETETETTEEEEEEEEEE THANKS DUDE>>> IT WORKS AT LIGHTING SPEED >> WONDERFUL >> > >
April 28th, 2008 at 11:29 am
[...] CD to make Vista bootable again after the resize. Fortunately a little more searching led me to an article on the VistaRewired site, which uses Vista’s diskpart utility directly. Happily, this let me expand the main partition [...]
May 4th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
alot of people still have the problem with shrinking partition as its not very reliable i wont recommend to use that method, Well I think one should make partition during installtion, because vista has lot of bugs yet.
Regards
Zakee
http://www.compwrite.com
May 7th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I have 130Gb free, however, I can only shrink about 34 GB. I disabled, removed hibenate file, pagefile, system store. So, the final reason could be a snapshot in my hardisk. But, I don’t know how to disable. Thanks for help.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:49 am
Hi.
Someone may have covered my problem already but i’m not quite sure…
Scenario: I bought a 250GB HD, it has shown up as approx. 230GB do you know why?, anyway. I have made 2 partitions both exactly the same amount of space on each, (so basically i split it in 2 which are C: and D:). I then decided that i want more space on C: so i used Disk Manager to shrink D: to roughly 80GB and it says there is about 35GB of unallocated space.
Problem: When i try to extend C: by right clicking on it the “Extend Volume” option is grayed out. So i tried using the Diskpart method, and followed the instructions, and it tells me when i try to extend C: that “there is not enough usable free on specified disk(s) to extend the volume”.
Questions:
1. Why does my HD only show up at approx. 230GB?
2. Am i not about to extend C: because the disk is “basic”
3. Why am i not able to right click o my disc (in disk manager) and change it to dynamic as there is no option to.
I would appreciate very very … very much if anyone could help me out with my situation and answer my questions.
Thanks.
May 12th, 2008 at 11:53 am
Basically the exact same problem as Stephen - April 1st, 2008 at 4:22 am
May 13th, 2008 at 12:28 pm
I recenlty bought a new desktop which had a partitioned C: disk and wanted to expand by eliminating the D: partition. No success whatsoever doing most of what is indicated above. Finally I think I did the right but expensive thing. I simply bought a Vista Ultimate (not the upgrade) and started all over again. I do think that Vista should be upgraded to provide some of the facilities mentioned by “mi1400″ on April, 2007 (amazing). I just hope Vista has a five to seven year life and that next year they release a big service pack to solve this and other issues e.g. drivers.
May 26th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Thanks for the tutorial.
I have a partition with 15 gb free. If I do the shrink by 10gb function on this partition, will the partition be wiped clean? What happens to the freed-up 10 gb?
June 26th, 2008 at 2:18 am
I had a dual boot system of vista and ubuntu. Recently i removed ubuntu because i needed the space back.but now there is a problem the space used for ubuntu is not getting formatted and i also cant make any drive in that space ,its a space of around 15gb.when i go to disk management, the only option i get for this space is to create a new volume but when I try that it say “there is not enough space on disk”.Please can any one help?
July 5th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
We cannot format windows vista by using disk part.exe, is there any other options to do that??
July 6th, 2008 at 10:43 pm
[...] have Vista on there already as it comes with a pretty good GUI partitioning tool. You can also use diskparton xp to shrink your partition. [...]
July 6th, 2008 at 11:44 pm
What do you mean by you want to format Windows Vista?
July 7th, 2008 at 11:19 am
Hey Igot some problems… I have an unpartitioned space of about 15 GB, and when I try to Expand a partition, diskpart says something about that there isn’t enough space to expand… what to do?
July 30th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
[...] Today, 17:03 Cian, I would go for this memory instead, cheaper and faster. Komplett.ie - A-DATA DDR2 PC6400 4096MB CL5 Kit w/two matched DDR2 800 2048MB CL5 The OS is the right one. Rest of the parts look good, especially like the look of the monitor. Phelgms, that is an odd problem. If you can’t extend it cause it’s greyed out, try looking at this link. [...]
August 1st, 2008 at 4:41 am
AndreY48 = have you deleted it?
My hard drive was split into two, and I had to delete the one I didn’t want, so that it came up with ‘unallocated’ in disk management, not free space. This method then let me add it to the existing partition.
August 7th, 2008 at 5:06 am
hi there
i have two partitions c with 15GB and D with 135GB with LG laptop. My C Partition is very full and the windows start to be slow i try to use the instructions up ther but i can not make my partition larger than it is size if any one can help me?
August 7th, 2008 at 6:17 pm
This method works great for me.
Thanks a bunch!
August 7th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
Hey thanks this worked great. couldnt get the disk management tool to work but this did!!
August 15th, 2008 at 5:04 am
hello,
i´ve been in many forums and i have tried many solutions but there is always a problem!!!it make´s me really angry:(( i have a 100 GB disk drive and i put it in 3 partition: “C:” 20GB for Vista, “D:” 25GB for XP , “E”: 41GB for multimedia files.
So my problem is that Vista needs more than 20 GB and i want to put the “C:”and “E:” together. I tried it with the disk management but i always got: “unable to connect to virtual disk service” and now with “diskpart.exe” but when i type “diskpart.exe” in my start menu the window appears only for 1 second and then disappear.
It will be really great if someone could help me
Thank you
August 15th, 2008 at 5:07 am
I forgot to tell you that i have Windows Vista business edition and Samsung R50 maybe It would be interesting for you.
THX
August 22nd, 2008 at 9:54 am
Hi,
I am using windows vista home premium. I have two partition of my 80 gb drive, 40 GB each, labeled ‘c’ and ‘d’. I am running out of space on my ‘C’ drive where as i still have got almost 20 gb free on my ‘D’ drive. I want to add those 20 gb free to my ‘C’ drive. The windows management thingy doesn’t let me add free space from another drive. Is there a solution please.
Much obliged for your help
Cheers
August 23rd, 2008 at 5:54 pm
Aargh.
Sorry, but this isn’t working. (and the link to method 3 isn’t properly linked in!) It will allow me to reduce the size of my D: drive, however it will not allow me to add any of this space to my C: drive which I am currently running out of space on. It returns the error message “There is not enough usable free space on specified disk(s) to extend the volume” when in fact, I have just created the space for it to be able to do it!
Help please..
August 25th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Hi i have Dell Laptop. I have Window Vista. My hard-disk has two partition. One is primary (C: 30 gb) and Second is normal (D: 180 gb). Now my C drive is almost 29 gb full. I want to resize my C drive and i want to make C drive like 90 gb and D drive 110 gb.
I couldn’t file option in DISKPART.EXE, can anyone help me how to merge partition in Window Vista
September 15th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
I try to shrink drive D (logical drive) & extend drive C (primary partition). After I shrink drive D, I got empty ‘free space’. Now I want to extend drice C. When I right click drive C ‘extend volume’ option is grayed out. Pls advise how to proceed?
After I’ve check your tip, I’ve run diskpart.exe. I’ve followed the screen step by step & shrink drive D (logical drive) & when I extend drive C (primary partition), it says: ‘There is not enough usable free space on specified disk(s) to extend the volume’.
Pls advise how to add that free space to drive C?
September 15th, 2008 at 7:40 pm
The empty space must be to the right of C. I will write a new post to clarify this. I’ve also found another free partition tool that I will be posting about shortly.
Please take part in the forums if you have any questions! You will receive a much faster response from me instead.
September 19th, 2008 at 10:47 pm
[...] Source: http://www.vistarewired.com/2007/04/07/how-to-work-with-partitions-in-windows-vista-xp-when-disk-man… [...]
September 20th, 2008 at 4:21 am
Hi, yes i have pretty much the same problem than Abdul Cader, i have HDD witch has C: and D:, and i have like 90GB on D: and Vista installed to C:, but i have only 1.5G free on C:, so i shrinked the D: with about 5g, and now i have the 5G freespace there, but how do i get the 5G to C:?
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:43 pm
Thanks Wale M !!
“If the partition you want to extend is a boot or system, or cannot be converted to dynamic, you will only be able to extend the volume to the immediately adjacent free space.”
Was the key for extending my C: drive as Vista needed more space. I backed-up drive D on a external drive and deleted the volume. This made Extend Volume for C: active and let me double its size.
October 24th, 2008 at 8:05 am
Thanx
This did help me a lot. I used the method as described to delete a partition. I then used vista’s disk manager to allocate all the ‘unpartition space” to the primary partition. Now i have ‘whole’ hard drive agian.
THANX!
October 29th, 2008 at 6:18 am
i do what Bananas say but the word Extend in local disk C still grays out………
October 29th, 2008 at 6:24 am
Sorry, I miss a step. My hard drive now also ‘whole again.Thank for the solution
October 30th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Finally I worked with my friend (a computer professional)!! he solved my problem..
-What i’ve been trying for long time is: reducing ‘D’ drive space & add those space to drive ‘C’.
-I can reduce ‘D’ drive space, but I can not add that space to ‘C’ drive (’extend’ option is grayed out).
FINALLY I GOT THE CONCLUSION NOW!!! If you reduce drive ‘D’, you CAN NOT add that space to drive ‘C’.. Pls follow below steps to make this work:
1) If you have more drives (D, E, F…)First thing you back-up all the files from all the drives.. (back-up from drive ‘C’ is optional).
2) After you back-up all the files, do not reduce the drive size.. just DELETE all the drives one by one (be careful - DO NOT delete drive ‘C’).
3) After you delete all the drives, now you got a huge empty space next to drive ‘C’…
4) Now right click on drive ‘C’ & you can see ‘extend’ option not grayed out… SERIOUSLY YES!!!
5) Click on the ‘EXTEND’ & you can add more space to drive ‘C’ from that empty space..
6) After you increase size of your drive ‘C’, now you can format that empty space & make it drive ‘D’.. (or you can make partition like D, E, F..)
HOPE THIS HELP YOU GUYS!!!
(only drawback in this method is “back-up ALL the files”… but unfortunately, this is the ONLY possible way!!!)
October 30th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
ALL the above steps are possible ONLY in vista.. (not in XP).
Pls comment if this really helped! thanks~
November 2nd, 2008 at 1:23 am
In reading various forum, I can tell that most people who are trying to format or extend partitions, are actually trying to recover the 5% of your hard drive used to hold the index tables. All hard drives set aside a portion of the drive for the”superstructure” i guess you could call it. Kinda like the steel frame that supports the building. It is not missing space.
A 500GB drive only has 465MB of actual writable space, a 100GB…95GB etc…
November 8th, 2008 at 9:39 am
Ok this should clear up some confusion. I am going to explain how and why you can or can not extend/shrink c: drive.
C: drive
size 24.4 gig
free 3 gig
D: drive
size 35 gig
free 27 gig
Unallocated space left on HD after
both above partitions are created is 100 gig
Ok I want to extend C: drive I have 3 gig free and I have unallocated space on my drive that is 100 gig. So I want to move some of that 100 gig over to c: drive and make it bigger.
You won’t be able to. The unallocated space for extending or shrinking needs to be on the same partition your working with. not the drive. So lets say I had this setup
C: drive (partition 1)has 50 gig partition
size 24.4 gig
free 3 gig
unallocated space 25.6
D: drive
size 35 gig
free 27 gig
In the scenario above I have 25.6 gigs of unallocated space on the same partition as c: drive. Now I can extend/shrink no problem with that unallocated space. This works the same with any partition. you must have available unallocated space on the same partition your working with. This is the most common misunderstanding about this whole thing.
November 15th, 2008 at 4:26 am
Grrrr… cluttering everywhere, im getting pissed. The _REAL_ problem is… Extending the C: Vista x64 volume. Now… How is that possible? (DVD/CD Broken/Disabled/Out of order/What ever, does not WORK) Gp does not work (No DVD rom remember), Acronis does not work, Paragon does not work, Norton does not work, Disk Manager does not work, OO does not work. -NOTHING- Works in Vista x64. Major flaw, is it not? ATTENTION NOTICE THE *X64* VISTA!!! NOT REGULAR VISTA. NO GUESSING PLEASE!! I know you have a *favourite program that has always worked for you* But unless you have extended your C: Vista x64 Boot Volume, yourself sucessfully, it will not work! There. I dare you… Solve the problem. I was even dumb enough to listen to some advice about making the disk dynamic “to be able to extend the volume” rubbish.
November 18th, 2008 at 12:47 am
Sorry Stinkfinger,
The disk manufacturers lie. Seagate was sued in California last year for that very thing. Henceforth, they will be properly labeling anything sold in California. The rest of the country will continue to be lied to.
The courts have decided Seagate engaged in deceptive advertising (i.e. lying). Read about it here. “Mega” denotes a binary number and a Megabyte has never been 1,000,000 bytes (plain math). It has always been 1,048,576 bytes (binary number).
Disk manufacturers long ago made the decision to tell people that a Megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes in an effort to make people believe they were getting more than was actually in the package, sort of like advertising a “bakers dozen” and putting only twelve in the box.
Binary is determined by multiplying 2×2x2×2x2 . . . etc. and that gives you 1,048,576, not 1,000,000.
With whatever respect may be due Wikipedia, any portion of it that is at variance with the court ruling, it is irrelevant. The court is the final authority in the definition of binary number and they ruled against Seagate, saying Seagate’s use of 1,000,000 bytes being a Meg as being deceptive.
http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/684944-500-gb-hard-disk-only.html
http://www.harddrive-settlement.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hard_disk_drive#Capacity_measurements