Computer help please!

[SusieP 10]

I think I'm explaining this correctly, I usually think I know what I'm doing with my computer, but end up breaking something.

 

I have one hard drive on my PC, which is split into two (I think they are called partitions). What I want to do is to make the second one bigger. The problem is that both drives are almost full. Is it possible to move files while the drives are resized. I mean, make drive 2 a little bit bigger, then copy the same amount of data from drive 1, then make drive 2 bigger, and copy more data, etc etc.

 

Thanks for any help, and sorry this is a bit vague.

 

Susie, non-technical.

[Phanerothyme 12]

You need another hard drive.

 

You can buy them relatively cheaply.

 

There are lots of good resources on the net on how to install them too. Piece of cake.

 

If you have a CD writer, you could back data up to make enough space for what you need., but if both your partitions are nearly full, then no amount of shuffling will increase your capacity significantly

[slh73 32]

You need something called Partition Magic, a piece of software that can be bought all over the place. It will let you resize partitions without losing your data, which you cant do using fdisk.

[Killian 10]

you could install a dvd writer and back up to dvd (less discs needed than cd). alternatively Porsche have brought out a wafer thin external hard drive which connects through a firewire connection. tiny little drive and not too expensive (thanks to family friend, Dodgy Dave, for this info).

[slh73 32]

also, as Phan said, if both drives are nearly full, the only way youll get more space is to buy another drive, or delete some stuff from your existing one.

[Grissom 10]

You can get new hard drives really cheaply these days - http://www.scan.co.uk have Maxtor drives from 29.95 plus VAT for 40 GB on their today only offer page - always have cheapest stuff on that page - I remember a few years ago buying an eight GB drive for 250 quid - prices have dropped a lot since then

[SusieP 10]

I'm not after more space! I just want to get all my files away from Windows, in case I need to reformat.

[Killian 10]

Originally posted by SusieP

I'm not after more space! I just want to get all my files away from Windows, in case I need to reformat.

 

not sure exactly what you mean. if you have an 80 gig drive (for argument's sake) and it is partitioned into two 40 gig drives, you are saying that you want to partition it up say 10 - 70 (or even smaller) so that all your data is on one drive and Windows on the other on its own without shifting the data elsewhere and reformatting first? i dont really see how this would be possible. any experts out there?

 

would partition magic do this??

[slh73 32]

yes, partition magic would do it. you can tell it to leave the windows folder on 1 partition, and shift everything else to the new, bigger partition.

[Killian 10]

Originally posted by slh73

yes, partition magic would do it. you can tell it to leave the windows folder on 1 partition, and shift everything else to the new, bigger partition.

 

okay, SusieP, sounds like you've just won a watch!

[SusieP 10]

Fantastic, thanks slh!

[escort 10]

if you have got kazaa you can download partition magic from there , when you install it make the boot disks otherwise you will lose everything