Increasing partition size

[Walton13]

Just installed a 320GB Seagate HD on a new system. Have Windows XP without SP1 installed. I want to end up with a single partion for the drive.

I'm sure it's been asked many times and I did find some good information from prior threads. I do know that I need SP1 and double check my BIOS for LBA addressing.

Question is -- once SP1 is installed and BIOS confirmed, is there a way to take my 137GB partion that the installation did as a default and combine it with the remaing disk space? If reformat, I lose the OS and therefore lose SP1 and thus can no longer exceed 137GB again. Are there disc managers that will allow for partition merging without losing the existing data (i.e. the OS)?

Probably a very obvious answer and you will likely hear me groan with embarrassment once I see it!

Thanks!!

 

[MarkG]

I think that Windows will just see the extra space and let you format it as a second partition, but you'll probably need to buy some extra software if you want to extend the current partition to use the whole disk without reformatting. I'm sure there is software that will do so, but I don't think Windows can itself.

 

[Walton13]

I think that Windows will just see the extra space and let you format it as a second partition, but you'll probably need to buy some extra software if you want to extend the current partition to use the whole disk without reformatting. I'm sure there is software that will do so, but I don't think Windows can itself.

That's pretty much what I thought. Anyone have recommendations on software for extending/growing the partition to the full size of the disk?

Thanks again!

 

[bjmarler]

Use PartitionMagic. It works for all the partition moving, shrinking, enlarging, combining, etc... that you will ever need. It is one GREAT program.

You can probably find it cheaper than this, but here is one pretty good price...

https://www.pronetcd.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=10256723

 

[aBg_rOnGak]

Use PartitionMagic. It works for all the partition moving, shrinking, enlarging, combining, etc... that you will ever need. It is one GREAT program.

You can probably find it cheaper than this, but here is one pretty good price...

https://www.pronetcd.com/detail.asp?PRODUCT_ID=10256723

Or just download Hiren BootCD (version 8.x), got everything you need covered

 

[bjmarler]

Thanks for the tip, that looks cool. BTW, the latese version seems to be 8.9. A bit hard to find, but I finally did.