deleting partitions and freeing up unallocated memory

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Try rt click on MyComputer>select Manage>Disk Management. That will give
you a readout of your Partitions. You can
delete extra partitions from there but be very careful that you are not
deleting any important data along with them. It also
will allow you to use the unallocated space. FYI, Memory and Hard
Drive Space are two very different animals.

gorbablond" <gorbablond@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FA4AA6B8-0AA2-482D-8CDD-D7515DB03BFE@microsoft.com...
>I got carried away recently trying to fix a bootup error. I think i may
>have
> created partitions I don't need. I also now have 5 gig of 'unallocated
> memory' sitting separate from the c drive.
>
> Is there a way i can merge the unallocated memory back into my c drive. so
> i
> can get the capacity on the drive back up to what it was originally?
>
> Is there a way I can identify if i have created any partitions so I can
> get
> rid of them. I only have one hard drive and that's all i want the BIOS (or
> anything else) to see.
>
> any feedback would be most appreciated as my partner is still giving me
> grief over messing about with the thing in the first place.
>
> thanks
> --
> gb

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Thanks. Is it easy to allocate my 'unallocated memory' back to the exisiting
allocated memory on my hard disk?

As you can see I'm a beginner who has got a trifle ambitious.
--
gb


"Rich Barry" wrote:

> Try rt click on MyComputer>select Manage>Disk Management. That will give
> you a readout of your Partitions. You can
> delete extra partitions from there but be very careful that you are not
> deleting any important data along with them. It also
> will allow you to use the unallocated space. FYI, Memory and Hard
> Drive Space are two very different animals.
>
> gorbablond" <gorbablond@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:FA4AA6B8-0AA2-482D-8CDD-D7515DB03BFE@microsoft.com...
> >I got carried away recently trying to fix a bootup error. I think i may
> >have
> > created partitions I don't need. I also now have 5 gig of 'unallocated
> > memory' sitting separate from the c drive.
> >
> > Is there a way i can merge the unallocated memory back into my c drive. so
> > i
> > can get the capacity on the drive back up to what it was originally?
> >
> > Is there a way I can identify if i have created any partitions so I can
> > get
> > rid of them. I only have one hard drive and that's all i want the BIOS (or
> > anything else) to see.
> >
> > any feedback would be most appreciated as my partner is still giving me
> > grief over messing about with the thing in the first place.
> >
> > thanks
> > --
> > gb
>
>
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Unallocated hard drive space is NOT considered memory.

To understand windows memory, sometimes a similar picture is needed.
Picture a person in a closed room, with a chalk board, and a book. The
person can only remember one page out of the book at one time, this the
equivalent to RAM in your PC, sometimes called physical memory. The person
looks up info in the book, the book is the hard drive. The person takes
notes from the book and puts them on the chalkboard for quick reference, and
must erase sometimes as the chalkboard is too full or info is not used
recently, this is windows virtual memory or the swapfile that is stored on
the hard drive.

Windows has no facility for incorporating unallocated hard drive space into
a partition. A 3rd party tool such as Partition Magic 8.0 may work.

"gorbablond" <gorbablond@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FA4AA6B8-0AA2-482D-8CDD-D7515DB03BFE@microsoft.com...
> I got carried away recently trying to fix a bootup error. I think i may
have
> created partitions I don't need. I also now have 5 gig of 'unallocated
> memory' sitting separate from the c drive.
>
> Is there a way i can merge the unallocated memory back into my c drive. so
i
> can get the capacity on the drive back up to what it was originally?
>
> Is there a way I can identify if i have created any partitions so I can
get
> rid of them. I only have one hard drive and that's all i want the BIOS (or
> anything else) to see.
>
> any feedback would be most appreciated as my partner is still giving me
> grief over messing about with the thing in the first place.
>
> thanks
> --
> gb

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Is there anything I can do to make use of this unallocated memory? My hard
drive started out at 40 gb and now its reduced.

cheers
--
gb


"Lil' Dave" wrote:

> Unallocated hard drive space is NOT considered memory.
>
> To understand windows memory, sometimes a similar picture is needed.
> Picture a person in a closed room, with a chalk board, and a book. The
> person can only remember one page out of the book at one time, this the
> equivalent to RAM in your PC, sometimes called physical memory. The person
> looks up info in the book, the book is the hard drive. The person takes
> notes from the book and puts them on the chalkboard for quick reference, and
> must erase sometimes as the chalkboard is too full or info is not used
> recently, this is windows virtual memory or the swapfile that is stored on
> the hard drive.
>
> Windows has no facility for incorporating unallocated hard drive space into
> a partition. A 3rd party tool such as Partition Magic 8.0 may work.
>
> "gorbablond" <gorbablond@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:FA4AA6B8-0AA2-482D-8CDD-D7515DB03BFE@microsoft.com...
> > I got carried away recently trying to fix a bootup error. I think i may
> have
> > created partitions I don't need. I also now have 5 gig of 'unallocated
> > memory' sitting separate from the c drive.
> >
> > Is there a way i can merge the unallocated memory back into my c drive. so
> i
> > can get the capacity on the drive back up to what it was originally?
> >
> > Is there a way I can identify if i have created any partitions so I can
> get
> > rid of them. I only have one hard drive and that's all i want the BIOS (or
> > anything else) to see.
> >
> > any feedback would be most appreciated as my partner is still giving me
> > grief over messing about with the thing in the first place.
> >
> > thanks
> > --
> > gb
>
>
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

In news:FA4AA6B8-0AA2-482D-8CDD-D7515DB03BFE@microsoft.com,
gorbablond <gorbablond@discussions.microsoft.com> typed:

> I got carried away recently trying to fix a bootup error. I
> think i
> may have created partitions I don't need. I also now have 5 gig
> of
> 'unallocated memory' sitting separate from the c drive.


First, a word on the terminology. The word "memory" is normally
used only for RAM. You have 5GB of unallocated hard drive space,
not unallocated memory.



> Is there a way i can merge the unallocated memory back into my
> c
> drive. so i can get the capacity on the drive back up to what
> it was
> originally?


Assuming that you want to do this without losing what's on the C:
drive, Windows has no way to do this. No version of Windows or
DOS has ever had the ability to change the partition structure of
a drive without losing all the data on it. To do so requires the
use of a third-party program. Partition Magic is the best-known
such program, but there are shareware/freeware alternatives. One
shareware product that gets good reports from several MVPs
(although I haven't used it personally) is Bootit Next
Generation.


> Is there a way I can identify if i have created any partitions
> so I
> can get rid of them.


Again, note the correct terminology: you don't want to get rid of
all partitions--just all but C:. You *must* have at least one
partition (C  on the drive in order to use it.

I don't tell you this to give you a hard time; if you don't have
the terminolgy right, you can make a mistake in interpreting what
screens tell you. If you accidentally deleted all the partitions,
you'd lose everything on the drive.

If you just "got rid of" (deleted) any partitions, you'd have
more unallocated space. What you presumably want to do is not
"get rid of" partitions, but merge them into a single partition.


> I only have one hard drive and that's all i want
> the BIOS (or anything else) to see.


The BIOS sees physical drives, and will never see more than the
one you have. The operating system sees logical drives--the
partitions you have created on that physical drive.

So if I understand you correctly, you want to have a single
partition, C:, containing all the space on the hard drive. If
that's correct, short of starting over, reformatting,
reinstalling Windows, etc., the only way to do this is with a
third-party program, as noted above.

If you do use such a third-party utility, be aware that it's
always possible that something can go wrong while it's running.
For that reason, be sure you have a backup of anything you can't
afford to lose before beginning.

--
Ken Blake - Microsoft MVP Windows: Shell/User
Please reply to the newsgroup

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

You're probably reading "reduced" space due to partitioning and formatting
overhead, and the binary equivalent in GB is not being considered for
capacity of the HD. Meaning, there's nothing to fix, nothing is wrong.

"gorbablond" <gorbablond@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:674D3B08-76E7-4471-853D-2962F1E62976@microsoft.com...
> Is there anything I can do to make use of this unallocated memory? My hard
> drive started out at 40 gb and now its reduced.
>
> cheers
> --
> gb
>
>
> "Lil' Dave" wrote:
>
> > Unallocated hard drive space is NOT considered memory.
> >
> > To understand windows memory, sometimes a similar picture is needed.
> > Picture a person in a closed room, with a chalk board, and a book. The
> > person can only remember one page out of the book at one time, this the
> > equivalent to RAM in your PC, sometimes called physical memory. The
person
> > looks up info in the book, the book is the hard drive. The person takes
> > notes from the book and puts them on the chalkboard for quick reference,
and
> > must erase sometimes as the chalkboard is too full or info is not used
> > recently, this is windows virtual memory or the swapfile that is stored
on
> > the hard drive.
> >
> > Windows has no facility for incorporating unallocated hard drive space
into
> > a partition. A 3rd party tool such as Partition Magic 8.0 may work.
> >
> > "gorbablond" <gorbablond@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:FA4AA6B8-0AA2-482D-8CDD-D7515DB03BFE@microsoft.com...
> > > I got carried away recently trying to fix a bootup error. I think i
may
> > have
> > > created partitions I don't need. I also now have 5 gig of 'unallocated
> > > memory' sitting separate from the c drive.
> > >
> > > Is there a way i can merge the unallocated memory back into my c
drive. so
> > i
> > > can get the capacity on the drive back up to what it was originally?
> > >
> > > Is there a way I can identify if i have created any partitions so I
can
> > get
> > > rid of them. I only have one hard drive and that's all i want the BIOS
(or
> > > anything else) to see.
> > >
> > > any feedback would be most appreciated as my partner is still giving
me
> > > grief over messing about with the thing in the first place.
> > >
> > > thanks
> > > --
> > > gb
> >
> >
> >