How to repartition my hard drive

[donnieork]

Hello,
A seasoned guppy myself, I have never created a partition in my hard drive before. It's full of corrupt files now and too small, so I'd like to undo the mess and repartition if possible. My Acer system is Win7 Premium 64 bit.

 

[finitekomos]

Disk partitioning is a process that is usually carried out on a new or blank unformatted hard disk. Unless you are using a specific tool that can allow you to alter partition tables on a disk with an in-use filesystem.

What are your intentions with the disk? Is it currently in use? has its data been backed up?

 

[rgd1101]

http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm
As always backup before using any repartition tools

 

[mlcaouette]

You can use a linux live cd (such as ubuntu) with a program called Gparted to partition the hard drive if it is the only hard drive you have.

If the drive in question is a secondary drive just use windows partition (just search partition in the windows 7 search box).

 

[donnieork]

Disk partitioning is a process that is usually carried out on a new or blank unformatted hard disk. Unless you are using a specific tool that can allow you to alter partition tables on a disk with an in-use filesystem.

What are your intentions with the disk? Is it currently in use? has its data been backed up?

Thanks for responding. I'd have replied sooner here, but for the fact that I'm newly registered and I couldn't even figure out the thread array and procedures until now. I merely wanted to use a laptop hard drive partion as a backup location for data from my nearly-full external drive! I now want merely to clear the partitioned volume (if my terminology is right) without saving any data in it. Could I merely right click the volume and select "Format" to accomplish this?

 

[finitekomos]

Pretty much, but bear in mind if its the partition with the OS installed, you may not be able to simply do that. If the partition you want to deal with is your C: drive (which is usually the default Windows label for the drive with the OS) then the way to go about formatting it is to use your Windows installation disc, or your computer's recovery discs. When you re-install Windows it will ask you if you wish to do an advanced install, and then present you with partitioning/format options.

Before even considering doing that though, make certain that you have installation files for the device drivers that your computer needs. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to connect to the internet to download a network card driver that you cant download because you have no appropriate network card driver installed. Formatting your primary partition/disk is a bit of a nuclear option because it will be up to you to get the OS back on the computer, not to mention configuring it too. If you have system recovery disks (usually manufacturer supplied with the laptop) the process is usually simpler though.

 

[donnieork]

Pretty much, but bear in mind if its the partition with the OS installed, you may not be able to simply do that. If the partition you want to deal with is your C: drive (which is usually the default Windows label for the drive with the OS) then the way to go about formatting it is to use your Windows installation disc, or your computer's recovery discs. When you re-install Windows it will ask you if you wish to do an advanced install, and then present you with partitioning/format options.

Before even considering doing that though, make certain that you have installation files for the device drivers that your computer needs. There is nothing more frustrating than trying to connect to the internet to download a network card driver that you cant download because you have no appropriate network card driver installed. Formatting your primary partition/disk is a bit of a nuclear option because it will be up to you to get the OS back on the computer, not to mention configuring it too. If you have system recovery disks (usually manufacturer supplied with the laptop) the process is usually simpler though.

Thanks for your direct engagement with my question, but my situation is rather simple, so I think you're overdosing me on info. All that's happened is that I read up a bit about partitions and created a new volume [name "SYSTEM RESERVED (F"] within my "C" drive. It proved a stupid wish to use it as a backup location for the contents of an external drive I'm worrying about. So now I just want to clear the volume's contents and leave it empty or eliminate it without molesting the rest of the drive. For that intention, I'm thinking right-click in Windows Explorer and choose "Format"...no?

 

[donnieork]

(I see that the input of a colon followed by a parenthesis created a smily. Uh... T'was not my intention!)

 

[donnieork]

You can use a linux live cd (such as ubuntu) with a program called Gparted to partition the hard drive if it is the only hard drive you have.

If the drive in question is a secondary drive just use windows partition (just search partition in the windows 7 search box).

Thanks for your direct engagement with my question, but my situation is rather simple, so I think you're overdosing me on info. All that's happened is that I read up a bit about partitions and created a new volume [name "SYSTEM RESERVED F:"] within my "C" drive. It proved a stupid wish to use it as a backup location for the contents of an external drive I'm worrying about! So now I just want to clear the volume's contents and leave it empty or eliminate it without molesting the rest of the drive. For that intention, I'm thinking right-click in Windows Explorer and choose "Format"...no?

 

[mlcaouette]

OK, format will work for clearing out the data but the partition will still remain.

If you want to get rid of the partition and add the space back to the main partition here are the steps:
1. open up windows 7 partition manager, as I said before just search partition in the start menu search box.
2.Right click on the crap partition you want to delete and select delete volume.
3.Right click on your main partition and and select extend volume.
4.Extend main partition over the old partition (currently unallocated space).
5.And now you're done simple as that.

 

[donnieork]

OK, format will work for clearing out the data but the partition will still remain.

If you want to get rid of the partition and add the space back to the main partition here are the steps:
1. open up windows 7 partition manager, as I said before just search partition in the start menu search box.
2.Right click on the crap partition you want to delete and select delete volume.
3.Right click on your main partition and and select extend volume.
4.Extend main partition over the old partition (currently unallocated space).
5.And now you're done simple as that.

Giving this a try. I thank you, and I'll award you "Best answer" after it does work!

 

[donnieork]

I tried but got an Error Message reading "Disk Management. Windows cannot delete the active system partition on this disk." I made a screenshot of this, showing the display of the volumes, etc. No method for embedding that here, so might I email it to you?

 

[donnieork]

My iYogi subscription to remote-access mouse-control tech support was worth the money, since I was taking so much time for this. Kind of surprised they'd tackle this issue, so it earns my grudging endorsement of iYogi if you don't mind the expense.
Thanks anyway for the advice above, y'all, but what was lacking was a work-around for the new volume having received "system" and "primary" status from Windows! How to have prevented that in the first place when I created the new partition volume would be another worthwhile discussion, I suppose.