VIRTUALBOY BLOG
Say you've got a nice new machine, with a 100gb hard disk, efficiently running Windows XP, but what if, for one reason or another, you want to split that hard disk into multiple partitions. What are some of the reasons you would want to create multiple partitions? Well, how about a separate drive for your paging file, to aid system performance, a separate drive for all your media / photo's / movies, or, a separate drive, to run another operating system, in a dual boot environment. Sound good? How can you do it in XP? Well, it's not the easiest thing to do...
Well, looking at the first one - it's abit of a hassle, and what if you already have alot of work on there? You will need to back it all up etc, taking valuable time and effort. This is obviously assuming that you have the DVD of XP. The second method would provide you with a feature-rich application, but, it's not free, and if you are only to use it once or twice, maybe the cost isn't quite justified.
So, how does this all change with Vista?
Well, although not as full featured as some third party partition management applications, in the Disk-Management snap-in, pictured below, users can shrink, extend, create, and format partitions. The new resizing features will allow users to shrink a single partition with unused space, and then create a new partition in the resulting free space, as well as extending a current partition if there is available free space after it.
Compare this with the options you have in XP:
And you can see the number of features has increased a great deal.
So, you've installed Vista, on your single-partition, but you've decided that you'd like to create another couple of partitions, one for your media, and one for your other data, keeping just your system files on the current partition. All you have to do is click Shrink Volume, enter the details...
and your unallocated space is created, where you can subsequently create your new volume with the New Volume Wizard, allocating size and choosing drive letter, or, you can extend an already existing volume. You can split this space again, and again, to create your required partitions.
I think you'll agree, with the new enhancements to Windows Vista Disk Management, the wizard-driven shrinking and extending partitions is now easily accomplished. As always, when making changing to the partition structure, users should ensure that all important files and data are backed up.
Thanks! Will try, hope it will help.
I am not a great fun of Vista. Hope it will improve!
I preasume Vista is like a baby - now - in the early stage of growing BIG.
Thanks again. x
Marta
Hi Hansome ;)
It did help for little while but I am not happy with Vista at all, too many small problems, small but too many.
It's like - give someone food on the plate but no cuttlery or salt and pepper added.
Silly - don't know what to do with it and it leavs that aftertaste...
You probably thinking I'm mad (u r not the only one)
but I might go back to XP. Old wintage always is better.
Regards
Marta x
Hi Marta,
I'm sorry that you're not having the best experience with Vista. For some people, it does take a little getting used to, and there are a great deal of benefits of using Vista, ranging from the big improvements in Security, to Mobility, and my favourite; the Search functionality. The little issues and problems will be ironed out fairly soon - think back to when XP shipped 7 years ago!! Things were far from perfect then!
We'll get there eventually!
Matt
Hi Matt,
I am still with Vista, It's not too bad it's just... not doing what I would like it to do. Like defrag: original takes ages and does nothing. After 8 hours is still running and just anoying me... Never mind, Iam a woman - every silly thing anoying me ;) Will wait bit longer before I throw my comp out of the window.
Thanks for all your help and patience. U r an angel,
L O L
Thumbs up Matt. I spent an hour searching and reading up on disk partition software when I stumbled on this and discovered that vista already has it built-in! Thanks for the informative article.
hi,
i have lenovo laptop 3000 N100 using windows vista it has 120 GB HD i have done partition for C and D drives,in D drive i have put songs pics etc and in C drive i have put windows vista installation so mine C drive is getting full i have not installed any thing in it,i have used disk clean up also and defrengment also,some times my HD shows 2 GB or 3 GB or 1 GB HD space remain.why is my disk geting full and what should i do to make up space in my disk.
so please can you help me in this i need your help sir/madam i will be thankfull to you.
please mail me on shakir_sayed84@live.in
Hi Shakir,
Check out this tool: http://windirstat.info/
It will give you a detailed breakdown of your C:\, so you can really see where your files are on your C:\
I'd also try doing a Disk Cleanup to see if this free's up any space.
Thanks,
I used Disk Management tool in Computer Management Storage Utility in windows vosta fo create, rename, resize and format NTFS partition.
nice guide, Im going to use this, thanks
Disk Management and its various improvements in Vista are great, but there's at least one problem that's snuck in that I never had with it in XP.
Whenever I try to turn empty drive space into a new partition, Disk Management whines that there isn't enough space, even though it reports itself that there is. For example, at the moment I'm trying to create a 10GB partition in a 32GB empty block. Going through the usual (right click on the block, select "New Simple Volume..." from the context menu, etc.). I've ruled out assignation, having tried all three options on that wizard page, and likewise with whether or not to format the new partition (and which partition format to use). No matter what, I always get:
---------------------------
Disk Management
There is not enough space available on the disk(s) to complete this operation.
OK
It's driving me right up the wall.
Hi Chris - have you checked if this is the issue: http://blogs.technet.com/filecab/archive/2007/05/11/understanding-the-error-message-there-is-not-enough-space-available-on-the-disk-s-to-complete-this-operation-when-you-create-a-volume.aspx
How many basic partitions have you already got?
I did, but I'm not too sure if it's relevant in my case. Neither the primary hard drive nor the one that has this issue were pre-partitioned, and the one with the issue has only a single primary, and an extended partition with several logical drives and empty spaces.
It turns out that Disk Manager had no problem with making the new partition in another empty space on the disk, but that still leaves me with a 32GB chunk that isn't usable unless I decide to repurpose a Linux install disc just for the partition tools they tend to pull up before doing any actual install. That's a waste of time, though -- I'd rather just be able to partition it through Disk Management.
Anyway, the layout of the disk, in case it helps:
1: PRIMARY 1.49 GB NTFS partition
2: EXTENDED:
2a: Free space 32.24 GB
2b: 110.0 GB NTFS logical drive
2c: Free space 19.99 GB
2d: 40.00 GB NTFS logical drive
2e: 10.00 GB RAW logical drive (that's the one I wanted at the head of the extended partition)
2f: Free space 9.99 GB
2g: 10.05 GB NTFS logical drive
They're all nice and healthy, and IIRC the limit on logical drives on a basic disk is something like 32?
Hi Chris - can you send me some screenshots of your Disk Management views to matt.mcspirit@microsoft.com so I can try and understand it better?
Cheers,
Yep, sent. I forgot to mention that the space marked as 2f in my last post is now a logical drive in the email, though.