Partitioning Vista...

re: Partitioning Vista...

Gerard — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 21:52:53 GMT

Hi again! :-)

I don't think putting the paging file on a separate logical drive does much for system performance, only if you put it on a separate PHYSICAL drive.

Also, in Windows XP and Window Server 2003 you can extend volumes using the DISKPART command line tool, except that it cannot extend the current system or boot partition.

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Tue, 24 Oct 2006 22:12:31 GMT

Hi again Gerard!

You are indeed correct - you will see a much greater performance improvement by moving the paging file to a separate physical disk, however, I still believe you will see some improvement by moving the page file to another logical drive on the same physical partition, providing that logical drive is not being used for other, frequently accessed data, as this can lead to fragmentation and hence, poor performance.

Thanks for the info on Diskpart - I'd completely forgotton about that! From a user-friendly point of view, I guess Diskpart is more for the user who is familiar with the command line interface, yet, it is still a useful tool to know. Vista Disk Management does allow the System / Boot partition to be extended / partitioned - which is great!

For more info on Diskpart - http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/diskpart.mspx?mfr=true

Thanks Gerard! :-)

re: Partitioning Vista...

kapil nathani — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 14:16:01 GMT

i have currently installed a windows xp vista and now i want to revert back to windows xp media centre. but it is not letting me to do so as it does not detect my hard disk.

i think the problem is that i have changed my C drive to NTFS from FAT32 .

there is also no such partition magic i can use to revert it back to FAT32.

pls help me out with this.

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 13:40:55 GMT

Hi Kapil,

Could you provide a little more information please?

So you had a machine which previously had Windows XP Media Center edition installed, and this machine had a FAT32 file system hard disk?

How did you perform the Vista upgrade? Did you do a clean install, from the DVD, formatting your hard disk, or did you upgrade from XP from within XP?

Thanks,

Matt

Hey Microsoft, I'm a UK Partner, how do I get RTM'd?

This is Vista - Time to get Vistafied... — Mon, 20 Nov 2006 15:04:07 GMT

Now that Vista and Office have hit gold, more and more partners have been asking, particularly at the

Partitioning Drives in Windows Vista

Geeking Microsoft — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 22:12:44 GMT

I have been running Windows Vista RTM since it was released to MSDN a little under a week ago. So far,...

re: Partitioning Vista...

geeta — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:47:23 GMT

I recently bout my compaq with the vista business operating system installed on it,unfortunately my printer drive disk is not installing(it says I need administrator permission)though I am the admin,and I experience problem with using my cdma phone as a modem to connect to the net and also my logitech clip on webcam does not function since the driver can't be installed.Is there a way to rectify this?If not,how do I perform a partition with vista business???

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 00:50:31 GMT

Hi Geeta,

I'm not sure I quite understand here. Could you provide me with the model of your printer? How does the printer connect to the machine? If it is USB, has the driver not come down with Windows Update? If not, have you tried the manufacturers website for the updated Vista driver? The same applies for the CDMA phone, and the Webcam?

More and more drivers are being made available for devices connecting to Vista, but it is somewhat up to the manufacturers to release these as quick as possible - keep checking both Windows Update, and the manufacturers websites to see if they will be releasing the updates.

To perform a partition with Vista Busines, open an mmc interface (type mmc in start menu) and select 'File, Add Remove Snap-In' and choose Disk Management, then follow the instructions in this post - Are you planning an XP Dual Boot? If so, XP needs to be installed before Vista.

I hope that helps,

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

Howard Keane — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 13:46:46 GMT

Really helpful. Thanx for the tips guys!

re: Partitioning Vista...

DAVID O. SADE — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 23:42:04 GMT

I would be very greatful to someone who can solve the riddle of "shrinking" a partition under Vista.

I wished to partition my 120 Gb drive as follows:

C: 25 GB for Vista, and for files, programmes and page files I made seperate partitions. However Vista doesn't let me downsize to from 50 Gb to 25, although I did move the pagefiles to another partition beforehand. I also defragmented C and tried shrinking it again, but no luck...

Please help!!!!!!!

davidottosade@yahoo.com.au

re: Partitioning Vista...

ThrashMaster — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 05:36:19 GMT

Any Help!!

I try to Shrink a 235 meg Partition (OS Drive) and it won't shrink but just 3 meg...part only has 13 gig used, a 8 meg Page file and no revovery file and is completely defragged, so why won't it shrink

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 14:06:46 GMT

Hi David, ThrashMaster.

I think you may both be suffering from the same issue here.

I would recommend, first, using the Drive Cleaning Tool and get rid of any hibernation files etc. You mentioned 'no recovery file' - this is also a good way of being able to shrink the partition more.

Secondly, I would see if you have better results with a dedicated defragmenting tool, like DiskKeeper. There is a 30 day trial - this may free up some more disk space.

It may also be worth investigating the creation of dynamic disks, over basic disks. If you have 4 partitions on a basic disk, all of 30Gb, and you shrink Partition 1, by 5GB, you will not be able to extend one of the other partitions by this amount - you will only be able to extend the partition directly next to the free space on the hard disk. Dynamic disks, I believe, solve this problem.

I hope that helps,

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

harvy — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 20:35:23 GMT

hi...

im a new user of vista ultimate i just want to know how i perform an easy partition for starters like me...just a simple information i would need to be sent at my email provided above hope so i would be guided accordingly...thanks...

re: Partitioning Vista...

Zafar — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 11:05:50 GMT

Hi, Matt

I have C drive 100 GB( Window vista home edition with media center) and 5 GB D drive ( recovery drive) along with Recovery CD.

I am using Vista, now wish to install XP also as few old software do not suppor vista.

What solution you suggest?

Should i format D drive and install XP as i am having recovery CD also?

or should i partition C drive in two part?

How do i perform partitioning of C drive? I used partition magic 8 but it is not working

Pl suggest

re: Partitioning Vista...

Zafar — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 02:25:34 GMT

Hi Matt ,

I have done the partition the way you describe and also installed XP in new partition so i can use dual boot option of running by Vista or XP.

My PC came with preinstalled vista.

After i installed xp with bootable CD, it is only booting with xp, not asking for dual boot option from vista/xp.

what do i do now?

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 14:36:31 GMT

Hi Zafar,

OK, so you've done the partition and installed XP. Now, seeing as you've installed XP over Vista, you'll have modified the Master Boot Record to show the options at boot, of which XP is the only one showing - what you need to do is somehow update the MBR.

The easiest way to do this would be to use the Vista DVD (If you have one?) and boot from it, and select 'Repair My Computer' and this will fix it for you, but if you don't have the DVD, try this.

Boot to XP, install EasyBCD, Run EasyBCD, click Manage Bootloader. Select Reinstall the Vista Bootloader, then click write. Reboot and it should boot into Vista. From there you can install and run EasyBCD. Click ADD/Remove Entries, and add an entry for XP and save it. That should be it.

You should then, on boot, be prompted for a choice between XP and Vista.

Hope that helps,

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

Zafar — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 01:41:53 GMT

hi matt

Thx for your reply.

After installing xp i installed vista bootloader and tried resrarting PC in xp , but getting following erroe message"

Window fail to start, arecent hardware or software change might be cause. to fix the problem reinstall xp..

file : \ntldr

status : Oxc000000f

After several reinsatllation attemp. no help

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 11:32:05 GMT

Hi Zafar,

So, you've booted to XP, installed EasyBCD, Reinstalled the Vista Bootloader, then clicked write?

Then, have you booted into Vista, not XP, and installed and run EasyBCD. Clicked ADD/Remove Entries, and added an entry for XP and saved it?

If you've missed this step, chances are, XP won't boot - you need to make sure you've done this step.

Let me know!

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Sat, 29 Sep 2007 11:43:10 GMT

Zafar, you can also try installing this in Vista: http://www.vistabootpro.org/ and use this tool to create the correct boot information for both partitions.

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

Zafar — Sat, 06 Oct 2007 23:57:39 GMT

Dear Matt

THx for reply.

This is whatstep is took after booting from XP first time.

Open VistaBootPRO, ignored the prompt to backup your BCD. Gone to the System Bootloader tab, selected "Windows Vista Bootloader" in the first section and "All Drives" in the second section and then clicked Install Bootloader .

Next, gone to the Diagnostics item on the menu bar and select "Run Diagnostics".

In VistaBootPRO the Manage OS Entries page I see that saw there

window vista

Windows xp

Recovery partition.

Then click exit and restated clompuer, did see boot option for all above three.

But when i selected XP it is giving that error"

Regards

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 22:29:58 GMT

Hi mate,

Have you booted into Vista and then run VistaBootPro? This has to be done in order it to work.

Let me know when you've tried this.

Cheers mate,

re: Partitioning Vista...

ben — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 08:18:31 GMT

Hi.

I have a Dell with Vista Home Premium installed by the manufacturer and would like to install XP as well. Is this possible? I have read you have to install the older OS first.

Thanks

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 13:02:09 GMT

Hi Ben,

OK - it's a little more difficult than installing Vista after XP, and there is no official supported procedure, but there are a few resources around the web to help you. Here is one:

http://blog.svoboda.co.nz/2007/08/13/Installing+Windows+XP+After+Windows+Vista.aspx

It really is your own risk on this one, but if you follow instructions closely, you should be ok.

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

ben — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 08:23:20 GMT

Hi Matt

That sounds pretty risky. I better tell you my basic problem. I want to install XP because I just transfered to a Dell with Vista and my printer, a HP LaserJet 1012, dosn't have a Vista driver released yet. I looked at the website and everything. Do you know of a way to obtain a Vista driver for devices without one released by the manufacturer? Or, is there a driver on the web that you recomend?

Thanks

ben

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:26:21 GMT

Hi Ben,

Admittedly, it is a little risky. Don't ask me how I found it, but just have a look at the first review here:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Laserjet-1012-Laser-Printer/dp/customer-reviews/B0000DIOD4

You'll hopefully be pleasently suprised :-)

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

ben — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 10:37:18 GMT

I tried it, and it didn't work.

Thanks for all the help.

ben

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 12:27:57 GMT

Hi Ben,

Try here: http://computerhaven.info/forum/tm.aspx?m=56253

Look at post 6, by ComputerGuy.

Hope that helps,

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

ben — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 08:49:38 GMT

Hi Matt

I tried, and it got stuck again. I figured out a way to work around the problem by e-mailing files to myself and accessing the e-mail from another computer. Time consuming, yes, but it is reliable.

Thanks for all your help.

Ben

re: Partitioning Vista...

marta — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:34:39 GMT

I have a Vista - god help me!!

Trying to defrag bloody thing and after 8 hours it was still running - so I cancelled it in the end - got fed up.

Lots of people had the same problem.

Why? Help!!! Anyone? !

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 18:50:23 GMT

Hi Marta,

I'm suprised it's taking so long - perhaps you should try this one: http://www.auslogics.com/disk-defrag/ - it uses the Vista Defrag Engine, but will show you how long it's going to take.

Hope that helps,

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

Marta — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:53:03 GMT

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

re: Partitioning Vista...

Marta — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 01:14:01 GMT

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

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 18:15:00 GMT

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

re: Partitioning Vista...

Marta — Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:42:35 GMT

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

Marta x

re: Partitioning Vista...

Nick K — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 02:30:36 GMT

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.

re: Partitioning Vista...

shakir — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:02:16 GMT

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.

re: Partitioning Vista...

shakir — Fri, 30 May 2008 22:03:22 GMT

hi,

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

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 22:01:13 GMT

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,

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

C. Vitthal — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:36:39 GMT

I used Disk Management tool in Computer Management Storage Utility in windows vosta fo create, rename, resize and format NTFS partition.

re: Partitioning Vista...

how to make disk partition in windows xp — Sun, 15 Jun 2008 17:00:21 GMT

nice guide, Im going to use this, thanks

re: Partitioning Vista...

Chris Charabaruk — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:18:13 GMT

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.

---------------------------

It's driving me right up the wall.

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 20:07:19 GMT

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?

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

Chris Charabaruk — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 01:11:52 GMT

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?

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:57:11 GMT

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,

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

Chris Charabaruk — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 21:39:40 GMT

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.

re: Partitioning Vista...

wishingforhelp — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 05:46:18 GMT

Hi,

I had a problem with my vista installation, so I reinstalled to a dedicated "recovery" partition. Problem is, that partition has only 10 GB. I have another partition on the same drive with 240 GB. Could I delete the larger partition, and then expand my recovery partition to 250 GB? And how?

re: Partitioning Vista...

Vasan — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:56:39 GMT

Hi,

As per provided instructions I was able to shrink my C drive, but when allocating it to another drive it jerks out with the error.

" You cannot create a new volume in this unallocated space because the disk already contains the maximum number of partitions "

Any Solutions ?!?!?!

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 20:52:39 GMT

Hi Vasan,

You've obviously already got 4 Primary Partitions on that disk, right? What you'll need to do is back up one of your partitions, delete the partition in Disk Management, then, on the free space, create an 'Extended Partition' and this will allow you to use the space accordingly.

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

Romeo B. — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 11:17:51 GMT

Hi there Matt,

My HP Pavilion a730n desktop comp using XP is messed up, because of too much virus so I use system restore back up disc from my HP Pavilion notebook dv6636nr laptop using Vista. Now, my desktops disk drive is full already and there's a lot of conflicting hardwares and softwares and I can't use the scanner in my hp psc 1350 all-in-one printer. Now, I inadvertently deleted a shortcut to disk drive and when I tried to start my comp., it's just making a loop. It will start, then show the windows logo and then it will show the error message " autochk not found - skipping autochek. I don't know what to do anymore. Please help me. Thank you and God bless your heart.

Romeo

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 13:03:10 GMT

Hi Romeo,

So, if i understand you correctly, your Desktop machine came with XP, and you used a System Restore back-up disk from your laptop (Vista) to fix it? I've not seen this before, and I would imagine that the system restore disk has put Vista over the top of XP, yet kept your XP installation in a Windows.old folder, which is why you have so little space left.

All i can suggest is have a look here: http://www.pchell.com/support/autochknotfound.shtml as this seems to describe your problem. I think the problem is here, you've used a Vista restore disk over the top of an XP machine. You may need to find your original XP disks that came with your a730n, and restore back to the beginning, although if you can fix the autochk problem, you may be able to fix the Vista OS once you are booted.

Hope that helps,

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

Richard M — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:04:23 GMT

very good tutorial on how to partition in vista, thanks.

my only issue is that once i shrank the c drive I had an unallicated partition and no way it seems of giving it a volume letter ... obviously i missed something ... any help would be great.

please email me with a solution

merksy65@yahoo.com

Richard

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:41:22 GMT

Have you created a volume on the unallocated partition?

Cheers,

Matt

re: Partitioning Vista...

R Merks — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 06:54:36 GMT

It's ok, i figured it out, the only down fall was not being able to make the C: Drive smaller to there would be more room to store files, the laptop I partitioned was about 120 gigs and alittle under 60 was allicated which I guess is ok for a personel device, there is always external Hard drives.

Thanks again for the great tutorial

re: Partitioning Vista...

RAJESH — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 13:59:57 GMT

hi, my D drive is WIndow vista and now that lot of updating has been done the space which is 20.1 GB only , is showing that D drive is not having enough space for further updates installation. i ahve already defrag and clean up the disc many times. but no result though i have enough space on F E and G drive , so kindly solve my problem whether partition can be merged?

re: Partitioning Vista...

mattmcspirit — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:13:51 GMT

Hi Rajesh,

If you look in Disk Management, you'll only be able to expand your D:\ if you have free space next to it. If your E:\, for example, starts straight after your D:\ in the Disk Management Layout, you won't be able to expand the D:\ I'm afraid, unless you use a 3rd Party tool like Partition Magic.

Matt