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View Full Version : How do I re format the main HDD



tomween1
04-26-2009, 07:15 AM
I installed two HDD's in my system. In the original start up I made the mistake of splitting the disk space in half, loaded Win XP. It was during the second formatting I realized I didn't need to split it, I could have put as little as 8gb in the partition.This having been said, I tried to move all but 8gb back to the drive to maximize its space. Disk Management System won't let me change this drive though. Ultimately I would like to remove the partition, all together.

How do I do this with out uninstalling windows?

Thanks, Tom

bug
04-27-2009, 11:34 AM
You could try booting with a gparted live cd (google for it..) or System Rescue CD (http://www.sysresccd.org/) and use gparted to non-destructively resize the partition.

I would suggest making a backup first even though gparted is usually very good about not breaking anything...

The Wise Monkey
04-27-2009, 11:45 AM
GParted is an excellent tool, and free as well. :D

Actually, I think that Vista's built in Disk Management tool can do this - if you right click My Computer, go to Manage and go down to Disk Management, you should have the option to re-size all of the partitions on your PC.

If you wanted a commercial product, Acronis do some very good software, but it is probably overkill for what you need to do.

tomween1
04-27-2009, 02:28 PM
Thank you both, I'll look into these suggestions. Wise Monkey, unfortunately in this case, I am not running Vista. I am running XP sp2, and that is not an option in the disk management option.

Thanks again, Tom

The Wise Monkey
06-01-2009, 04:06 AM
Ah, OK then - just saw that you mentioned it in your post as well. XD