Partition question

Hi,
I have an 120g sata drive as my main drive paritioned as follows:
11g C: Windows XP and hardware programs, .ie Soundblaster
87g D: Games, music, pictures...
16.8g free space

Well the C: partition was made a little small and has only 1.5 of free space. I have old partition magic but haven't installed it so my question is this- Is there a way within windows to add some of the free space to the C partition and what is the safest way since the OS is installed there?

 

I would not use Partition "Tragic", and that is a story in itself. Get yourself a Knoppix LiveCD, and use QParted to do the partitioning. No install, and on the fly partition changing.

 

Both of the "Ultimate Boot CD"s (DOS or Win versions - DL the latest) have many free partitioning tools. The Knoppix disk works well too but is less useful for those that intend to stay with Windwoes.

DOS UBCD - http://www.ultimatebootcd.com
Win UBCD - http://www.ubcd4win

If you want something commercial, check out Partition Commander from http://www.v-com.com. I got my copy of PC9 cheaply on eBay and it has worked well for me. Can manipulate FAT-16, FAT-32, NTFS and several types of Linux partitions.

In any case, back up yor current partitions prior to using any on-the-fly partition resizing tool. One never knows what could happen during the two step process: 1- Move exixting Extended Partition to the end of the free space, 2- Add free space to end of current Primary partition...

.bh.

 

Thanks guys,
I do have a Knoppix disc (1 1/2 old) and an Ultimate boot disc but is it worth the risk or is 1.5g enough to get by on? So far so good but with another service pack or a bunch of M$ patches.....

 

See my reply to "Newbie needs partitioning HDD help" thread for my thoughts on laying out partitions. I would want about 5GB for the Primary partition for Win 2k or XP.

.bh.

 

Be careful, you may wish to back up your important folders and files on the C drive. I'm not sure about the various drive utilities out there but you Windows generally won't let you touch a primary partition (drive you boot from, your C). Meaning you can move that partition or extend it using what you have free.