Resizing partition

Hey,

I recently ran out of space on my Data drive (e, and I want to increase the free space (I have non-allocated space on that hard drive), by resizing the e: drive to take up the WHOLE Data hard disk.

Last time I tried to do something similar (I can't remember exactly), something went wrong and I had to use a recovery tool to get all my stuff back. But I think that was because I had my OS, Backup and Data drives on the same hard disk.

Anyway, now I don't. My e: drive is the only partition on my data hard disk, should resizing it to take up the whole hard drive be a problem?

If this is helpful, it's FAT32.

 

If your OS is on a seperate Drive you should have no problems increasing the size of E drive.

 

IF e:\ is one drive, how large of a partition is the drive.

If memory serves me, xp can only handle a 32 gig partition formatted under fat32.

You can convert the e:\ drive to ntfs, from the command prompt...i.e.:

Click start, then run, then type in cmd (press enter).
convert e: /fs:ntfs (press enter)
You may have to reboot. This will convert e:\ from fat32 to ntfs. Now, go into computer manager (via right clicking my computer, and selecting "manage").

Next, click on disk management. Here you should be able to enlarge the drive partition. Nice feature in vista, allows one to shrink a partition.

 

Haha. Well, my FAT32 partition (e drive) is 130GB. My HDD is 190GB.

I know how to enlarge partitions and all....

 

how it can be? XP doesn't support FAT32 partition more then 32 GB.

and if you say:

what is the problem?

 

Don't be all pissy...

Well it is supporting it, don't ask me how.

I didn't know if this is a problem.

 

Well, xp can't create partitions larger than 32GB, but it can use partitions that are larger.

An interesting program can be found here:

http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/index.htm?fat32format.htm

But, on a side note:

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/viewfaq.html?i=63 (ntfs vs fat32)

fat32 can't support partitions larger than 128 GB.

But, it appears that this fat32format program can format over the 128GB barrier.


I'd just covert to ntfs, and be done with it. It is far supperior.

 

Okay. I put in the command:

e: /fs:ntfs

and all it did was switch to the e drive, it didn't convert it.

What am I meant to do?

 

well you need to put in the command prompt:
convert x: /fs:NTFS

read more here

 

Thanks.

 

Acronis Disk Director
Partition Magic 8
Free Partitioning tools like
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Partition_Logic_d4780.html

does best job.. Just modify as you wish and execute.. Just saying.. First choice is the best choice by far in speed.. and it doesn't really matter what you are running nor it does matter what files are active those all can do clean offline in windows boot.. Convert, edit, resize, clusters resize, you name it.. Even full partition copy..

and about FAT32 hell I haven't seen a size I couldn't of create FAT32.. 128Mb? hell no.. I have here WD 200Gb and it still goes FAT32... Only problem in fat32 is largest possible file size to FAT32 drive is 4GB minus 2 bytes.

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;314463

 

yes i agree with you, i've recently posted in this thread some messed up information. Of course fat32 partition can be up to 2Tb, windows just can't create fat32 partitions more then 32Gb.
read more here

among this progs i'd choose Disk Director, coz i has some additional utilities, os selector(advanced boot manager), recovery expert(help to recover lost or accidentally deleted partitions) once it helped me very much when i deleted the whole partition in windows disk management utility.

 

Hehe. It all worked, thanks all.