Page 2 of 4 FirstFirst 1234 LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 33

Thread: Partitioning Software with Vista

  1. #11
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    1,063
    Yeah, I just did a defrag actually, with a free program recommended as being good. I was hoping to gain some space, but in fact I ended up with less space somehow after the defrag.

    You probably didn't see my edit above - what are XP dynamic disks?
    77 111 105 114 97

    My PGP signature

  2. #12
    Senior Member RoadClosed's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    3,834
    Moira... vista has a good defrag built in. In fact the disk clean utility is good as well it will delete junk and compress old files. Then you can defrag. You probably have less free space because the defrag utility takes up a few megabytes or a few hundred who knows.

    Dynamic disks are microsoft's toy on microsoft systems. They go beyond basic disks because they use a hidden database to stor information about disk attributes. You can resize them at will and even stor a volume across mutiple disks. All from within windows. Once you go there though, utils that read basic disks will no longer work, like Diskmagic. On windows this is an MS only implementation.
    West of House
    You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
    There is a small mailbox here.

  3. #13
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    1,063
    OK, I tried this. It let me shrink the XP partition but it's not offering me the chance to expand either of the other two volumes (and the data drive is next door to the unallocated space). There seems no way I can get to expand Vista.
    77 111 105 114 97

    My PGP signature

  4. #14
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    United Kingdom: Bridlington
    Posts
    17,188
    Hi Moira,

    Yeah, I just did a defrag actually, with a free program recommended as being good. I was hoping to gain some space, but in fact I ended up with less space somehow after the defrag.
    Please be very careful using third party software on Vista, particularly free stuff. Vista is very new and I don't think that we will get SP1 before September? There is a learning curve for everyone here?

    You will not save any space by defragmentation. All you do is reorganise stuff and compact files (that is different from "compress"). You may well fetch up with less apparently "free" space as the utility doubtless uses the page file, which does not get defragmented anyway.


  5. #15
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    1,063
    Right ..... well I did have a go with a live system tools CD, but I'm running into the same problem, namely the logical drive in the middle of the two operating systems. I can't move the unallocated space "over the top of it" to the vista drive. Disk management won't do it and neither will gparted. So I'm copying my data onto this PC, then I'll delete that partition and it will all be unallocated space next to Vista. Hopefully then I can expand the Vista drive. The logical drive won't even expand with the free space next to it (?) it's going to have to go and then be recreated.

    Edit Well, that didn't work either. Seems like nothing will persuade the Vista partition to expand - the option is just greyed out in Disk Management. The other volumes will expand no problem when there's space next to them.

    I'll have to get some partitioning software - to hell with third party - Vista's own tools aren't working. Surely to goodness some sort of partitioning software will actually do the job it's designed for? I just can't understand what it is about the Vista drive that I don't have the option to expand it.
    Last edited by Moira; May 31st, 2007 at 11:01 PM.
    77 111 105 114 97

    My PGP signature

  6. #16
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    United Kingdom: Bridlington
    Posts
    17,188
    OK Moira,

    This is my personal take on things, so please go easy?

    MS have been criticised for security weakness have they not? well, a lot of this is due to their hitherto obsession with backwards compatibility.

    Vista is a breakaway............ if you want to dual boot, then do it with Linux.

    Otherwise stick with the "old" product range like myself and many others are

    Do not expect Vista to be compatible with previous Windows versions.... just read the MS oracle? Vista EOLs in 2012, but XP in 2014

  7. #17
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    1,063
    I hear what you're saying, but if they're going to include a built in partitioner in Vista and then make sure it doesn't work on the vista partition - well it's a bit daft isn't it? I'm just wondering what I actually have to do to get a bigger space for Vista to reside on.

    Mind, it had gained some space again when I last looked, there was 5.66 GB free. Yesterday it was 3.18 - I've no idea how it's varying so much!
    77 111 105 114 97

    My PGP signature

  8. #18
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jul 2003
    Location
    United Kingdom: Bridlington
    Posts
    17,188
    Hi Moira,

    I would guess that if you just had Vista, it would work. It just doesn't like working with another OS, because it probably doesn't

    I would expect it to stuff Linux with great glee though?

  9. #19
    Agony Aunty-Online Moira's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    1,063
    I see .... you think maybe it won't expand because the volumes next to it are XP? The data partition isn't one or the other though and they're all formatted NTFS - I just think it doesn't make sense. There's no rational explanation for it any more than there is for my Vista drive gaining and losing GBs each day.
    77 111 105 114 97

    My PGP signature

  10. #20
    Senior Member RoadClosed's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2003
    Posts
    3,834
    My guess and these are big GUESSES at this point is Windows is limited to the congruity of the start of block of each virtual disk that is flagged to boot. Wait a tick! I just looked at my box, vista defaults to a basic disk so I am not sure why partiion magic didn't work. Hmmm my the page file and volume shadow could be stopping it? Mine are right in the middle of the disk. Yours might be near the partition point. Also how is the free space showing up? Unallocated? Something is locking it. Post a shot of your screen.

    I have NEVER tried this but I wonder if you can boot into safe mode or command line mode and use diskpart, the command line utility in vista? Once you get the volume and disk id you can select it and enter something like:

    extend size=2048 disk=1

    Also since like 2000 you could merge partitions by clicking them both and merging them. If you have some extra space try that? Vista may still be seeing it as a partition somehow. Hope all this GUESSIGN helps. There isn't much on vista yet our on the boards.
    West of House
    You are standing in an open field west of a white house, with a boarded front door.
    There is a small mailbox here.

Similar Threads

  1. Vista - Arrogance & Stupidity
    By acidtone in forum AntiOnline's General Chit Chat
    Replies: 21
    Last Post: March 26th, 2007, 04:33 PM
  2. Cracking Windows Vista Beta 2 Local Passwords (SAM and SYSKEY)
    By Irongeek in forum The Security Tutorials Forum
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: September 12th, 2006, 06:17 AM
  3. New Aim Virus
    By Soda_Popinsky in forum Web Security
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: February 15th, 2004, 03:19 AM
  4. How can you compete with open source?
    By SDK in forum AntiOnline's General Chit Chat
    Replies: 0
    Last Post: February 12th, 2004, 03:18 PM
  5. Software rams great firewall of China
    By cwk9 in forum Miscellaneous Security Discussions
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: April 18th, 2003, 05:57 AM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •