Re-allocate Partition: Hp Compaq dx7400

[Sniker]

Hi, my best wishes to all of you.

I have a brand new HP Compaq dx7400 Microtower with all CDs/Manuals supplied by the manufacturer at my workplace. It has 2 partitions on it's 160 GB HDD. One is C:\ - the active primary partition of size approx. 142 GB & the other one is D:\ - the HP RECOVERY partiton; also primay, of size approx. 10 GB. There are unallocated spaces of 7.8 MB both at the beginning and the end of D:\.

Now, I need to make the C:\ drive smaller and allocate the free space to another drive other than D:\. I'd like to do it without unistalling the lisenced OS (Windows XP Professional). I've already tried to do it with PowerQuest Partition Magic 8.0 but it failed (Showed error#983). It seems that the system protects the drives even while the system restore is off and in the safe mode as well.

I therefore, request for solution as soon as posible.

With regards,

Sniker

[Jerry K]

If you don't want to loose data stored on the drive, then use Partitioning Manager software. If your machine won't run PowerQuest Partition Magiic 8.0, then there's something wrong with your software or there's something wrong with the machine. You might want to try Norton's Partition Magic... it works well on my machine.

[Sniker]

Dear Jerry,
Thanks for your quick reply. I also want to use partition manager. But I've heard that HP Compaq PC's comes with a single partition to work with and prevents partition managers to make change on its HDD. Is it true? If so, how to overcome this limitation?
I’m waiting eagerly for a reply.

[Jerry K]

I've not heard of this and I've been on this board for almost 10 years. I really don't see how HP/Compaq could create such a scheme that would prevent a partition manager software from modifying the partition(s) on a hard drive.
It's very possible that it's true but.... I've not heard or read about this before.

Just be careful and don't delete or modify the small 10 gb partition as that's where the restore files are stored.

Some informative links:

http://coolsw.intel.com/story.php?ti...tition_Manager

http://rapidshare.com/files/121584119/EASEUS.Partition.Manager.Server.v1.6.3-DVT.rar

If this one doesn't work, let me know and I'll find additional programs.

[Sniker]

Dear Jerry,
I'm sorry to say that I couldn't download from your suggested links as membership is required to download. But, to some extent I've figured out the reason for partition manager failing to resize/rearrange partition of the HDD. It's the HP-Recovery partition 'D' that is preventing any changes.

One of my colleagues used partition manager on his system without 'D' (HDD was formatted & then Os was reinstalled using the restore CD) and it worked.

Is deleting 'D' the only way to make changes on the HDD? What is the benefit of keeping 'D' if I take regular backup on CD/DVDs and have both restore & OS CDs?

[Jerry K]

There is no problem in deleting partition D. It's only purpose is to restore the system to the way it was when purchased. If you don't need it then you certainly can rid the drive of that partition and its contents.

[Guppie]

Originally Posted by Sniker

I've already tried to do it with PowerQuest Partition Magic 8.0 but it failed (Showed error#983). It seems that the system protects the drives even while the system restore is off and in the safe mode as well.

First, run the CHKDSK command (with /f or /r switch), or use some other suitable disk scanning utility. It might not necessarily be some kind of protection that's causing the problems, there can be things like file-system corruption and errors on the drive, which can cause a partitioning utility to fail.

Then if PM 8.0 still keeps failing, you can try another utility. Parted Magic (which is based on Gnome Partition Editor) and Easus Partition Manager Home Edition are two good free programs you can try.