Hard Drive Upgrade Problems

[mattmilw]

I’m upgrading my 80 gig hard drive to a 160 gig Western Digital drive. I used WD’s included tools to copy from the 80G to the 160G. During the copy, I remember seeing some kind of message about it enabling large drive support (or some similar message). When it finished copying, the drive showed up as a 160G drive in My Computer, and the partitions were proportional to how the 80G was set up.
There was a problem with System Restore (it would bomb when I’d try to open it), so I copied the drives again. This time, there was a problem with the Recycle Bin. After two bad attempts, I decided to copy again, this time using Norton Ghost. The copy appears good, but my C & D partitions only add up to 128.0 , and there’s 21.05 unallocated. All this adds up to 149.05G. In the Bios, the drive shows as 136G.

How can I reclaim the 21G of unallocated space? I want to split it up between the two partitions.

FYI, I’m running XP Home, and the drive(s) are NTFS.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[linney]

Unallocated Space.

Available disk space that is not allocated to any volume. The type of volume that you can create on unallocated space depends on the disk type. On basic disks, you can use unallocated space to create primary or extended partitions. On dynamic disks, you can use unallocated space to create dynamic volumes.



Relocating Hard Drive Capacity and File Compression
thread779-939540

Diskpart.exe might be just for any "data only" partitions and not system or boot partitions?

Functionality restrictions of the Diskpart.exe utility to extend system and boot partitions in Windows Server 2003 and in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;886986&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

A Description of the Diskpart Command-Line Utility

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;300415&Product=winxp

How to Use Diskpart.exe to Extend a Data Volume

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;325590&Product=win2000

Partition Magic might be a better bet?

http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic

 

[bcastner]

Some reading for your information:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;303013

http://support.microsoft.com/defaul...efault.aspx?scid=kb;en-gb;316505&ln=en-gb

It sounds like you were best dealt with on your first effort, using the Western Digital software and allowing it to enable LBA or large drive support.

The only issue would be system restore. Turn off System Restore (effectively clearing older entries) and then re-enable. Force a restore point creation through Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Restore.

What you need to report back here is any error message, and any entry in Event Viewer from System Restore.

I suspect the Forum can help resolve any errors from System Restore.

 

[mattmilw]

An update-

I ran Partition Commander 6, but it didn’t seem to offer any means to use the unallocated space. I ran Diskpart.exe on my D: partition (just data), and it appears that it took the 21 gig of unallocated space and added it to the D: partition. If I look in My Computer or in Disk Manager, it shows that it’s there. But, the Bios still shows it to be a 136g drive.

At this point, I’m wondering if all is well, or if there is still an issue.

Thanks,
Matt

 

[bcastner]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?kbid=331958