How to rearrange and merge separate blocks of unallocated space

g0dM@n · Mar 11, 2008

Basically, I bought another Vostro 1500 that is kick *** and bought a 200gb 7200.2 Seagate separately to replace the 80gb that comes stock with the Dell laptop. I used Acronis True Image v11 to do a disk-to-disk image, and tried to resize the O/S partition to go from ~60gb to 40gb... b/c I want to make a ~150gb partition for just media, files, documents and such.

Here is what I ended up with:

I have Partition Magic version 8, but it doesn't give me the option to rearrange.

I want to know three things:

How do I COMBINE the unallocated space to be one large block on the disk? I don't want two or three pieces becoming a partition as that's stupid b/c in reality that's fragmented.
Is there a way to slice out the fastest part of the disk as the O/S like you can do on the desktop Intel Matrix Storage motherboards such as ICH7R, ICH8R, and ICH9R?
As you can see, there is a 10gb unallocated space. That used to be the RECOVERY partition, but I deleted it thinking I probably don't need it. Should I have kept it? Remember, I still have the original 80gb hard drive that I'm thinking of imaging as DISK to archive, so I can still put the RECOVERY partition back if need be.

This hard drive is pretty fast for a laptop HDD!!!

16mb cache, 7200rpm
Thanks.

Omsion · Mar 11, 2008

Try enlarging the partitions into the unallocated space, then shrinking them again. You might be able to do that in one batch as well.

g0dM@n · Mar 12, 2008

Omsion said:
Try enlarging the partitions into the unallocated space, then shrinking them again. You might be able to do that in one batch as well.

Even still, the unallocated space in FRONT of the C: drive will never mix with the ones after... this SUCKS.

Omsion · Mar 12, 2008

Can you do something like that?

Code:

|----||uuuu||--C--||uuuu||----||uuuu|
enlarge into unallocated ->
|----||--------C--||----------------|
shrink to make unallocated at the back->
|----||--------C--||----------||uuuu|

I seem to recall PartitionMagic being able to move stuff around like that. Not sure anymore...

Ben333 · Mar 12, 2008

Omsion said:
Can you do something like that?

Code:

|----||uuuu||--C--||uuuu||----||uuuu| enlarge into unallocated -> |----||--------C--||----------------| shrink to make unallocated at the back-> |----||--------C--||----------||uuuu|

I seem to recall PartitionMagic being able to move stuff around like that. Not sure anymore...

I thought partition magic let you drag and drop in the bootable GUI version of it.

DaBigJ · Mar 12, 2008

I've never used used it for something quite like that, but I think GParted should be able to do it. They have a bootable cd. I use it all the time for resizing NTFS partitions.

It might be a good idea to thoroughly defragment and back up your data before attempting this, however.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

g0dM@n · Mar 12, 2008

DaBigJ said:
I've never used used it for something quite like that, but I think GParted should be able to do it. They have a bootable cd. I use it all the time for resizing NTFS partitions.

It might be a good idea to thoroughly defragment and back up your data before attempting this, however.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Cool... freeware!

Omsion said:
Can you do something like that?

Code:

|----||uuuu||--C--||uuuu||----||uuuu| enlarge into unallocated -> |----||--------C--||----------------| shrink to make unallocated at the back-> |----||--------C--||----------||uuuu|

I seem to recall PartitionMagic being able to move stuff around like that. Not sure anymore...

This is exactly what I wanted to do except I have the Dell Media there too, the 2.5gig partition with unallocated AFTER it.

*Edit* Wait, do I have to do what you said and then do this??

Code:

||---C---||1st-uuuuuuuuuuuuu||--DellMedia--||2nd-uuuu||
enlarge DellMedia into unallocated that's after it->
||---C---||1st-uuuuuuuuuuuuu||--------DellMedia--------|
shrink DellMedia to make unallocated at the front->
||---C---||1st-uuuuuuuuuuuuu||2nd-uuuu||---DellMedia---|
then combing unallocated
||---C---||-------------D---------------||---DellMedia---|

So I have to do all of that??? That's retarded...

g0dM@n · Mar 12, 2008

Also, DaBigJ... how do you use .tar.bz2 file. Is that an image, or do I extract first or something? Thx.

VinnyTAMU · Mar 12, 2008

g0dM@n said:
Also, DaBigJ... how do you use .tar.bz2 file. Is that an image, or do I extract first or something? Thx.

Here is a wikipedia article about .tar.bz2 files. LINK

Here are the basics (quoted from Wikipedia): bzip2 is a free and open source lossless data compression algorithm and program developed by Julian Seward.

Also this LINK has Gparted.iso files.

g0dM@n · Mar 12, 2008

VinnyTAMU said:
Here is a wikipedia article about .tar.bz2 files. LINK

Here are the basics (quoted from Wikipedia): bzip2 is a free and open source lossless data compression algorithm and program developed by Julian Seward.

Also this LINK has Gparted.iso files.

holy links. thx. i just wanted to know what to do with it... was just looking for a shortcut since i'm busy... thx tho

VinnyTAMU · Mar 12, 2008

g0dM@n said:
holy links. thx. i just wanted to know what to do with it... was just looking for a shortcut since i'm busy... thx tho

Well I am not sure if Windows can decompress the file (this compression is more commonly used in Unix and Unix like operating systems) but you can try typing this into a cmd window:

tar -xjvf example.tar.bz2

example.tar.bz2 to be replaced with the name of your file

g0dM@n · Mar 12, 2008

VinnyTAMU said:
Well I am not sure if Windows can decompress the file (this compression is more commonly used in Unix and Unix like operating systems) but you can try typing this into a cmd window:

tar -xjvf example.tar.bz2

example.tar.bz2 to be replaced with the name of your file

winrar can extract it - already did that, but since this is supposed to be a boot-up CD i don't know if i should extract and burn, or what have you...

VinnyTAMU · Mar 12, 2008

g0dM@n said:
winrar can extract it - already did that, but since this is supposed to be a boot-up CD i don't know if i should extract and burn, or what have you...

Yea I would try that second link I provided you with, from the looks of it, it should be a bootable disk that will run gparted.

ian2000gsxr · Mar 12, 2008

i thought partition magic could move them around? i guess not, it's been awhile since I've used it

g0dM@n · Mar 12, 2008

VinnyTAMU said:
Yea I would try that second link I provided you with, from the looks of it, it should be a bootable disk that will run gparted.

ian2000gsxr said:
i thought partition magic could move them around? i guess not, it's been awhile since I've used it

oh is that what livecd means, lol... saw that but i thought it was just another program.

VinnyTAMU · Mar 12, 2008

g0dM@n said:
oh is that what livecd means, lol... saw that but i thought it was just another program.

Since I love to link Wikipedia, ---> LINK

g0dM@n · Mar 13, 2008

BADDDDDDDDD news.

I tried GParted and guess what... I CANNOT BOOT VISTA ANYMORE!! All I did was delete the DellMedia partition and then MOVE the OS partition to the left so that all of the unallocated ends up at the right (what's funny is the unallocated ended up being 3 pieces still).

Well, it all went smooth according to GParted, said completed successfully, i rebooted, pulled out the CD and my laptop just keeps rebooting.

I'm going to have to start all over and image my old 80gb back to the 200gb. I'm not going to just image it AS-IS and lose out on 120gb for now. i NEED this laptop @ work tomorrow at a client, so now i lose sleep AND lose 120gb temporarily until someone can help me with a solution.

i can't believe that this is a pain in the ***. how come acronis true image couldn't just do it right????? it doesn't let me move partitions around, only resize.. so i get blocks of unallocated like you see in the first post. gonna finish this, and pass the F out right after. this SUCKS! been getting 5hrs of sleep everynight and it's really catching up w/me.

Hazaro · Mar 13, 2008

g0dM@n said:
BADDDDDDDDD news.

I tried GParted and guess what... I CANNOT BOOT VISTA ANYMORE!! All I did was delete the DellMedia partition and then MOVE the OS partition to the left so that all of the unallocated ends up at the right (what's funny is the unallocated ended up being 3 pieces still).

Well, it all went smooth according to GParted, said completed successfully, i rebooted, pulled out the CD and my laptop just keeps rebooting.

I'm going to have to start all over and image my old 80gb back to the 200gb. I'm not going to just image it AS-IS and lose out on 120gb for now. i NEED this laptop @ work tomorrow at a client, so now i lose sleep AND lose 120gb temporarily until someone can help me with a solution.

i can't believe that this is a pain in the ***. how come acronis true image couldn't just do it right????? it doesn't let me move partitions around, only resize.. so i get blocks of unallocated like you see in the first post. gonna finish this, and pass the F out right after. this SUCKS! been getting 5hrs of sleep everynight and it's really catching up w/me.

I did something similar and killed my MBR and lost XP on a hidden partition I can't get rid of.

DaBigJ · Mar 13, 2008

Couple things to try:

Right click on a partition in GParted and select "manage flags." Set the correct one to "boot."

If you stick your Vista CD/DVD in it may be able to fix it without reinstalling.

I kind of doubt that you've really lost anything except the MBR is messed up because you messed with the partitions (which is what you needed, of course....)

VinnyTAMU · Mar 13, 2008

DaBigJ said:
Couple things to try:

Right click on a partition in GParted and select "manage flags." Set the correct one to "boot."

If you stick your Vista CD/DVD in it may be able to fix it without reinstalling.

I kind of doubt that you've really lost anything except the MBR is messed up because you messed with the partitions (which is what you needed, of course....)

Yea it could be an issue with your MBR or as simple as assigning the boot flag to the right partition.

How to rearrange and merge separate blocks of unallocated space

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