Logical Drives/Partitions - argh

[ShinyF1]

I am trying to sort out my parents' computer which has become virtually unusable due to a too small [and full] primary partition.

It is an Acer laptop with a 40GB harddrive running Windows XP Home which has three partitions - primary 'SYSTEM' 17GB, secondary 17GB and 'PQSERVICE' 3GB. I have tried to rearrange them through Computer Management but to no avail.

The issue is that the primary drive has so little space on it that they cannot even send an email.Do I have to reformat the whole thing as it is suggesting the maximum partition size is 17GB..

Sorry if this doesn't make too much sense - can provide any further information if need be.

Thanks

Sean

 

[Sp!ke]

Why not just ghost the primary partition onto a bigger disk with a bigger partition? (a new 320gb 2.5" HDD is now £30)

Once done, attach old drive as a slave over USB and drag and drop the required data on the other partitions over.

An alternative is Partition Magic, but personally I'd just go for the bigger disk.

 

[ShinyF1]

Spike thanks. Where can I get partition magic from? Is it freeware?

Sean

 

[Shude]

Spike thanks. Where can I get partition magic from? Is it freeware?

It's not freeware but you might find a demo version which expires in a month, I'm sure I used a demo version of it once.

Please make sure you back up all documents before making any partition changes!

EDIT:
try out a trial/demo version of Acronis Disk Director:
http://www.acronis.co.uk/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/

 

[Deker]

there's also gparted which is free and does a similar job to partition magic

GParted -- About

 

[grober]

Disc partitioning software- be afraid ---be very afraid! Get a new disc its possibly cheaper than Partition magic or Acronis Disc Director to buy. Disc partitioning progs are fine but they do have their idiosyncracies.

 

[Rory]

I use the Acronis tools - Disk Director and True Image (for disk cloning and backups) - quite a lot. They work fine, but you have to have your wits about you - it's far too easy to mess it up.

First thing I would do is use True Image to clone the existing drive on to a new one. Then put it into the laptop and make sure it works OK. Keep the old drive for backups.

 

[Beetnik]

I've used Easeus on lots of machines with never a problem - and it's free.

 

[Apial]

Partition Magic is no longer supprted or sold by Symantec. The last version was 8.02 and support stopped in 2004 or so.

It succesfully bricked my hard drive so that it would prevent any computer it was attached to from booting from its own primary hard drive.

The only fix was to use Seagate's Tools for DOS and reset track 0. Obviously all data on the drive was lost.

If you google Partion Magic you will find lots of posts asking for help. There is no wonder Symantec stopped supporting Partition Magic. They can't have been making any money even at $30 charge per support call!

 

[ShinyF1]

Disk Partitions / Laptop screen replacement

Have tried the Easus software but to no avail - the primary C volume cannot be increased beyond 17MB [not sure why].

I think I'll buy a new HDD and try that as it is currently only 40GB. Now need to search out how to do this and rebuild the machine... What do I need by way of cables/connectors etc as I assume the Acer only has 1 HDD connector?

Thanks for help.

On a [vaguely] similar note I have a Toshiba U400-13A.... laptop which has a broken screen. Am I right in assuming this should just be a straight swap for the replacement?

Thanks

Sean

 

[Howard]

I would imagine so , i am about as technical as a tea pot , and managed to change the screen on Mrs Toads laptop after she knocked it off the couch .

Took about 20 minutes.

I got our screen from here , probably local to you too. They were the cheapest i found. Our screen ( LED backlit ) was £56.

http://www.analogic.co.uk/

 

[Sp!ke]

I see you are in SW London same as me.

We're probably reasonably local so if you like I can help you image this stuff onto a bigger disk for you as its something I do quite regularly.

I use a USB HDD caddy to do the job.

 

[Rory]

Have tried the Easus software but to no avail - the primary C volume cannot be increased beyond 17MB [not sure why].

Don't know how that software works, but you usually have to reduce the size of the secondary partition to create some free space, then you expand the size of the primary partition.

I think I'll buy a new HDD and try that as it is currently only 40GB. Now need to search out how to do this and rebuild the machine... What do I need by way of cables/connectors etc as I assume the Acer only has 1 HDD connector?

You just need to buy a USB caddy that will take the same physical size drive - it'll be a 2.5" drive, most likely IDE rather than SATA. Often the caddies take both interface formats, but these things are really cheap and they can be a bit iffy - some drives don't work in some caddies, for no apparent reason.

You don't really need to rebuild the machine - it's a pain to do unless you've got all the original software disks. Just clone or ghost the old drive to the new one. For God's sake be careful to do it the right way round!

Then you can resize the partitions as required.

 

[ShinyF1]

I would imagine so , i am about as technical as a tea pot , and managed to change the screen on Mrs Toads laptop after she knocked it off the couch .

Took about 20 minutes.

I got our screen from here , probably local to you too. They were the cheapest i found. Our screen ( LED backlit ) was £56.

Analogic computers - LCDs, Screens, Laptop Repair, Data Recovery, Acer Repair, Dell Repair, Apple Repair, Desktop Repair

Howard - my AV programme doesn't like analogic:

To keep you safe, access to this page has been blocked by BullGuard.

http://www.analogic.co.uk/


The site is listed as a malicious site that may be stealing identity information, plant viruses on your machine or do other harmful things.

The information we have indicate that this site:

• Hosts software such as spyware or keystroke loggers, that report information back to a central server.

What would you like to do?

Decisions, decisions

 

[Howard]

How weird ...

Tel: 020 8546 9575
E-mail: [email protected]
Fax: 020 8541 4671
Address:
Unit 8, Ashway Centre
Elm Crescent
Kingston upon Thames
Surrey KT2 6HH
United Kingdom

This is for a different screen , but they trade on Ebay too. Really nice guys and very helpful.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/NEW-SCREEN-AS...Computing_LaptopAccess_RL&hash=item2560f845c8

 

[Sp!ke]

Howard - my AV programme doesn't like analogic:

To keep you safe, access to this page has been blocked by BullGuard.

http://www.analogic.co.uk/

McAfee site advisor says its safe. http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/analogic.co.uk

I've no experience of Bullguard - who are they?

 

[Howard]

I had Bullguard installed free with a PC i bought once , was a nightmare.

Binned it and got AVG .

 

[ShinyF1]

Ordered a screen from Analogic yesterday afternoon - it arrived today and is now fitted and working perfectly. Result

Thankyou Howard

Perhaps the Bullguard will be facing the bin..