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clarion

4 Posts

6005

January 3rd, 2008 13:00

Shrinking a partition

Hi,
 
I got a Latitude that came with a 120GB hard disk. It has the following partitions on it:
 
1. volume: (blank), filesystem: (blank) flagged as Healthy EISA configuration (173MB)
2. volume: OS (C: ), filesystem: NTFS flagged as Healthy, System, Boot, Primary,... (109GB)
3. volume: RECOVERY (D: ), filesystem: NTFS flagged as Healthy, Primary Partition (2GB)
 
I assume that (1) is the Dell diagnostic partition.
 
Can I use Vista's Shrink Volume facility in Disk Management to shrink the size of the OS volume (2) to free us space for another partition to use for data? I want it to look like this:
 
1. volume: (blank), filesystem: (blank) flagged as Healthy EISA configuration (173MB)
2. volume: OS (C: ), filesystem: NTFS flagged as Healthy, System, Boot, Primary,... (59GB)
3. volume: RECOVERY (D: ), filesystem: NTFS flagged as Healthy, Primary Partition (2GB)
4. volume: DATA (E: ), filesystem: NTFS (50GB)
 
Will this cause any problem for partitions (1) and (3)?
 
Also, can I change the driver letter assigned to the recovery partition?
 
Appreciate your help on this.
 
Thanks...
 
 
 
 
 


Message Edited by clarion on 01-03-2008 09:37 AM

ejn63

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January 3rd, 2008 13:00

Before you alter the partition structure, realize that the recovery will no longer function after you do so - so you can delete that partition and use it for whatever you need the space for.

clarion

4 Posts

January 3rd, 2008 13:00


ejn63 wrote:
Before you alter the partition structure, realize that the recovery will no longer function after you do so - so you can delete that partition and use it for whatever you need the space for.
Thanks for the reply.
 
Is there a way to keep the recovery partition functioning, yet resize the OS partition?
 
Also, will the Dell diagnostic parition also cease to function if I change the partition structure?
 
Is there any Dell Tech document explaining these partition and what we can and cannot do with them?
 
Thanks...

ejn63

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87.5K Posts

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321.3K Points

January 3rd, 2008 13:00

No - if you alter the disc structure, the restore won't work. Even if it were to still work, it'd be essentially useless, as restoring the system afterward would destroy the changes you'd made in the meantime. You are better off buying a copy of an imaging utility (or use ImageX if you can deal with the command line and have a version of Vista that ships with it) and an external hard drive, and building your own image once you have the system running as you want it.


As long as you don't delete the partition, the Dell diagnostic partition will still function.

clarion

4 Posts

January 3rd, 2008 14:00

Thanks for the reply.
 
I have BootitNG and have made images of all three partitions (on two CDs and a DVD) in case I ever need to restore the system to the factory state.
 
It is good to know that the Dell diagnostic partition will still work.
 
Thanks & Regards
 
 

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