Increasing Partition size

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MallAudio

95 posts

Master Geek

#20870 8-Apr-2008 12:30

Hi...

We have an imaged P.C which is currenly running XP: service pack 2....

This PC has been partitoned... C drive is FAT with only 2GB space running our OS and program files...
                                            D drive has 35GB space running a couple of programs and our media files
                                                                                                                                 (music, ad's, announcements etc)

This PC has been falling over constantly!!! someone mentioned it may be the size of the C drive that is causing the instability...

We purchased Symantec Partition Magic to increase C drive but it won't let us go any bigger than where it is currently sitting...

We have approx 35-40 computers that have been running this set up for over 5 years with NO problems...

Have recently set up a new VPN network which currently has 10 PC's on it... for some reason, they seem to be falling over almost on a daily basis...  the only difference between the old and new PC's is 2 programs.... VPN-X and a new reboot program...

Old PC's have 333mb free space in C... with new programs, new PC's have only 120mb free space...

Would this make any difference at all to the stability of the system?
Why won't Partition Magic let us increase the C drive any higher that 2GB?

Is it because it is an imaged Hard Drive??

Any ideas why we are having these issues?

Any thoughts on the subject would be greatly appreciated!!!!

freitasm

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#122078 8-Apr-2008 12:33

Perhaps there is no space available on the drive? IS D: full?

Also, 300 MB free on a system drive is pretty much limiting what the OS can do in terms of pagefile - if there's not enough memory on a PC and no space for the pagefile it will simply crash.

You might have to get an external drive, copy things out of the second partition, delete the files and change the size. Which won't help much if the second partition is full and you will need the space anyway to restore the files.

Can you just get a bigger drive and use something like Acronis to clone the contents into the larger drive?

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MallAudio

95 posts

Master Geek

#122082 8-Apr-2008 12:50

Thanks for your Reply!!!!

D drive is 35GB... has around 30GB free space... Problem with getting an external drive etc and doing it all manually, is the PC's are scattered all over NZ... thought if we could use Partition Magic then I could do just upload it and do it all remotely...

I have tried various ways of increasing the partition... using the redistribute free space tool... decreasing the D drive manually to free up the space (but still wont let me increase C drive using the unallocated disk space)

I've just got no idea eh... Im learning all of this as I go... my job description kind of changed about 2-3 months ago and I've literally no experience with networks and operating systems etc... started as an audio engineer, now im building PC's, networks and doing all the Techie stuff for the whole business...

I tend to be able to work through any problem i have come across, but this has got me baffled!!!

If it is FAT16, does that mean i cant go any bigger on the C drive THAN 2GB? why would the people who designed the system have partitioned it in the first place? what does it achieve??

freitasm

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#122089 8-Apr-2008 13:11

FAT16 is limited to 2GB partition sizes due to how the OS stores the links to the files and folders. At the time it was the best it could be done with the technology available at hand - 16 bit processors, etc...

Some versions of Windows XP Service Pack 2 should support up to 4GB though.

Have you tried increasing the partition to 4GB only? If you have that much space available on D: then you don't need to copy things out for this operation, although it would be good to have backups in place anyway.

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Brayden

14 posts

Geek

#122090 8-Apr-2008 13:11

FAT16 is your problem, you'll need to convert your C Drive to FAT32, and then you'll be able to increase it with Partition Magic.

MallAudio

95 posts

Master Geek

#122092 8-Apr-2008 13:18

How do I know whether it is FAT16 or FAT32... when i click on it, all that comes up in the info bar is FAT for C drive and NTFS for D drive... if I convert it do I lose all the data???

freitasm

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#122097 8-Apr-2008 13:21

FAT = FAT16

Here is how to convert FAT to NTFS. You should not lose anything. But you should always have backups.

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Brayden

14 posts

Geek

#122098 8-Apr-2008 13:22

If it just says FAT, then it's FAT16.

Partition Magic from memory has the option to convert a partition.

You won't lose your data converting the drive HOWEVER... When doing anything like this with your drive there is always that chance that something could go wrong, so backing the data up first is always advised.

Brayden

14 posts

Geek

#122106 8-Apr-2008 13:35

Freitasm types faster than me it seems. Keeps just beating me with the answers, oh well...

MallAudio

95 posts

Master Geek

#122107 8-Apr-2008 13:35

THANKYOU SO MUCH GUYS!!! WILL GO AND TRY OUT ALL THIS NEW FOUND KNOWLEDGE NOW!!!!

freitasm

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#122109 8-Apr-2008 13:38

Just one thing: most programs will reboot your machine when they start to resize the partition. If you do this to any remote machine you will lose connection and won't see the progress - or results if it fails.

Be aware of this... Test locally, test again and again. Take notes on how to do it. And when doing it follow all the steps one by one, without thinking, because you know what's written works.

That's how the big guys do it.

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MallAudio

95 posts

Master Geek

#122112 8-Apr-2008 13:46

Will do... thanks again!!