My Win7 Hd Is A Mess

[gawguy]

I just bought a couple of used Lenovo / IBM Thinkpads running Win7 Ultimate.

 

I have always used Norton Partition Magic 8 for XP and it has worked beautifully. I often take space from one partition and give it to another, or combine partitions etc...never a problem.

 

When I got my Win7 machine it had only Drive C. I wanted to break that up into 3 partitions. Looking online I saw info that PM8 would not work with Win7. Thinking that Win7 disk management was much more advanced than XP I tried to use it just like PM. I hit a wall.

 

I made a second partition and that was fine. But it would not split the second partition like I wanted and trying various things I ended up with a mess. I now have C: 30gb E: 3gb F: 15gb and G: 7gb. There are commands for "extend partition" and "shrink partition" and I want to combine f: and g: , but the "extend partition" command is grayed out for all partitions.

 

It is true that this 60gb disk is too small anyway and I bought a 160gb drive that I want to set up. But before I do that I want to know what I'm doing so I want to fix the mess on the 60gb first. Either get a new PM that works with Win7 or better yet, is there a way to get Win7 Disk Manager to fix this mess? I downloaded "Paragon Partition Manager 11 Free" and it won't combine the partitions either.

 

There seems to be a new set of rules with Win7 that is preventing easy transfer of disk space between partitions. Is that true?

 

Thanks,

Gaw Guy

[gawguy]

Okay...

 

I can get back to square one. Eliminate all partitions except c: Then I can make one more partition with Win 7. That's not what I want. I want at least 3 partitions.

 

I can make that second partition but then I don't see any program that will split up that second partition as would PM8.

 

I see that PM does not make a Win7 application which I think is probably because of this new set of rules for disk management which doesn't allow them to do what they want to do.

 

Any help / suggestions still very much appreciated.

 

Thanks...GG

 

Tha

[baa99]

I use this,

 

Parted

 

 

It is Linux, but also handles NTSF. You may want to make the 2nd partition a Extended Partition instead of a Primary Partition. Then you can place several Logical Partitions in that 2nd partition.

 

Also Thinkpads/Lenovos may have a recovery partition (hidden?).

[The_Munchmaster]

Gawguy, why dont u just buy a new laptop instead of buying old crap. You'll get a 500GB hard drive as a minimum with a new laptop.

[gawguy]

Gawguy, why dont u just buy a new laptop instead of buying old crap. You'll get a 500GB hard drive as a minimum with a new laptop.

 

I just bought a Lenovo T61 on craigslist: Intel Centrino Core 2 DUO 2.2 GHz, 2gb mem, Win7 Ultimate, Office 2010, etc. $250. Only drawback of this one is 100 gb hd, but it is sata 7200 rpm. If you buy something like this on ebay you don't even get an OS.

 

I like shopping craigslist. And I like diddling around with thinkpads. About 15 yrs now.

 

I bought a new samsung netbook and it works great.

[gawguy]

Perhaps boring to some, but I like the challenge: Here's a workaround that works.

 

Use Acronis True Image 09 to make an image of the Win7 Ultimate that came with my new computer.

 

Take new 160 gb hd and set up xp from a recovery disk that came with a used computer. It's one of those "you have 30 days to activate." I only need it for a few hours.

 

When xp is running, install Partition Magic 8 and Acronis True Image 2009.

 

Partition the drive any old way you want.

 

Use Acronis to restore the drive c: with the Win7 image.

 

Did it on a small drive as a test today and it worked perfectly.

 

 

Old School I guess. Fun for the simple-minded.

 

Thanks to everyone for the input.

 

Gaw Guy

[Palatkik]

Win 7 does partitioning itself, no need for a third party product. Just right click computer, manage and disk management. Makes any number of partitions you want.