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Hi
I'm running Windows Vista Business on a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop with 2gb RAM.
The laptop came fitted with a 120gb hard drive and i've run out of disc space, so I bought a new 320gb hard disc and took it to our local computer store and asked them to clone the 120gb hard drive onto the 320gb hard drive so I could utilise the extra space.
When I got the computer back the first thing I did was to look at the hard disk properties to see how much space I now had available. The properties showed that I still had a 120gb hard drive fitted. So, I rang the computer shop and told them my findings and they told me that this was correct and that I would have to find the unused partition and assign it a different drive letter. I explained that all I wanted was ONE hard drive with the full capacity available to me, but they said that their software wasn't capable of expanding the original disc to take advantage of the new disks capacity. They offered no further help.
So, I initially tried to create/format a new partition in the extra space but I get a message saying that there isn't enough disk space available to carry out the command. Next I thought I would use Vista Business to do a complete system image backup, and restore that back onto the 320gb hard disk. Then I read that when the image is restored it will also restore the original hard disk partitions. Is there any way at all I can force Vista restore to utilise ALL of my 320gb hard drive on one partition?
Many thanks and I appreciate your help. As a business user I desparately need my laptop and don't want to be without it for another 7 days. I'm sort of hoping that this is something I can do myself. Just one other complicating factor... I don't have any Vista CD's etc, as the Dell system restore is on my hard drive letter 'D'
So, in conclusion, I now have a 320gb hard drive fitted in my laptop that is only showing that I have a 120gb hard drive fitted and I want to use Vista restore to enable the whole of the 320gb as drive 'C' (with perhaps a small partition for Dell's system recovery)
Again, many thanks for any help.
Jem
P.S., this is the extract from the bleepingcomputer.com help files...
I'm running Windows Vista Business on a Dell Inspiron 6400 laptop with 2gb RAM.
The laptop came fitted with a 120gb hard drive and i've run out of disc space, so I bought a new 320gb hard disc and took it to our local computer store and asked them to clone the 120gb hard drive onto the 320gb hard drive so I could utilise the extra space.
When I got the computer back the first thing I did was to look at the hard disk properties to see how much space I now had available. The properties showed that I still had a 120gb hard drive fitted. So, I rang the computer shop and told them my findings and they told me that this was correct and that I would have to find the unused partition and assign it a different drive letter. I explained that all I wanted was ONE hard drive with the full capacity available to me, but they said that their software wasn't capable of expanding the original disc to take advantage of the new disks capacity. They offered no further help.
So, I initially tried to create/format a new partition in the extra space but I get a message saying that there isn't enough disk space available to carry out the command. Next I thought I would use Vista Business to do a complete system image backup, and restore that back onto the 320gb hard disk. Then I read that when the image is restored it will also restore the original hard disk partitions. Is there any way at all I can force Vista restore to utilise ALL of my 320gb hard drive on one partition?
Many thanks and I appreciate your help. As a business user I desparately need my laptop and don't want to be without it for another 7 days. I'm sort of hoping that this is something I can do myself. Just one other complicating factor... I don't have any Vista CD's etc, as the Dell system restore is on my hard drive letter 'D'
So, in conclusion, I now have a 320gb hard drive fitted in my laptop that is only showing that I have a 120gb hard drive fitted and I want to use Vista restore to enable the whole of the 320gb as drive 'C' (with perhaps a small partition for Dell's system recovery)
Again, many thanks for any help.
Jem
P.S., this is the extract from the bleepingcomputer.com help files...
Quote
This screen asks you whether or not you want to format and repartition the disks before you restore the data. If you select the Format and repartition disks option, Complete PC Restore will repartition and format the hard drive you are restoring to exactly as it was when you made the backup. If you do not choose this method, it will just erase the hard disk and restore the data to it. If you are using the same hard drive that you originally used to back up your computer then you may want to select the option to Format and repartition disks. On the other hand, if this is a new hard drive that you have partitioned in a different manner, then you should not select this option in order to keep your current disk configuration. It is important to note that with either option you select all the data on the disk you are restoring to will be erased. When you are ready to continue, you should click on the Finish button.
This post has been edited by Pocketjem: 24 August 2008 - 03:22 AM
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