Can I increase the size of a partition

Can I increase the size of a partition once it has been defined?

I have arrived at the point where my Windows folder is on too small a drive and my machine is running very slowly once the RAM runs out. I have only 700 Mb left on a 4GB partition.

I have plenty of space on the "˜other’ part of the drive. Can I redefine the sizes without losing data?

 

Yes you can with Partition Magic, have a look for some more info on it

 

Or...as an alternative, move your Paging File to another partition or drive.

BTW, 4 Gigs is ample for the opearating system, so consider installing programs on some other partition so that the C: drive doesn't get jammed full. It's always good policy to do that if you're running a multi-partitioned drive. It takes some of the pain out when you need to re-install the OS.

 

In addition to moving the pagefile off the C: drive (which is a good idea even if you have plenty of room on C you can probably free up a good bit of space by turning off the hibernation feature unless you use it. The hibernation file is pretty large.

Also you will probably find a larger percentage of your C: drive reserved for system restore points than you really need. Most folks only want to keep 2 or 3 restore points and the default is usually quite a few more than that.

 

How do you do those things. I have only 20 megs left on my C:

 

1. Pagefile - go to start~settings~control panel~system~advanced~performance settings~advanced~virtual memory and click the "change" button. You will see a place to set how big and where you want the pagefile.

2. Restore Points & amount of drive space to use - go to start~settings~control panel~system~system restore and slide the pointer to suit yourself.

3. Hibernation - go to start~settings~control panel~power options~hibernate and turn it off.

Actually you should do #2 & #3 first and then #1 followed by a reboot.

 

Partition re-size - the only way.

All,

Many thanks for the info.

I have made more space by moving the pagefile but I think the only way out is to invest in Partition Magic and make the drive bigger.