Vista Ultimate 64 & Partitioning...

M

MikeTAD

New Member
Hello all...am looking for some advice...

I recently installed Vista Ultimate 64 into a brand new self-built pc. The HD is 1TB in size. Vista put some 'unmoveable' files in the middle of the HD, and, of course, I cannot now reduce the size of the C drive down to the size I want it to be, as the C drive must contain the unmoveable files...ho hum...

I would appreciate any input on how I can partition my HD to as many partitions, at any size, that I wish to allocate...

Cheers...
 

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Thank you John...but...there has to be a better way!!...How convoluted can a simple process be...and easy to make mistakes!!
I'm really looking for a program with a simple GUI that will allow me to 'point, press, drag, drop' to manipulate the partitions to how I want them (not how Vista tells me I must have them).
Maybe some of the partition software programs will catch up to Vista 64 soon...
 

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You can use Gparted (Gnome partition manager). It's free, you can stick it on a USB flash drive, and it worked for me. The gui is about as friendly as any partition manager. The only 'catch' is that the drives are named like linux drives (hda1..). but it's easy to figure out.

i had a 5gb "recovery" partition from the factory that i wanted to reclaim. I used Gparted to delete the partition and then move my windows (C:) partition to the 'front' of the drive. i had to move that partition so i could expand it into the free space (i couldn't expand from the 'front').

Anyway, after doing these operations on my partitions, i rebooted, and i got some error like 'no OS found'. (i expected such a problem.) I just used the Vista CD to repair vista and it worked like a charm.

GParted -- Welcome
 

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You cannot use GParted to minimize Vista *system* partitions down any easier than the steps above because of the *exact* reason that he mentions in the first post.

There is not an easier way *because* of this methodology that Vista uses in placing the MFT. If you know what an MFT is, Mike, then you know how very odd it is to be placing it in a place like that in the first place....
 

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  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro X64 Insider Preview (Skip Ahead) latest build
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    The Beast Model V (homebrew)
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    Intel Core i7 965 EE @ 3.6 GHz
    Motherboard
    eVGA X58 Classified 3 (141-GT-E770-A1)
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    3 * Mushkin 998981 Redline Enhanced triple channel DDR3 4 GB CL7 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
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    eVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-3979-KB)
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    2 * Lenovo LT2323pwA Widescreeen
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    SanDisk Ultra SDSSDHII-960G-G25 960 GB SATA III SSD (System)
    Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD (User Tree)
    2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Mech. HD
    Seagate ST1500DL001-9VT15L Barracuda 7200.12 1.5 TB S
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    Thermaltake Black Widow TX TR2 850W 80+ Bronze Semi-Mod ATX
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    ThermalTake Level 10 GT (Black)
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    Corsair H100 (CPU, dual 140 mm fans on radiator) + Air (2 *
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  • Operating System
    Sabayon Linux (current, weekly updates, 5.1.x kernel)
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    Lenovo ThinkPad E545
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    AMD A6-5350M APU
    Motherboard
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    Conextant 20671 SmartAudio HD
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Thanks guys,
Yes I agree...it is a very odd place to put the MFT, which is why I would prefer a KNOWN program that would do the partitioning for me...
Sometimes MS excel themselves...why make things difficult, when with a little effort you can make them almost impossible...lol...
Someone has mentioned Partition Manager 9 to me...I'll be looking into that next...
 

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Hi Mike,

The only safe way to do what you want is to create your partitions when you install Vista. Simply create 2 partitions, one of which will be your 'C:' partition in which you will install Vista. Use 'Computer Management' (you will need to run this with administrative credentials) to split the other partition as you wish. I would leave the existing drive allocation letters as they are.
Dwarf
 

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Dwarf, thank you for the input...I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that I will have to use a combination of Vista with another program...I'll get there...
 

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no Mike, it is a rule of tumb that you should at least use 3 partitions.

One for your "not so good" Vista x64", one for your important stuff (important to you) and one for the "bla-bla" stuff. I myself use 4 partitions, will never ever use only one for the following reasons:

- if your OS needs to be reinstalled, your data stays intact
- you can put your daily used stuff on the OUTSIDE of the disk, right after your OS
- your less important or not daily used data on the INNERSIDE of the disk. So NOT allowing Vista to use the INNERSIDE or slower part of your disk (disks if in Raid)
- only your OS partition needs to be defragged frequently, not your data, so defragging if f.e. using Auslogics will be faster.
- you will have more control of the different partitions and where your stuff is written on the entire disk or raid.

François
 

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Francois, My intention is to have 4 partitions too:

1. For the OS only.
2. Application software like MS Office.
3. Flt sim software only.
4. Utility software.

(Maybe a 5th partition for games...)
 

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If you use multiple partitions and your Hard Drive encounters physical errors, and crashes, you have a likelihood of losing your data - so in reality multiple drives is a better approach, Then again, using only a single drive means that if that drive crashes then you're hosed - so then you should use multiple drives with RAID ... but what if the whole thing blows up? Then you need to make sure to use an off site backup plan as well. But what if your city gets attacked and razed with nuclear weapons of mass destruction like Saddam supposedly had Then you have to make sure your off site backup is triplicated in 3 different world locales....

The list goes on and on and on....

but more than a single partition is a good idea to *help* prevent OS failures from causing you data loss....
 

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  • Operating System
    Windows 10 Pro X64 Insider Preview (Skip Ahead) latest build
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    The Beast Model V (homebrew)
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    Intel Core i7 965 EE @ 3.6 GHz
    Motherboard
    eVGA X58 Classified 3 (141-GT-E770-A1)
    Memory
    3 * Mushkin 998981 Redline Enhanced triple channel DDR3 4 GB CL7 DDR3 1600 MHz (PC3-12800)
    Graphics Card(s)
    eVGA GeForce GTX 970 SSC ACX 2.0 (04G-P4-3979-KB)
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    2 * Lenovo LT2323pwA Widescreeen
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    2 * 1920 x 1080
    Hard Drives
    SanDisk Ultra SDSSDHII-960G-G25 960 GB SATA III SSD (System)
    Crucial MX100 CT256MX100SSD1 256GB SATA III SSD (User Tree)
    2 * Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 ST31000528AS 1TB 7200 RPM SATA II Mech. HD
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    Conextant 20671 SmartAudio HD
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OK. Just received my replacement RAM and it's installed and working fine...problem now is that the excellent site that John had highlighted seems to be down...just my luck!! (was going to use the info from this site to carry out the partitioning)
 

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OK.
I initially shrank my C drive from 1TB to 512GB using Vista 64. Then I used PerfectDisk to defrag and consolidate the drive and used Vista again. This time the drive was shrunk down to 468GB.
I am unable to get the drive to shrink anymore...basically because I cannot move the MFT...
Any suggestions would be most welcome
 

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I now have 3 partitions on my HDD. C drive at 468GB (has OS on it), E drive at 146GB (also has OS on it) and an unallocated drive at 316GB.
I would like to swap over the C and E drives so that Vista boots from the smaller drive.
Is this possible?
 

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Got there in the end. Painful. Time consuming too. Anyway, 4 partitions...C at 146GB, D at 162GB, E at 154GB, F is the DVD and G is at 468GB...I am not a Vista fan after today...
 

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