Unallocated space in vista Premium 64 bit and Local Policy question.

HP Pavilion dv9700 Entertainment Laptop
Amd Turion X2
4 GB memory
SP1

Hit wrong key now have 12.96 Unallocated space

Cannot delete or merge as I have the allowed 4 partitions
I know some do not recommend partitions, but I do, because when
there is a mess up .. then I can reload and start over and still have my
files and programs.
If I get Ultimate will I be able to delete the Unallocated one when I am loading
Ultimate ... I know I will have to delete other partitions or think so.
or will I be able to do this using Simply Mepis for 64 bit.
Is there any other method?
I am going to purchase Ultimate anyway so I can get local policy.
but just wanted to know what is available.

RE Local Policy ... is there info on how to use it so I will be able to see
and delete things in hidden files and other folders and use my computer like it is mine.
Thanks.

vv.

Hi, Vixen.

Since you are coming to us (here in the
microsoft.public.windows.vista.general newsgroup on the Microsoft public
news server) from some unidentified "forum" via the vBulletin USENET
gateway, there's a very good chance that we're not getting your whole story.
That "forum" relays messages to and from the MS server and posts often get
delayed or out of sequence or just plain lost. (You can cut out the
middleman and come here directly by clicking:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof....vista.general . It's
free and does not require you to log in.)

While you didn't say so, you apparently are using Vista's Disk Management
utility. It's included in ALL versions of Vista (and WinXP and Win2K), so
you don't necessarily need Ultimate. You didn't tell us which version you
are running, but it has Disk Management. As you probably know, there are
several ways to get to it, but my favorite is to just press Start, type
diskmgmt.msc, and press Enter. Then I Maximize it so that I don't feel like
I'm working through a keyhole.

Disk Management is THE tool for creating, deleting, formatting and otherwise
managing "drives" or "volumes", including partitions on HDD, optical drives,
USB flash drives, digital cameras...anything that can be assigned a "drive
letter".

The Vista version added the ability to Shrink Volume; it could be that's how
you got that 12.96 Unallocated Space. Now that you have it, you can do any
of several things with it, your choice:
1. Leave it Unallocated...you may find a use for it later.
2. Create a partition or logical drive with all or part of it, format it
and assign a letter (and a label - this will get written to the HD and won't
change, even if the drive letter changes).
3. Click on the partition immediately before this space and Extend volume
to add all or part of it to that contiguous volume.
4. Whatever other use you might think of.
There's no limit to how many volumes you can have - until you run out of
letters in the English alphabet, at which time you'll have to switch to GPT
drives - but don't ask me about that subject!

We've always been limited to 4 partitions because there's room for only four
16-byte entries in the 64-byte partition table in the Master Boot Record.
But one of those 4 could be an extended partition, in which we could create
as many logical drives as we like and assign each a drive letter. That's
the system I've used for a decade or more: 1 primary partition plus
multiple logical drives in an extended partition covering the rest of the
HD. Vista has made a small change in HOW we do it, but still allows many
more than 4 "volumes" on each HD. Study the Help file from Disk Management;
you'll see that it's arranged for reference, not as a tutorial, so you can't
just read through it like a textbook.
No idea what this is.
I haven't needed this. If I did, I might look in Help and Support - or ask
Google.

Rather than vista.general, you might get more-focused help for this question
in:
news://msnews.microsoft.com/microsof...ile_management

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"vista_vixen" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:bf06722234b76e43948c6ff15aed7538@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

To R. C. White.

Vista home Premium 64 bit.
Thanks for replying RC.
Yes I am using Vista's Disk Management utility. I do not have the option of extending the volume as extend volume is grayed out in all partitions. I also do not have any options whatever to adjust the unallocated I have tried.
I just noticed I have 3 primary and 1 logical. So maybe the best thing to do is just delate (not C) partitions and start over. The reason I thought about Ultimate was when installing I could get to the unallocated one but I also do want the advantage of Local Policy.

I have not been able to reply because I was away for several days and when I came home found that my ISP had unplugged internet and our phone ..
and that one is a mystery to us and them. I think someone made a mistake but of course that will not be admitted. So internet was off for 6 days and then it took several days and four tries to get email.

I do appreciate your suggestions and will try to work out the problems.
Also thanks for the links as I could not find my post.

VV.

PS to above post.

I bought a new laptop with Vista Premium 64 bit.
this is the one with the problem.
Other one is Vista Ultimate 32 bit desktop
whick is good so far.
No problems with those partitions.


VV.

Hi, VV.
Bummer! Glad you're back online. ;<)
This usually means that there is no CONTIGUOUS unallocated space FOLLOWING
the volume that you want to extend. The Extend Volume command doesn't like
jumping over volumes to find more unallocated space.

Sometimes we can work around that problem by temporarily backing up - or
moving - the contents of an intervening volume. Then we can delete that
volume and Extend the immediately-preceding volume into some or all of the
vacated space. If we don't use all of that space with the extension, we can
re-create the deleted volume there and restore its data. This all depends
on the specifics of your hard drive, of course: how big is it; how many
volumes are there, how big are they and how full are they; and other such
details. You'll need to "draw us a picture" of that drive, or send us a
"snip" of the Graphical view of it from Disk Management.
No, we can't directly "adjust" the unallocated space. All we can do is
delete volumes to create more unallocated space, or create volumes in the
existing allocated space.

RC





"vista_vixen" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:a0e2085132eb36b11ff3c14272233772@xxxxxx-gateway.com...

Thank you .. I'm happy to be back.

(Sometimes we can work around that problem by temporarily backing up - or
moving - the contents of an intervening volume. Then we can delete that
volume and Extend the immediately-preceding volume into some or all of the
vacated space. If we don't use all of that space with the extension, we can
re-create the deleted volume there and restore its data.)

I have done this and am happy to report it has worked.
Why I did not do this before .. when I clicked on said partition to delete .. a pop up
explained if I choose to do so I would not be able to access it. Just the language
that threw me off.

So now all is well.

I appreciate your help very much RC.

VV.

Hi, VV.

I'm glad it worked. ;<)

Thanks for the feedback. It gives us more confidence in what to recommend
for the next user with a similar problem.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX
rc@xxxxxx
Microsoft Windows MVP
(Running Windows Live Mail 2008 in Vista Ultimate x64 SP1)

"vista_vixen" <guest@xxxxxx-email.com> wrote in message
news:6fc6b0f97a2257c4c00ffdae64b7a088@xxxxxx-gateway.com...