Freeing disc space

[Der Cute]

Quoth barcode

Sorry I'm late to the party...

Eireann, did you get a copy of the UBCD for the memory install issue you had earlier?

If so, then just use that to boot into gPartEdMagic from the menu, and run GPartEd when it gets done booting.

Note: UBCD is an auto-booting CD that bypasses the HD and, therefore, doesn't use (mount) it. Gnome PARTition EDitor can then fold, spindle, or mutilate the drive at your heart's content.

Once launched, GPartEd can "move" the big partition(s) over to cover the unallocated section, then "resize" the smaller partition to fill the space. Instructions and examples are given in the link above. Personally, I'd move the partitions over, then resize the D drive down about 100GB and hand it over to the C drive for some extra "elbow room". This should give the C drive about 300GB, the D drive about 600GB, and the rest for the recovery/system use.

Another useful tool on PartEdMagic is something called "Ghost4Linux". After you get everything set up the way you like it, you can then "Ghost" the drives into "images", and copy them to an external drive (like a Seagate or WD USB travel drive). If something bad happens, you can then boot from the CD and un-Ghost them back to the old (or replacement) HD. It's based on Norton's (Symantec) Ghost utility.

barcode

Really, UBCD is one helluva tool for techs!

@ Eireann - you will need to boot up into the CD, and look at the menus, and use the gPartEdMagic within that menu.
That's kind of why I said to boot with the CD, go look inside, and see what's there. You can expand the menus if you want, but don't start anything up. That way you can feel more comfortable, and if you've got questions, post 'em here and we'll do more explaining before you start the ball rolling. I totally understand with you, hon, I don't like doing this kind of stuff blind. (XP had no natural way to re-org partitions and it was just a pain in the ass).

Also, I want you to make sure you have changed the boot sequence and totally get into the CD first. As I said before, it really depends on what kind of computer you have, to get to the boot sequence changer. Look yours up on the mfg page. Or try what I said..whack buttons! F2, F10, F11 and F12 are ones to use when changing a boot sequence. (Again, those depend on the mfg.)
Plus, we can test if that CD burns right and isn't just a coaster! It would suck getting all ready and prepped up ready to rock, and have...no CD that works. Yeah. So, test the waters.

@Barcode - usually there is a black page with white text on it for just the boot sequence change. What if she gets into the BIOS? I know you can change it there, but that's not as simple as the other boot sequence changer.

[Eireann]

Der Cute, can I get your opinion on the graphics card thread I posted here?

[Eireann]

Okay, I am FINALLY burning the CD. As far as I can tell from previous posts, I need to change the boot sequence on my computer so that I can use the program on the CD to work with the sizes of the C and D sections. Am I correct?

[Der Cute]

Yes. You need to tell the PC to boot from the CD first - the OS/stuff on the CD will catch and you're in where you need to be.

Boot sequence is in the BIOS; sometimes one the F keys will take you straight to a small menu for a TEMPORARY boot sequence that you select.
It's your call, I do the BIOS cuz it stays that way until you consciously change it back.

Keep us posted

[Eireann]

So the next time I turn on my computer, I whack one of the F keys and get it to boot from the CD, and then what? The CD is full of folders.

[Der Cute]

LOL no. You whack the F keys and make note of which F key is a Boot Sequence key, which F key is for Settings (bios) and if there are any other F keys which might be important.

Like I said, trial run.
Find the F key that boots via the CD.
Poke around in there; I think upthread there is a step by step to find that folder you need.
Don't CHANGE anything, just get comfortable on how to maneuver via keys - up down arrow? Not all tech CDs have the same Select This Menu, Move down In Menu, Get the Thing You Want. Just fool around; look at the menus, look IN the menus. Test drive in neutral. Make sense?

[Eireann]

Makes perfect sense. I'm writing all this down for the test run.

[Eireann]

EEEEEEEEEEEK!

Good God!

I turned on my computer, had everything up and running, and then it all disappeared, to be replaced by this text on a black screen:

***Hardware Malfunction
NMI: Parity Check / Memory Parity Error
*** The system has halted ***

I freaked. The computer wouldn't turn off, so I unplugged it, waited a few minutes, then plugged it in and started it. THIS time, everything was okay. I hope that the problem was just that I was charging my iPod, and I plugged it in before Windows had started fully.

Anyway. I took this opportunity to hit F9 as the computer was starting up; F9 is the boot key. It asked me where I wanted to boot from, and I chose CD, having put said CD in already.

This is what I got:

Ultimate Boot CD V5.1.1
BIOS
CPU
HDD
Memory
Others
Peripherals
System
Parted Magic V6.6 - Press F1 for more information
UBCD FreeDOS R1.44 (Based on NwDsk V3.40)
User-defined

Boot next device
Reboot

CRUB4DOS menu

So - what's next?

[TheSHAD0W]

Ack.

Certain types of system crashes can cause a parity error by turning off the RAM refresh, but it's also potentially a hardware problem; and using the machine with bad RAM can cause file corruption.

I strongly recommend downloading, burning and using Memtest: http://www.memtest.org/

[Eireann]

Which download do I use? There are several.