Software not increasing free space

Hi,

I have a 60gb computer. The c: is 20gb and is Fat 32. My d: is 40gb and NTFS. Because I only have 3gb free on my c: but about 30gb free on my d:, I wanted to increase the free space on the c: by taking about 20gb from my d:.

When I perform this operation and reboot the system for the changes to take place, it tells me error: disk not found, hit any key to reboot. When the computer then reboots everything loads normally and acronis states complete, but the changes haven't taken place.

Please help, my computer is seriously slow which i assume is due to the lack of free space on my c:.

Any help gratefully appreciated.

P.S I have bought version 10.

 

This is often fixed by doing the operation from the recovery CD version of Disk Director instead of the Windows version. Before doing anything, defrag both of your partitions. Make sure that you disable any programs like Norton GoBack that might be preventing changes to the partition table.

I would also suggest taking it one step at a time by running the recovery version of DD in manual mode and verifying between each step:

1. Shrink the D partition by adding free space before the partition.
2. Commit and verify that you now have free space between C and D partitions.
3. Expand the C partition by incorporating the free space that follows C.
4. Commit and verify.
5. Reboot into Windows and check.

 

Hi Mark,

I'm really sorry to sound thick but I'm nowhere near being an expert great with computers so I need a little more guidance!

1)When you said do it from the recovery disk of DD instead - how do I do that?
2) When you said to defrag both my disks first how do I do that?
3) How do I shrink the d: without putting the free space onto the c:? Version 10 first asks me where I want free space to be created and where I want to take it from. I don't have any other drive that I can store the space before putting it onto c: soI'm unsure how to do it you way.

Sorry if that makes no sense! Thanks for all your help.

Sarah

 

Sarah:

There are two versions of Disk Director 10 (DD10); one version is a Windows application (the one that you used) and the other is a standalone application that you can boot your computer from without needing to run Windows. If you purchased your copy of DD10 on a CD, then you can boot your PC from the CD to run the recovery version. If not, you need to create a bootable CD. You can do this from the Windows version of DD10 by starting the program and choosing "Bootable Media Builder" from the "Tools" menu. Follow the steps to create a bootable CD. After you have done that, restart your PC with the CD in the drive and it will start up into the recovery version of the program. This version will look very much like the Windows program, so it should be easy for you to recognize it.

While running Windows, go to "My Computer" and right-click on a disk drive (C or D) and choose "Properties". Choose the "Tools" tab and click on "Defragment Now". If you haven't done this in a while it may take a long time to finish. The idea here is to clean up your disk, which may have fragments of your files scattered all over the disk, and to rearrange things so that the file fragments are located right next to each other. What you are trying to accomplish here is to pack all of the information on your disk into the minimum space so that you can work with the remaining free space. However, you may not be able to defragment your C drive if it is 20 GB and has only 3 GB of free space. The defragmenter requires 15% free space to run, and you may or may not have enough room for it to do its thing. If not, skip this step on the C drive but at least run the defragmenter on your D drive.

You must have been using DD10 in the "Automatic" mode. You can do that if you want, but I personally prefer to do each step manually, one at a time, so that I can verify that one step completes correctly before attempting the next step. The automatic mode should accomplish the same thing but it does all of the steps for you and should it fail, you won't have any idea what failed and why. However, since you are familiar with this way of getting DD10 to repartition your disk, try it again but this time use the recovery version of the program instead of the Windows version.

Before you do anything, please back up all of your important data! Any time that you work with partitioning tools there is a small but finite chance that something can go wrong. If it does, you should have a backup copy of everything that is important to you.

If you feel uncomfortable working with tools like this, please find a friend or a neighborhood "whiz kid" to look over your shoulder or to help you with it. I don't mean to frighten or discourage you, but one slip-up can result in the loss of all of the data on your disk, so please make a backup first!

 

Hi Mark,

Thank you so much for taking all the time to explain that me. Many people I'm sure would have just thought I can't be bothered to explain all that, but you didn't, and broke it down into the questions I asked which was fantastic. Thank you so much.

Sarah

 

Hello Mark-I have DD 10(version 2160) updated for Windows Vista. I attempted to reformat my hdd (320 GB) and the program went through all the necessary functions including rebooting to commit the change. However, when I checked the drive nothing was accomplished. I reported the problem to Acronis. They requested that I build a DD 10 bootable cd and perform my tasks. I did this but selecting the full DD 10 option led to the following error message: E000101F4: Acronis Disk Director Suite has not found any hard disk drives. Do you have any idea how to correct this problem? Thanks.

 

wardell1:

Have you tried the bootable disk in the "safe" mode? When DD10 has trouble recognizing your hardware, sometimes the safe mode will work.

 

Thanks Mark-I will try that.

 

I have a Sony laptop (partitioned - "C" and "D"). I am using Disk Director Suite 10 and when I try to increase the partition size of "C" - using the Free Space Wizard - everything looks good, I hit "proceed" the computer reboots, twice and when I check the partition size of "C" - no change.

I must be doing something wrong but cannot figure it out. I am down to approximatly 2GB on "C" drive.

Any assistance is much appreciated.

Rick

 

Rick:

When making changes to the partition that Windows is running from, Disk Director (DD) must first exit Windows and boot into Linux to make the changes. If your hardware is not supported in the Linux environment then no changes will be made.

The best way to make a change to your C: partition is to do it when Windows is not running. Create a rescue CD and boot into the standalone version of DiskDirector. Make your changes to the C: partition while Windows is not running.

If you haven't already done so, use the Bootable Media Builder application included with DD to make a bootable rescue CD or a bootable USB flash drive. Exit Windows and start your PC from the rescue disk or flash drive. First try starting in "Full" mode (the Linux environment used by DD when it exits Windows that supports USB devices). If any of your hardware is not supported you'll know right away. If "Full" mode doesn't work try the "Safe" mode (a DOS-based environment that supports devices seen by your PC's BIOS).

You should be able to make your changes there, free from the interference of Windows. You can try the wizard but I prefer the manual method:
1. Resize D: to be smaller.
2. Commit and check result. You should now have some unallocated space between C: and D:
3. Resize C: to be larger
4. Commit and check.
5. Done

It's always a good idea to make a full-disk backup before changing the partition structure on a disk. Better safe than sorry...

 

Mark, your instructions worked as advertized. Thanks so much.

The key was booting from a CD and then launch Disk Director.

I now have 11GB on C drive.

Lesson learned: Boot from CD.

I really appreciate that you responded so fast.

Thanks again,

Rick

 

Great, Rick. I'm glad it worked well.

 

Hello- This is a good work around. However,Acronis needs to update DD and TI to work as required. This s/w was supposed to be updated to work with Vista but it doesnot. I am getting sick of this crappy c/w. I have had a Vista based computer since early February,2007 and I still cannot partition/backup my hd. I will have to look for another company since I have reported these problems with no response from Acronis.

 

Wardell1:

It isn't just Vista. The same thing happens to some people when running XP. The root cause of the problem is that not all hardware is supported in the Linux recovery environment used by DD or TI. What works perfectly for some people does not work for others.

For me, I have no problems whatsoever running partition operations on my machine in either XP or Vista. It depends on your hardware.

In your case can you do partition operations on the non-Vista partitions? You should be able to create, delete, modify any other partitions while running Vista as long as the operation does not make any changes to your Vista partition (usually C. For any operation that involves the partition that the operating system is running from then you should always do this when the OS is not running; i.e. in the recovery environment.

 

Hi K0lo-I have a Cdrive and a D drive.Both contain Vista. The D drive is a recovery drive that contains all files/folders that were delivered with the computer. Relative to your information, I need a different set of partition/backup programs because Acronis is not going to be able to support my hardware which is an HP d4790y media computer with a 320 GB HD. Am I correct? Thanks.

 

wardell1:

Maybe but not necessarily. Can you describe what happens if you boot into the rescue CD and run the "Full" version of Disk Director or TrueImage? Can you see your disk drive? Can you boot into the "safe" version of either program? What kinds of problems are you experiencing?

 

Hello K0lo-I will attempt to make a rescue cd and report what happens after attempting to run TI & DD after booting from the rescue cd. Thanks.

 

Hello K0lo-I followed your suggestions and partitioned/backedup c drive in Safe mode. It didnot work in normal mode. You were correct about my hardware and Linux.DD 10 did not see my drive. I switched to Safe mode to overcome the problem. I made a backup on my int. hd. I plan to do the same on my USB 2.0 (ext.) hd very soon. I will need to reformat it or delete the partitions on it because it contains XP files from a previous computer. If I follow the general procedure that I used to partition/backup my c drive, should I encounter any problems? Thanks.

 

wardell1:

As long as you can see your external USB HD in "safe" mode, then both programs should work fine. Normally, full mode supports USB devices but safe mode does not. However, safe mode supports all devices that are enumerated by your computer's BIOS, so you MAY still be able to see the external USB hard disk in safe mode. It works for me on my PC but again, this is hardware-dependent. So before doing any partitioning or rearranging, boot to the rescue CD in safe mode and check to see if you can see your external USB hard disk. If you can see the disk then you're home free.

If you can't then you have two choices. One is to go to the Acronis web site and log into your account. File a support request with Acronis about your PC not working in full mode. Sometimes they can supply updated drivers that will fix this for your hardware. Then you can use Disk Director in full mode to do the repartitioning. The other choice is to just use the Disk Management console in Vista to reformat/repartition your external USB hard disk.

 

Thanks K0lo- You got me out of a hole. I will keep these instructions. Thanks again.