Question about cloning & partitioning.

[Byron172]

Whenever I upgrade someone from a small HDD to a larger one I usually find the best option is to Clone their current HDD onto the newer, larger one. However, with the Cloning app that I currently use I find that I have no other option except to have two partitions - one the size of the original HDD and the other being the remaining space. Although I am an advocate for partitions a couple of people I have done this for would prefer to have all the space available to them as one large partition.

Any suggestions as to how this can best be achieved? Can I delete the second partition from within XP for example using third party software? Or is there perhaps a Cloning app that someone knows about that will allow me to Clone and extend the Primary partition at the same time?

Feel free to bump this to the Software section if that is the more appropriate place for this enquiry.....

Cheers.

[QCH]

Byron,

Go ahead and clone the drive then use a partitioning tool to expand the partition to the full size. ;)

[Byron172]

What partitioning tool do you suggest?

[floppybootstomp]

There's always Partition Magic 8 which has been around forever, works well, but you have to pay for it.

Try Parted Magic (http://partedmagic.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=89:parted-magic-32&catid=3:newsflash&Itemid=1). It's easy to use and works well and it's free.

Download the ISO, burn the CD and boot from it.

It's Linux-based, btw.

Just by way of mentioning, Vista has inbuilt partitioning tools. And no, that's not a recommendation for Vista ;)