Expanding a Partition

[Azkarin2]

I had 64 bit Vista and needed 32 bit Vista for some school applications so I had my brother help me out and partition my HD. He only set me up with 20GB on this new partition and I'd like to extend it so I can throw FFXI on there. Now, I've read up and it seems like it should be pretty easy (Disk Management > Expand Partition) but I'm not able to choose that option. After some research, it seems like I can't extend that partition due to its location. The original partition is labeled D: and the new partition is C: and I believe this may be the problem. But I'm pretty noobish when it comes to this so I was wondering if my assumption was correct? Also, what can I do to help alleviate this problem?

I study on my laptop for 3-4 hours each day so wiping it and starting over probably is not an option right now. I don't want to risk messing up and losing time studying. Any tips/help is appreciated. Thanks!

I've attached a screenshot of my HD partitions to help illustrate my point.

[Dench]

Off of memory, I would think a Linux partition manager should be able to do this relatively easy (and free). All you should have to do is make a Linux boot disk and run it from in there. Possibility I am incorrect in this, but I thought it was possible.

[levish]

there's no reason to have to install FFXI to the same partition as your os fyi, install it to D:\

I've compressed and extended the system partition in vista (unless my memory is fuzzy) so you should be able to do it unless you don't have any un-partitioned space.

*edit - looked at screenie*

you only have 3GB unpartitioned, thats not going to be much use, the 10GB that isn't mapped to a drive letter might not be doing anything (its probably a system recovery partition).

my suggestion is to look at that the contents of the D: drive and clean it up and free up as much space as you can and reduce that partition and then try again.

[Azkarin2]

So I would just load 32 bit Windower on one partition and have it run the FFXI that is already installed on a different partition?

[levish]

yep, windower / vista / ffxi can all be pretty much on any partition

even external hard drives

[Azkarin2]

Just an update in case anybody else has this problem. I ended up getting Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 (easily torrentable). It ended up working like a charm. Feel free to lock, just wanted to provide an answer to future searchers.