Can't Extend a Second Volume on a Hard Drive (Win 7) - Hardware & Software

I recently built a new PC, and it has one 125 GB SSD and one 3 TB HDD. My original plan was to have the 3TB HDD be one volume, but I came across some issues and ended up deciding on splitting it into two 1.5TB volumes. I made the first with no issues. The second, however, is in two unallocated parts. Once I allocate one as a volume, it won't let me extend it to use the other unallocated half. Apologies in advance, as I'm really new to this stuff and probably missed a few obvious things. If this isn't possible to do, please explain why. Here's a screenshot of the offending disk from Disk Manager: [IMG]http://i.imgur.com/nxULGCY.png[/IMG]

Don't see why you shouldn't be able to, it's possible that it's a bug in the Windows partition manager, try using this [url]http://download.cnet.com/Easeus-Partition-Master-Free-Edition/3000-2248_4-10863346.html[/url]

They are probably separated by your F partition. Hard to explain, I will photoshop something for you to clarify. In order to do what you want, you will need to delete the F: partition, and then create the partitions you need. Don't forget to backup the data on F: [editline]24th April 2013[/editline] [img]http://i.imgur.com/ZrwYymd.jpg?1[/img] See this circle as your drive. Partitions must physically be continuous. As you can see the unallocated space is physically separated by the F:. I think that's your problem.

You might try [URL="http://gparted.sourceforge.net"]GParted[/URL]. If the problem is like Drumdevil described (you'll be able to see the physical layout of the partitions,) you should be able to simply move the partition to fill the unallocated space in front of it. (I think Easeus Partition Master, linked above, can do this too) Be forewarned though, this can take [I][B]a while[/B][/I], so depending on how full it is, you may be better off backing it up, deleting it, and making a new partition.

[QUOTE=missionfloyd;40415897]You might try [URL="http://gparted.sourceforge.net"]GParted[/URL]. If the problem is like Drumdevil described (you'll be able to see the physical layout of the partitions,) you should be able to simply move the partition to fill the unallocated space in front of it. (I think Easeus Partition Master, linked above, can do this too) Be forewarned though, this can take [I][B]a while[/B][/I], so depending on how full it is, you may be better off backing it up, deleting it, and making a new partition.[/QUOTE] And you will want to backup your data. In which case it's faster to just re partition the drive anyway :v:.

Thanks to everyone. I've been a bit busy the past few days, but later today I'll follow the combined advice of you guys.

I tried EaseUS and ran into all the same walls. If the problem is the unallocated space being separated, then how do I move them? The bottom section of EaseUS just shows the same thing as disk manager, and when I'm making partitions, in the "move/resize" area, it only shows the partition I'm currently editing. Woops, thought that would merge. Oh well.

This might help. [URL]http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager/help/moving-parition.htm[/URL] Moving a partition this size will probably take a [I]very [/I]long time, so you might wanna just backup whatever's on it and repartition the drive. [editline]25th April 2013[/editline] And only the boot drive (the SSD, right?) needs a system reserved partition. [editline]25th April 2013[/editline] Another observation: the two partitions and the first unallocated space add up to exactly 2TB. That's the limit for MBR-partitioned disks. You can check by opening a command prompt as admin, and typing "diskpart" then "list disk". if the disk does not have an asterisk in the GPT column, you'll need to convert it to GPT in order to use the full three terabytes. See here for how to do it: [URL]http://www.partition-tool.com/resource/GPT-disk-partition-manager/convert-mbr-disk-to-gpt-disk.htm[/URL]

I'm pretty sure my problem was that it wasn't GPT, so I started following your instructions to convert it. When I deleted the system reserved partition and converted it to GPT, and then I accepted it, it told me to reboot. When I reboot, I get the message "Boot Drive Not Found" or something similar. I'm pretty sure this has to do with the system reserved partition being deleted, even though the 3TB isn't my boot drive. I tried startup repair via the win7 CD a few times to no avail. Any ideas on how to fix this? Sorry if the wording on this post is a bit odd, I'm really tired.

Check your bios. Make sure the SSD is indeed the boot drive. Maybe it was booting from the HDD for some reason (did it have windows on it previously?) [editline]26th April 2013[/editline] Your SSD does have a system reserved partition, right?

The SSD is the first drive that's booted, and the HDD has never had windows on it. The SSD does have a system reserved partition. Should I just reinstall Windows 7 at this point? I don't have a whole lot of options from here.

That's what I'd do.

Your HDD is probably connected to SATA port 0 on your mobo. Windows will choose this drive to install the bootsector on by default. You can try doing this: [url]http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/ht/new-partition-boot-sector-windows.htm[/url]

Bootrec /fixboot returns "element not found." I'll just reinstall Windows 7, I didn't have anything important on there anyway. EDIT: On the partition selection for the win7 installations, it shows the 3TB having a system reserved but not the SSD, weird. [editline]27th April 2013[/editline] Well now Windows 7 is up and running again, with a few differences: the SSD has no system reserved partition, but the HDD does. Is it safe to delete the system reserved on the SSD so I can convert it to GPT, or will I have to go through all this again? [editline]27th April 2013[/editline] Never mind, I have success at last! I could successfully create the 2 partitions. A huge thanks to everyone who helped.