Let me get it out of the way: I made a really stupid mistake. There, I feel better now.

While installing Windows XP onto the new computer we built, I decided to follow recommendations I'd seen online and put ths OS on its own partition. I meant to make it 15 GB but screwed up and made it 1.5 GB instead. XP loaded but obviously I'm out of disk space way before being finished with the install and need to enlarge the partition.

I'm aware of software solutions like Partition Magic but really don't want to buy software I'll likely use once. Also, XP has a partition resizing tool built in but from what I've read, you can't use it on the partition that houses the OS. So...

1. Does anyone have experience with shareware that will solve this problem?

2. If I just have to start over, what's the best way to get back to square one?

3. Is there some long-term value to having software like Partition Magic that would justify the expense?

4. Is there a solution I'm overlooking?

5. Don't you enjoy laughing at goofballs like me who know just enough about computers to be dangerous?

If you are just starting from scratch with nothing but XP and nothing special to save on this computer, I'd start back over from scratch again. I haven't done much with computers since XP came along. I think you can still go to dos promt, fdisk, format, and start over from there. Someone else will chime in to help more.

1. Does anyone have experience with shareware that will solve this problem?

Yes there are several ways but this maybe the fastest free solution.
Partion Resizer download

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Partition-Resizer-Download-25076.html

Use Notepad to read the README.1st file, as you will need to create a bootable floppy disk to run this app from.

2. If I just have to start over, what's the best way to get back to square one?

You will need a physical bootable copy of the OS on CD, DVD, or USB. Boot from the device that has your bootable copy of XP. Then delete your C:\ partion, recreate it to 15GB, and follow the install prompts like before.

3. Is there some long-term value to having software like Partition Magic that would justify the expense?

Not if you don't work with stuff on a regular basis.

4. Is there a solution I'm overlooking?

Nope. The Windows disk managment utility can not be used on the partion your OS resides on. However, there is a backup utility that would allow you back up your data and system state so you could restore it. This process is kind of lengthy.

5. Don't you enjoy laughing at goofballs like me who know just enough about computers to be dangerous?

No worries. We'll help you fix it. If you do it again then we'll laugh.

I'd just reinstall. Make at least a 20gb partition for XP (to allow for future patches etc.) If you can, place your data on another drive and your swap/virtual memory on a seperate drive other than your system drive.

Thanks for all the advice - it's much appreciated.

One more question - my new computer has 2 300 GB HD's that I want to set up in a RAID 1 configuration. At what point in the install do you set up RAID?

Thanks again.

Your motherboard should fully support that configuration from BIOS. Even though Windows XP supports RAID 0 - RAID 5 at the software level (ie. the OS manages it), I would not use that feature. It will kill your performance. Use the hardware functionality. Your motherboard manual should explain it.

Shortly after you boot off your XP CD, you will be prompted to press the F6 button to install your RAID drivers. This process is performed before creating partitions and the OS install.

I didn't get such a prompt.

It's not a prompt like you normally see in the OS. It appears at the bottom of screen when booting from the CD.

Check out the first picture of the blue install screen on this website (it's like the 3rd shot down)

Cool, thanks. I'm going to start over because obviously if I didn't install the RAID drivers then I need to now.

Thanks again for the assistance.

Here goes...

bump

I'd like to do the same thing, but I really don't want to reinstall Windows right now. My first question is where is the XP program that does this? I'd like to repartition my D and E drives. My second quesiton is, I may eventually want to do my C drive (where Windows XP is installed). If so, what's a good free program to use?

This thread seemed to get away from this topic because it was easier for BlueSky just to reinstall since he just did an install.

Knoppix Linux boot CD.

Freely available.

qparted, which is on the CD, will resize partitions. Will even resize NTFS partitions.

Google for Knoppix and qparted and there are tons of tutorials to walk you through it.