OldBloke

Another warning:
Sometimes moving where the partition containing XP or Vista is on the HD can stop it booting. If so that can be fixed by doing a boot repair using the Vista DVD. Or if only one of the operating systems boots, you can fix it by using EasyBCD to fix Vista's boot settings.
http://neosmart.net/dl.php?id=1

The whole business is so complicated you might prefer to just keep the partitions like they are now and reduce how much space you actually need on C: by moving some data files off it onto another partition. You can also choose to install a large program such as a game into a folder on another drive letter, instead of into Program Files on C:.

Also you can place the page file on another drive instead of C: to free up space on C:

Hi nealloy

Instead of only giving instructions to follow, I'd better explain how partitions are constructed and the correct names for things, as used in all partition managers. Then you should be able to work out what is happening inside gparted.

"Free space" means space inside a partition, where you can save files.
"Unallocated space" is outside of any partitions. It doesn't get a drive letter and you can't save files in unallocated space. You can create a new partition in it or you can add it to the far end of whichever existing partition is just before it on the hard disk.

On every hard disk, the first track (track 0) is not inside any partition. The first sector of track 0 contains the MBR -- the boot code and the partition table (the rest of track 0 is usually not used for anything).  The first partition starts at track 1.

The partition table only has enough room to define 4 items, for up to 4 Primary Partitions. Each primary partition can be bootable or just used for data. Each entry in the table contains a small amount of info about its partition, such as where it starts on the hard disk.

If you want more than 4 partitions, one of the 4 slots in the table can be used to define an Extended Partition, instead of defining an ordinary primary partition. An extended partition can contain lots of Logical Drives, which is a different kind of partition. None of the logical drives gets a mention in the partition table on track 0, because there isn't enough room in that table. They are defined by extra tables inside the extended partition.

The extended partition is never given a drive letter and you can't save files in it. It's just a special kind of container for logical drives.

Of course if you use that structure, you can only have up to 3 Primary partitions because one of the slots in the main partition table is used to define where the Extended Partition is on the hard disk.

Having some spare space inside the extended partition is not the same as having ordinary Unallocated Space outside of it.

Now you can understand the problem you have to deal with:
It would be much easier if C D E were all primary partitions, with F G H I being logical drives in an extended partition at the end of the disk. If it was like that, my simple step-by-step instructions in my first message would work for you. Just delete E, move D to the right, then resize C larger.

But if E is a logical drive in the extended partition, deleting it makes some spare space which is still inside the extended partition.

Gparted is an excellent partition manager, safe and reliable if you know what you're doing, but it's fairly simple. When resizing, it can only add or remove space at the end of a partition, not at the start of it. That same rule applies to the extended partition, gparted can only add or remove space at the end of it. So you would have to solve the puzzle like this:

- Delete E which I assume is a logical drive, inside your extended partition.

- Move the other logical drives one at a time towards the start of the extended partition (leftwards in the diagram) until all the spare space is at the far end of the extended partition.

- Then you can shrink the extended partition, so you end up with "unallocated space" outside of it, instead of having spare space inside it.

- Then move the extended partition to the far end of the disk. Then the unallocated space is next to C.

- Now you can expand C to include that space.

Warning:
Make sure you are deleting the correct partition or logical drive. Don't rely on the letter to recognise it. Partitions may be allocated different drive letters in different systems. Before booting the gparted CD, while you are still in Windows, look in Disk Manager and make a list on paper of every partition and its size and its position on the disk. Note which ones are inside the extended partition, and where the partition you want to delete is placed on the hard disk.
Don't just think "I want to delete drive E:"
Think "I want to delete the second logical drive in the extended partition, which is 15gb", or whatever it is.

Let us know how it goes.

I do not think you can expand the folder that contains the system files. At least that is what I was told when I did my MCTS

As far as i remember that it doesn't matter whether the partition has got system file or not. it means that i can expand C partition but i can only expand it with the next empty partition of it. suppose my OS is in C drive, so i can expand it by marging with D. i can't jump over with E.
is there any1 who knows how to marge E with C drive?

You can't do it with Windows disk management console but you can do it with any good non-Microsoft partition manager, such as gparted. You can't use gparted in Windows. You download it as an iso and burn it as a bootable CD.
http://gparted.sourc...et/download.php

In gparted you have to do it step by step:
First select the correct harddrive in the drop down list in the top right corner.
Delete the E partition. That makes some unallocated space after D
Move the D partition so all the unallocated space is between C and D
Resize C larger to use all that unallocated space.

There is no harm resizing the C: system partition larger. I've done it myself a few times.

Note: The method above works easily if all your partitions (or at least C and D and E) are the normal "primary" type.
You have 5 partitions. It's only possible to have up to 4 primary partitions on each hard disk, so I assume at least some of your partitions are actually logical drives inside an extended partition, not just primary partitions. That makes the job much more complicated, but still possible. You'd better not attempt it unless you have backed up all your useful stuff from that HD onto another HD or DVDs. I can't give a step by step guide without knowing the exact layout of your drive - which partitions are the primary type and which are logical drives inside an extended partition.

The free gparted is good but the pay-for partition managers have more features and wizards to guide you. If you want to buy one I recommend either Paragon Partition Manager or Acronis Disk Director -- NOT Partition Magic which hasn't been updated for years and is not compatible with Vista .

never touched windowsblinds.

So maybe I was wrong to blame it on Windowblinds.

There must have been something which changed the unpatched dlls between the time I made that disk image 5 days ago and the time I first tried using the patched files, because they were different sizes.

I still have backup copies of the two lots of unpatched dlls. They have exactly the same version and file version numbers, although they are quite different sizes. When the unpatched dlls were a different size from the patched ones,switching them was a disaster. When they were the same size, switching them was successful.

I had the same experience as the people who said replacing the 3 dlls didn't work for them. Now I've got it working and I have a possible theory about why it didn't work for me the first time...

This is in Vista Home Premium 64bit SP1.

The first time (when it failed) I noticed the 3dlls in system32 (shsvcs.dll themeui.dll uxtheme.dll) were different sizes from the patched files I had downloaded, but I replaced them anyway. The result was that it messed up my theme switching, like some other posters have described.

So I restored a saved image of my system from 5 days ago.
This time the 3 dlls in system32 were the same size as the patched files. I replaced them and it all works (now running the Clearlooks style which is very nice).

So why were my unpatched dlls in system32 a different size from how they were 5 days previously?

Possibly because of a Windows update but I don't think so -- on both occasions it was VistaHP 64 with SP1. I think it could be because 3 days ago I installed the trial version of Windowblinds and SkinStudio. I didn't like it and uninstalled it the next day because I'd rather use Visual Styles instead.

Note for those who don't understand about imaging: The older system which I restored from an image was an exact replica of the system the way it used to be, before I had installed and then uninstalled Windowblinds.

Is it possible that Windowblinds changes those dlls, and also other stuff in the system, and fails to restore everything properly when you uninstall the program? And that patching for styles doesn't work on a system that used to have Windowblinds on it?

The usual instructions for patching uxtheme files, in this thread and in other forums too, seem to work for some people and not for others. There must be some difference between their systems. So I'm asking the people who can't get the patching to work whether you have ever installed Windowblinds (even if you have uninstalled it later)?