the full version worked like a charm, the drive is now reading as 189GB... not the full 200 but it's a lot better than 127Gb's thanks PCHF

Oh heck, it never ends does it...

while i was merging the to partitions I was asked to make a folder for the unallocated space, which isn't a problem but when i try to explore the new folder which i have called backup I get an error message saying that

F:\backup is not accessible
Access is denied

what have I done wrong :computer_

You should be able to take ownership of the folder by having a look at this thread: http://www.pchelpforum.com/windows-x...old-files.html

thanks for that m8 but I solved it already, Instead of taking ownership,, I used partitionmagic to format the drive and it fixed it, so now I have got the whole drive available and no backup folder either. thanks for the suggestion of that program, I discovered it a few years back but never really had any need for it bck then, it has proved invaluable today though

Great, problem [Fixed]