Extend Partition on Windows 7 or move?

[krazy_olie]

Just a little bit of background which you can skip:

I was running XP(media centre) for about 3 years then I got stuck in a vicious cycle in a windows repair so bought a new hard drive and installed Windows 7(64) I get from my University department on it.

The plan was to install it on a smallish partition (30GB) on the new 500(GB) drive that would be dedicated to Windows/System stuff then have another major partition for files, then in the future put a linux distrobution on the remaining 100GB or so. Also use the hold hard disk for backup.

So what I have now is a 30GB partition with Windows 7 installed along with the drivers and office, the small 200MB partition that Windows 7 made and a remaining 450GB of unused disk.
A second hard drive with a ruined installation of XP that contains a bunch of music/videos and documents I would like to move to the new drive.

So what I am asking for is just some advice as to how to proceed.

Should I use some 3rd party software to extend my 30GB partition?

Make a second partition and just install and store future stuff on there (though would that mean loss in the use of "My documents")

Start from scratch?

Create second partition and use windows disc to move it accross to there (can I do this?)

Also regarding the 2nd hard drive, would people recommend using the Windows 7 backup facility once I have pulled off what I need and formatted it? Or just manually copying files over?

Thanks, and sorry for the long post!

[shaithis]

Windows 7 will allow you to entend the partition without third party software (just do it in Disk management)

Although, to be fair, to keep Windows booting fast I would keep it as-is and create a new partition in the unused space for data. The space at the begining of a disk is faster due to it being created on the outside edge of the disk.

[krazy_olie]

Thanks, I can't extend the boot/system partition, only perhaps with some fancy tools.

I think I may just do a fresh format/reinstall with a slightly more generous partition, but still install large programs on a larger partition. This installation is less than a day old so not a biggie.