Diskpart.exe not extending volume in XP SP3

I've an older computer with a single hard drive that had been partitioned.  The OS (XP SP3) is on the C: drive, but the C: drive was only allocated 10gb on a 120gb hard disk.  I deleted the D: partition and made it unallocated space, but Diskpart still will not extend the C: drive at all. 
According to the MS site, Diskpart will not extend a volume on a Dynamic disk in XP, only a Basic disk.  So, I checked and C: is formatted as a basic disk.  I then made all the other unallocated disk space a partition and reformatted it as a Basic disk.  Then I deleted the partition and attempted once again to extend C:.  Diskpart will still not extend the volume, even when following the Diskpart instructions explicitly. 
So, I'm now considering making the unallocated space a partition again, then ghosting the C:drive onto the new partition and deleting the C:drive.  There are no programs other than the OS on the C: drive worth saving. 
I'm attempting to make the hard drive usable so I can sell this computer. 
Any other way I can attempt to extend the C: volume onto the entire drive? 
Is my drive ghosting idea worth a shot? 
Answer
Answer
There are several third-party utilities that can either clone a partition to the same size or larger size partition (see, e.g., http://www.todo-backup.com/products/features/partition-clone.htm).  If you did this, then yes, you could swap in the new drive and either scrap the old drive or wipe it, reformat it, and use it for a backup drive somewhere.

There are also several third-party partition manager applications that will let you expand the boot/system partition into adjacent free space.  See, e.g., http://www.partition-tool.com/easeus-partition-manager/features.htm (this app has two advantages: it's free and it also is capable of doing a cloning operation if you prefer).
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LemP
Volunteer Moderator
MS MVP (Windows Desktop Experience) 2006-2009
Microsoft Community Contributor (MCC) 2011-2012

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Last updated July 27, 2022 Views 1,854 Applies to: