You may want to try this, for your second question, it's got instructions on how to do it without a windows recovery disk... and how to do it with, and a whole lot more information as well.
https://sites.google.com/site/easylinuxtipsproject/grub
Is the deleted partition now unallocated space? There is a scenario I can think of that would cause this, if the partition you deleted is not side by side with the partition you want to expand. If this is the case I'm not sure how to go about doing exactly what you want... you can turn it into a logical drive, you can probably wipe some partitions between the space and the partition you want to expand (if their not hidden.) There are probably other maybe better options I'll keep an eye open.
UPDATE: Okay found it here http://www.disk-partition.com/resource/add-unallocated-space-to-system-partition-windows7.html you have to move the unallocated space. Beware I have not tried this application and do not know how it works, I'm just guiding you to the page.