Partitions!

I have about 4 partitions and what I basically want to do is to remove the partitions but still keep the data. Is this even possible or would I need to backup to a seperate drive and then delete the partition?


Thanks in advance.

Oh I forgot to add that my drive letters are a bit dodgy and not what I would like them to be due to about 3 installations of XP and each time it moved the drive letters around. So um, I would like to sort that out aswell.

gpatel said:

I have about 4 partitions and what I basically want to do is to remove the partitions but still keep the data. Is this even possible or would I need to backup to a seperate drive and then delete the partition?


Thanks in advance.

Click to expand...

You will need to back or copy any files in that partition before you remove it. Everything in that partition will be lost. I do believe windows assigns the drive letters. Not sure if you can do anything about that. hmmmm

The Duck

You can change the drive letters in Disk Management with Comptuer Management under Administrative Tools.

But for obvious reasons it wont change the local disk that Windows is actually installed on.

You will lose any data on a partition if you delete that partition. You will need to back up any data you wish to keep, before deleting a partition.

Also, there is a way to change the system drive letter but it escapes me just now.

Okay guys. Seems like I'll have to get a new HDD soon.

Thanks for the quick replys.

only way if changing hard drive letter with the system files on it is when you do the initial instal of your OS.. then is where u can specify drive letter and also size of partition you want to set up the OS on.. other drives (non - system) can be changed through the disk management in admin tools. but this can be problematic if you install other software on different partitions other than the default drive that the software chooses. when you change drive letters to physical or logical drives you lose all your mapping to files folder and programs..cd rom and dvd roms drives can be changed no problems..system drive cannot and any other drives that have there drive letter specified as the systemroot associated with other software applications youre gonna have problems if you change the drive letters....

You can remove partitions and save the data using Partition Magic. I will suggest you back up each partition as you remove it. Say you want to remove the D: E: and F: partitions. You would copy the data to the C: partion (or some other drive) then proceed with Partition Magic. What this will allow you to do is to migrate the data to the single (C: ) partition and still save the data. There is a feature called Partition Merging that may be just what you need. Its all part of Partition Magic.

Good luck

Z

Thanks for the replies guys.

I guess I'll buy another HDD and just move them to there.