Making 2 partions into 1

[GunnerMan]

Well been a while. Been kinda busy but a friend asked me to help him with his hard disk probs.

Ok he had to reformat and ended up making an extra partition for some reason. So he now has C: and E: he wants them to be one large partiton with the OS on it. I told him to try and delete C: and E: from the hard drive then make a new partition out of the unpartitoned space. It didn't work, it would not let him delete C:. I told him maybe using fdisk and formating C and E from there would let him delete the partitons be he is on a lappy without a floppy so that wouldn't work.

So I am asking for your advice on how to get rid of these two partitions so he can have one. Thanks :cool:

[MVC]

I only know of two ways to "fix" this. First, either start over--boot from CD, delete all partitions, create a new "C" partition that takes up the entire drive and reinstall the OS and software, or use a utility like Partition Magic ('have no idea what the current version number is--it was somewhere around 8 the last time I had to use it) which can shrink one partition while expanding another--which essentially eliminates the one you don't want.

If this is a one-time project and there isn't any data/software on any of the partitions that you need to save I'd just start over and repartition/reformat the whole drive. It's a much cleaner process and you don't need any additional software. But, if you need to save stuff that's on one of the partitions, you'll need a third-party utility.

Edit: corrected grammar per Bios24 :)

[Bios24]

You're on the right track, but formatting really doesn't have anything to do with partitioning. Just boot to a windows 2k/XP disk and about the 2nd option in will be partioning. Just delete all the partitions, make a new one, and Windows will install on a single partion. (Or just exit setup if you don't want to do an install)

NOTE: By traditional means, messing with partitions will lose ALL of the data in that partition. Some programs like Partition Magic will let you preserve the data while partitioning, if you need the data preserved.

[twoeyes]

3 ways

1. get a program like norton partition magic to combine the partitions
2. use the windows Xp CD delete all partitions and reinstall
3. get a windows ME boot disk and do the above step by typing FDISK in the command prompt

[ozzlo]

4th way...

put the HD on the subwoofer in your car and.... Just joking...


ok real 4th way... you can get ahold of one of those ultimate boot cd's that can delete and format partitions of anykind liniux, windows, whatever...

[twoeyes]

4th way...

put the HD on the subwoofer in your car and.... Just joking...


ok real 4th way... you can get ahold of one of those ultimate boot cd's that can delete and format partitions of anykind liniux, windows, whatever...

fdisk does that fine or the windows cd actually

[ozzlo]

^^^ but I've been in a situation where I've corrupted my partition and it coulden't even see it... the corrupted partition was 1/2 the size of the disk and Fdisk was not reporting the corrupted partition so I coulden't remove it.

[itshondo]

I'd tell your freind that the extra partition, apart from WIndows, is the safest way to store his data. That way, if Windows gets corrupted, you can reinstall Windows to the primary partition without touching the data on the other.

I never set up a hard drive with just one Partition- usually a 20gb Windows primary partition and the rest of the drive can be storage.

Check out this web site, one of the best around concerning Partitioning-

http://partition.radified.com/

[habbajabba]

never part the os disc. if it fails so does whatevers on the part. As well you cannot recover from a disc that cannot be read from. Backup images (or data) should NEVER be put on a c part (unless you simply want a smaller image file but aren't afraid to lose the part data). Keep c for the os only & use separate drive altogether for any data storage. I even move the 'my docs' folder to a slave. acronis disk dir suite can recover a part on the c drive. I do wish I had a 74gb c drive.

[itshondo]

that's a good point, if you have more than one disc.

But IMO, if you have only one disc then 2 partitions work best.

I personally back up all of my data to an external USB Drive-