combining partition

[bp]

hello,
i just got a new laptop. With a 40 gb HD.
the drive seems to be cut in half. there is 2 partitions. 20 GB each.
how safe is it to try and combine the 2 partitions into 1 partition?
or my d drive is using 4gb. is it better to try and move around 15 gb to my
c drive?
thanks

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

The only way you can create, delete, resize or merge existing partitions,
and not harm your existing Windows installation, is to purchase and use
a third-party partitioning program such as Partition Magic 8.
http://www.symantec.com/partitionmagic/

The alternative is to perform a "clean install" of Windows XP:

How to Partition and Format a Hard Disk in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;313348&Product=winxp

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

:

| hello,
| i just got a new laptop. With a 40 gb HD.
| the drive seems to be cut in half. there is 2 partitions. 20 GB each.
| how safe is it to try and combine the 2 partitions into 1 partition?
| or my d drive is using 4gb. is it better to try and move around 15 gb to my
| c drive?
| thanks

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

i just got a new laptop. With a 40 gb HD.
the drive seems to be cut in half. there is 2 partitions. 20 GB
each. how safe is it to try and combine the 2 partitions into 1 partition?
or my d drive is using 4gb. is it better to try and move around 15
gb to my c drive?

Either way, you can't do it with built-in Windows functions. Unfortunately,
no version of Windows provides any way of changing the existing partition
structure of the drive nondestructively. The only way to do what you want is
with third-party software. Partition Magic is the best-known such program,
but there are freeware/shareware alternatives. One such program is BootIt
Next Generation. It's shareware, but comes with a free 30-day trial, so you
should be able to do what you want within that 30 days. I haven't used it
myself, but it comes highly recommended by several other MVPs here.

Whatever software you use, make sure you have a good backup before
beginning. Although there's no reason to expect a problem, things *can* go
wrong.

 

[Yves Leclerc]

hello,
i just got a new laptop. With a 40 gb HD.
the drive seems to be cut in half. there is 2 partitions. 20 GB each.
how safe is it to try and combine the 2 partitions into 1 partition?
or my d drive is using 4gb. is it better to try and move around 15 gb to my
c drive?
thanks

First, make sure that you do not have your laptop with one of the "dreaded"
System Recovery partition. A System Recovery partition is where the laptop
manufacturer places the Windows XP image(s) that you need to re-install XP
onto your laptop.


Second, XP does not allow you to resize/move/merge partitions without first
erasing all the partitions. You will need to look at third party utilities
like Partition Magic.

 

[Don MI]

hello,
i just got a new laptop. With a 40 gb HD.
the drive seems to be cut in half. there is 2 partitions. 20 GB each.
how safe is it to try and combine the 2 partitions into 1 partition?
or my d drive is using 4gb. is it better to try and move around 15 gb to
my c drive?
thanks

IMO, you should leave the partitions as they are now. When you install new
programs, select the installation destination as the "D" drive vice the "C"
drive. You may want to consider uninstalling some current programs and
re-installing on the "D" drive.

You may want to consider the option of moving your My Documents to the "D"
drive. Go to:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

and download/install Tweak UI to move the My Documents folder.

Doing the above, will keep your primary drive "C" mostly your operating
system.

You should consider using a image backup program to maintain current images
of both drives.

If you want to increase the size of your "C" drive and reduce the size of
your "D" drive, you need to use a third party program such as Symantec
Partition Magic.

Don

 

[bp]

thanks all
my company does have Symantec Partition Magic.
do you think its safe to use?
very dangerous?

 

[Rock]

thanks all
my company does have Symantec Partition Magic.
do you think its safe to use?
very dangerous?

It generally works well but things still can go wrong. Nothing is
guaranteed. Always have a full and complete backup before doing
anything like this.