Combining Partitions Safe?

[Talal Itani]

Dear Friends

My hard drive is formatted into 3 drives, C D E. I would like to combine
the 3 partitions into a single C partition. My operating system is XP. Is
it safe combine partitions using Partition Magic?

Thanks,
Talal

 

[Tim Slattery]

Dear Friends

My hard drive is formatted into 3 drives, C D E. I would like to combine
the 3 partitions into a single C partition. My operating system is XP. Is
it safe combine partitions using Partition Magic?

Partition Magic claims to be able to do this, without losing any data.

But it's a *very* good idea to back up anything you don't want to lose
before trying this kind of thing.

 

[Tom Porterfield]

My hard drive is formatted into 3 drives, C D E. I would like to combine
the 3 partitions into a single C partition. My operating system is XP. Is
it safe combine partitions using Partition Magic?

Despite the optimism of the other two answers, the truth is it depends on
what is on D and E. If the assumption from Anne's response is correct that
you only have data files on D and E, then the risk is relatively low. Move
the data files first to C before you combine them as the actual operation
will be to delete D and E and then resize C to take up the free space
created by the deletion of D and E.

If on the other hand you have programs installed on D and E then you can't
simply copy those to C and expect everything to work. The reason is there
will be numerous (thousands) of registry entries pointing to locations on D
and E for executables, dlls and other application data. If you have
programs installed on D and/or E, the best approach would be to uninstall
the program, then reinstall the program on C. Once you have all the
programs moved so they are installed completely on C, you can then proceed
with the operation of eliminating D and E and enlarging C.

And to re-emphasis Tim's response, make sure you have a good backup. I have
never had one of these types of operations fail, but if something does go
wrong there is the potential to lose everything on your hard drive.

 

[MAP]

But, if one of the partitions is a recovery partition
installed at the factory by your computer manufacturer you will no
longer be able to use the recovery function.

I learned this several years ago "the hard way"

 

[Pop`]

Dear Friends

My hard drive is formatted into 3 drives, C D E. I would like to
combine the 3 partitions into a single C partition. My operating
system is XP. Is it safe combine partitions using Partition Magic?

Thanks,
Talal

Partition Magic can indeed do that, yes. And, to date, I've never lost any
data. BUT(t); THOSE ARE FAMOUS LAST WORDS. Always, always back up your
data before you do anything that works on your disk structure. All it takes
is a line glitch or other small problem, and bloop!, all your files are
gone!

Be certain to back up your data.

HTH
Pop`