delete D partition

[Guest]

I have a hard disk drive that I just realized is partitioned for a C: drive
and a D: drive. I foiund this out by doing properties on C: and D drives.
The C: drive has all the data and software, and is 15GB (11GB are used).

The D: drive appears to have no data and software. It is 55GB and says it
is 99% free.

I would like to have only one drive, the C: drive. I am told I can delete
the D drive. If I delete the D drive, will my C drive automatically now have
70GB of data?

How do I delete the D: Drive on XP Home Edition?

Is there anything else I should be aware of before I delete the D: position?

Steve

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have a hard disk drive that I just realized is partitioned for a C:
drive and a D: drive. I foiund this out by doing properties on C:
and D drives. The C: drive has all the data and software, and is 15GB
(11GB are used).

The D: drive appears to have no data and software. It is 55GB and
says it is 99% free.

I would like to have only one drive, the C: drive. I am told I can
delete the D drive. If I delete the D drive, will my C drive
automatically now have 70GB of data?

No. The space that D: occupied will be unusable.

What you really want to do, I assume, is not just delete the D: but change
the partition structure so that you end up with a single drive using all the
space. 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 (because I've never needed to use *any* such
program), 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.

 

[Mark Dormer]

see my reply to your other post

Regards
Mark dormer

 

[DatabaseBen]

i suggest not to screw things up by
deleting it just yet....

if you don't have a partition management software
you will have alot of headaches.....

I really suggest getting/buying this tool as it comes in handy.

One i like and use is the acronis disk director.

basically, win xp home version does not have
partition management that is user friednly.

but i can tell you where
it is and see if you can figure out how to use it.

open up a cmd prompt/window
then type diskpart
then do a help, dir, list and the prompt.....

 

[Guest]

How about if I take an easier approach. Since the D: drive has 3+ more
space, can I re-name the C: drive to D: and the D: drive to C. Can I then
copy the data files the new "C:". Will the application software
automatically work OK?

 

[DatabaseBen]

for security reasons,
there are many system files that
will not allow you to copy them

but you can reinstall the o.s.
and softwares to the D

you should double check to see
if you really need to have data files
on the c instead of the d

clean out your c with cleanmgr and
maybe compress it.

are you using ntfs?

 

[Dave B.]

No you cannot do that, use the previous suggestions, delete D, and use a 3rd
party app to resize C.