Hard Drive Partition

[Guest]

I have a single hard drive that has two partitions on it. I would like to
delete the second partition, and put all the space onto the system partition.
The problem is, the diskpart command will not let me do this. I have
unallocated the space on the second partition, and still won't let me do
this. PLEASE HELP!!!!

Thanks,
lightningbolt

 

[ANONYMOUS]

You will need third party software such as Partition Magic to do it on
the fly!

 

[Guest]

You'd have to reinstall xp,boot to xp cd,recovery,press enter key for
password,
then typeiskPart In DiskPart,delete the partitions,create one,then press
ESC
key,type:EXIT Reboot to xp cd,select,install xp.

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

The usual rubbish from Andrew E.: Lots of seemingly
meaningful words but really totally nonsensical. Use
partition manager such as the one from Acronis. Back
up your important files first if you want to play it safe.

 

[herr]

You can do this, and it is safe:

Use Acronis True image to make an image of your "C" partition on CDs.
(you can do the same for D partition if you like)
Also make a bootable acronis CD using the True image software in XP.

Then using the XP install disk, delete both partitions, create the active
primary C partition, and format it.

Then reboot, use True image boot disk, and restore your C partition image to
the new Big C partition.

Then every thing will work just fine.

This is the best way I think you can perform this action without the risk of
losing your entire data or OS configurations.

Best wishes

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Your approach is good but there are a couple of oversights
in your post - see below.

You can do this, and it is safe:

Use Acronis True image to make an image of your "C" partition on CDs.
(you can do the same for D partition if you like)
Also make a bootable acronis CD using the True image software in XP.

Then using the XP install disk, delete both partitions, create the active
primary C partition, and format it.

*** How can the OP delete his partitions? And how and why should he
*** create a new partition? Acronis will do this for him!

Then reboot, use True image boot disk, and restore your C partition image to
the new Big C partition.

Then every thing will work just fine.

This is the best way I think you can perform this action without the risk of
losing your entire data or OS configurations.

*** This is true, provided that Acronis works as designed. Sometimes
*** it does not, hence it is mandatory to check the Acronis image file
*** before deleting the partitions.

 

[bxf]

You'd have to reinstall xp,boot to xp cd,recovery,press enter key for
password,
then typeiskPart In DiskPart,delete the partitions,create one,then press
ESC
key,type:EXIT Reboot to xp cd,select,install xp.

You're nuts.

 

[Jonny]

Unallocated space is not a partition, a container if you will.

XP cannot natively incorporate unallocated space into any partition,
including the system partition, with any XP native tools or software as its
assets.

3rd party partitioning programs can do exactly that. They usually do the
system and boot partition changes outside of the XP environment. Such
software should be a version current enough to recognize all changes
required, including XP's NTFS, and 48bit lba if your current partition is
within the 28bit lba boundary. You should have XP SP1 or SP2 in this event

Some imaging programs allow a previously imaged system partition to be
restored in larger space. For instance, if you removed the original
partition, then restored the image on the entire hard drive.

Irregardless, you should backup any personal data to removable media before
making any changes such as these. Stuff happens.
.............
Jonny

 

[David Candy]

XP cannot natively incorporate unallocated space into any partition,

Don't be so certain. While unlikely to be of interest to the OP you may want to search Help on Dynamic Disks.

 

[Jonny]

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308424&sd=tech

Read the first note under "How to Extend a Simple or Spanned Volume"
Quote:
You can only extend NTFS volumes, or volumes that are not yet formatted with
a file system.
Unquote

All my non-XP system partitions are FAT32.

However, this may come in handy if I run into anyone with a NTFS non system
partition and unallocated contiguous space, and that person wants to
increase the volume size.
.............
Jonny

XP cannot natively incorporate unallocated space into any partition,

Don't be so certain. While unlikely to be of interest to the OP you may want
to search Help on Dynamic Disks.

 

[Tim Slattery]

I have a single hard drive that has two partitions on it. I would like to
delete the second partition, and put all the space onto the system partition.
The problem is, the diskpart command will not let me do this. I have
unallocated the space on the second partition, and still won't let me do
this.

As you have found, this cannot be done with the tools that come with
Windows. You'll need third-party software, like Partition Magic
(www.symantec.com/partitionmagic) or BOotIt NG
(http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootitng.html)

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have a single hard drive that has two partitions on it. I would
like to delete the second partition, and put all the space onto the
system partition. The problem is, the diskpart command will not let
me do this. I have unallocated the space on the second partition, and
still won't let me do this. PLEASE HELP!!!!

No, you haven't "unallocated" the space. You've deleted the files in that
partition. The term "unallocated space" refers to space that is not in any
partition.

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.