how can I combine Drive C & D

[Jason]

I have 3 drives in my computer (c, d, & e), and I just
upgraded to WinXp from Win98 recently. I installed WinXp
by booting my CD drive at startup so I can choose how many
drives I want.
But now, I found out that I was unable to combine two
drives back into one, how can I combine them (
reinstalling Windows is an option)?

 

[Guest]

There are a couple of ways of tackling this. One for free, and the better solution costs

First, the free option. Windows has a tool available called FDisk which partitions HDs. It's major drawback is that you lose all the information on your HD! If you want more information use Windows Help and search for "fdisk". You will find information on how to use it for your OS

Second, the better solution. Use a commerical program. I have used Partition Magic for years. You can create or remove partitions. You can increase or decrease the size of any partition, etc. The benefit of this, apart from its ease of use, is that you do not lose anything that is on your HD

But, I would recommend that you consider the following before recreating a single partition. I have done this for years on all my computers

Drive C: The OS onl
Drive D: All of your application
Drive E: All of your data

This allows you to reformat and reinstall your OS without losing your apps or your data. (You may have to reinstall apps that put information into the System Registry or store DLLs in the System folder. Further, it makes backing up your data pretty simple because it is all in one place

Hope this helps.