How to un-partition a drive

[BrandenK]

I just replaced my older desktop with one that has Vista and offered the
older one to my sister. It's got XP home on it and when I got it, Best Buy
had partitioned the hard drive into a C: and a D: drive.

I told my sister she needs to buy a new copy of XP (hoping eBay has some New
In Box copies) so she doesn't have licensing problems. I figure I'll help
install it and would love to do away with the D: partition and make it into
one 60 GB (I think that's the size) partition.

A few questions:

Is re-installing XP with a new licensed version the right way to go?

Will re-installing XP on the harddrive allow me to make one big partition?

Are there any gotchas I should look out for?

Any recommendations?

 

[David B.]

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I just replaced my older desktop with one that has Vista and offered the
older one to my sister. It's got XP home on it and when I got it, Best Buy
had partitioned the hard drive into a C: and a D: drive.

I told my sister she needs to buy a new copy of XP (hoping eBay has some
New
In Box copies) so she doesn't have licensing problems. I figure I'll help
install it and would love to do away with the D: partition and make it
into
one 60 GB (I think that's the size) partition.

A few questions:

Is re-installing XP with a new licensed version the right way to go?

Reinstalling, yes. Buying a new copy, it depends, if the XP installation
that came with it is not in use buy you or anyone else, then it can be used
by her on the hand-me-down PC, if it is an OEM copy then it does have to
stay with that PC anyway, so you might as well use it.

Will re-installing XP on the harddrive allow me to make one big partition?

You will have the option during installation to delete both partitions and
create a single one of the entire drive size.

Are there any gotchas I should look out for?

Nothing comes to mind, other than hunting down the proper drivers for the
installed hardware if you don't have a driver cd.

 

[David B.]

By the way is this an OEM PC such as an HP or Sony?

 

[BrandenK]

Yes, this is a Sony Vaio. I'm a little unsure what your answer is with
regards to being able to un-partition the drive, and that may be due to my
question not being clear. What I'd like to know is (though I think I know
the answer) whether I am able to make ONE partition (instead of two as it is
currently) when I reload using the version of XP that was preloaded on the
Sony or do I need to purchase a new retail version of XP Home? I think all
I have is the recovery CD, not a full blown version of XP.

 

[David B.]

Ok, IIRC Sony for some reason makes a really small partition for the OS and
then a second larger data partition, the Sony recovery cd will recreate that
setup I believe, what I would do rather than spending $100 plus on a new
Windows license is to spend less on a partition program such as Partition
Magic. Run the Sony recovery, once finished you can use Partition Magic to
delete the Sony data partition and resize the primary partition to use the
entire drive.

 

[BrandenK]

Ok, thank you very much for your suggestion. I will look into that (once I
get time). Your help has been much appreciated!

 

[Nepatsfan]

I just replaced my older desktop with one that has Vista and offered the
older one to my sister. It's got XP home on it and when I got it, Best Buy
had partitioned the hard drive into a C: and a D: drive.

I told my sister she needs to buy a new copy of XP (hoping eBay has some New
In Box copies) so she doesn't have licensing problems. I figure I'll help
install it and would love to do away with the D: partition and make it into
one 60 GB (I think that's the size) partition.

A few questions:

Is re-installing XP with a new licensed version the right way to go?

Will re-installing XP on the harddrive allow me to make one big partition?

Are there any gotchas I should look out for?

Any recommendations?

There are several third party programs that you can use to resize the C drive on
your old desktop. Here are some options you can try. I believe that trial
versions of Acronis Disk Director and BootIT NG are available.

Norton PartitionMagic 8.0
http://www.symantec.com/norton/products/overview.jsp?pcid=sp&pvid=pm80

Acronis Disk Director 10.0
http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/

BootIT Next Generation
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/bootit-next-generation.htm

Good luck

Nepatsfan

 

[BrandenK]

This sounds good, but I have a question. Assuming I re-partition the drive
into one big partition, what happens in the future if they need to reload XP
using the recovery CDs? I'm guessing the drive will once again be partitioned
into two logical drives. Am I correct?

If I don't want this to happen, then is my only choice to buy a new retail
version of XP and reload the system that way amd create one partition when I
re-install XP?

 

[David B.]

You may want to try running the recover again after you repartition, just to
make sure it doesn't give you the option to leave the disk setup as it is
and not repartition, I seem to recall it may do that, it's been a while
since I had a Sony in my shop so don't rely 100% on what I say.