Join partitions

[Jan van Leeuwen]

I have a system configured as follows:

1 hd 20 GB, drive C with Windows ME

1 hd 40 GB, two partitions
- drive D with Windows XP Pro
- drive E with data only

I would like to join D & E to become one partition D. Can this be done
without any aditional software?

If additional software is needed, which would you recommend?

 

[Richard Urban]

The only program I am personally familiar with that can do this is Partition
Magic 8.01.

--

Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[msnews.microsoft.com]

You will need additional hard ware to join the partions. I would recommend
Partition Magic 8.
Since E is data I would just copy the data to partition D and then delete E
and expand partition D. This is assuming you have enough room on partition
D.

 

[Rick \Nutcase\ Rogers]

Hi Jan,

I would like to join D & E to become one partition D. Can this be done
without any aditional software?

No, you need software capable of merging partitions.

If additional software is needed, which would you recommend?

There is only one I know of that can do this: Partition Magic. Other
partitioning utilities will have you remove data from one partition (or copy
it to the one that will be remaining), then delete that partition and expand
the remaining one to encompass the free space.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Associate Expert - WindowsXP Expert Zone

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org

 

[Steelbuttom]

Hi Jan ... I wouldn't recommand doing such , reason as
to why , First off for the price you paid for partition
Magic 8 you are better off to buy an external hard
drive , This way you can restore all your data and
programs onto this external drive , Then i would reformat
your operating system clean and reinstall windows onto
one drive which you can do with windows and no need of
any softeware program to such , afterward when you have
your windows back up and running just plug your external
drive and copy back all your data and programs ... Its
very easy to perform , I do it all the time and the best
part of it all , you can take your external hard drive
with all your important data and programs where ever you
go ... Its the way to go , its far better then software
programs ...

PS: Many that come into these chat rooms are promoter for
software companies and i don't need to tell whats thats
all about

 

[Ron Bogart]

In

Hi Jan ... I wouldn't recommand doing such , reason as
to why , First off for the price you paid for partition
Magic 8 you are better off to buy an external hard
drive , This way you can restore all your data and
programs onto this external drive , Then i would reformat
your operating system clean and reinstall windows onto
one drive which you can do with windows and no need of
any softeware program to such , afterward when you have
your windows back up and running just plug your external
drive and copy back all your data and programs ... Its
very easy to perform , I do it all the time and the best
part of it all , you can take your external hard drive
with all your important data and programs where ever you
go ... Its the way to go , its far better then software
programs ...

PS: Many that come into these chat rooms are promoter for
software companies and i don't need to tell whats thats
all about

You sound like you are selling hard drives and pipe dreams at the same time.
You can follow your steps up to a point. Copying the data will work just
fine, but you can't copy programs back into Windows. There are dll's that
need to be registered and registry entries involved that will preclude doing
it this way. Very abd advice to be handing out so freely.

 

[Terry]

On 11/8/2004 6:20 PM On a whim, Jan van Leeuwen pounded out on the keyboard

I have a system configured as follows:

1 hd 20 GB, drive C with Windows ME

1 hd 40 GB, two partitions
- drive D with Windows XP Pro
- drive E with data only

I would like to join D & E to become one partition D. Can this be done
without any aditional software?

If additional software is needed, which would you recommend?

You didn't state your free space on any of the drives, so this is a
guess. You also didn't state whether you're using Windows Me or not.

1. Copy your E: data to C: or D: (copying to D: could put your data at risk)
2. Delete the E: partition
3. Size the D: partition as needed
4. Copy the data from C: to D:

Partition Magic, as mentioned is the utility to use if your C: or D:
cannot hold the data on E:. Or you could spend more and purchase an
external drive.

I personally would leave your data separate from the OS. I have 5 OS's
on one drive, a data drive and a program drive (with redundant backups
on each of the 3 drives). The data & program drives are used and shared
by each OS. If you ever have to reformat, you won't have to worry about
your data.

--
Terry

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

 

[Steelbottom]

I like guys like you that probably doesn't even have an
external hard drive or ever use one before because i have
reinstalled programs , YES programs with my external
hard drive ... So don't tell me it can't be done when i
am able to do just such ...

 

[Terry]

On 11/8/2004 8:05 PM On a whim, Steelbottom pounded out on the keyboard

I like guys like you that probably doesn't even have an
external hard drive or ever use one before because i have
reinstalled programs , YES programs with my external
hard drive ... So don't tell me it can't be done when i
am able to do just such ...



some thinking and came


Can this be


dreams at the same time.


data will work just


There are dll's that


will preclude doing

There are some programs that don't need to be reinstalled but the
majority of major apps require too many registry settings and files that
are installed into Windows folders to just copy a program folder
contents over and have it work, as I'm sure you have found out. I have
about a half-dozen programs that I can just copy the program folder and
it launches. But anything like MS Office, WP suites, or the like won't
work that way.

--
Terry

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

 

[Ron Bogart]

In

I like guys like you that probably doesn't even have an
external hard drive or ever use one before because i have
reinstalled programs , YES programs with my external
hard drive ... So don't tell me it can't be done when i
am able to do just such ...

WOW - I never knew that getting an external hard drive is what it took for
me to get 'smart?* Actually I have 8 drives in this machine and 3 in the
one sitting next to it, but that is neither here nor there. You are still
giving inaccurate information to people who need their help to be as
accurate as they can possibly get.

 

[Richard Urban]

Many are promoters for the software companies because they use the software,
believe in it and trust it. Therefore they fell good about recommending it.

--

Regards:

Richard Urban

aka Crusty (-: Old B@stard

 

[Michael Stevens]

I like guys like you that probably doesn't even have an
external hard drive or ever use one before because i have
reinstalled programs , YES programs with my external
hard drive ... So don't tell me it can't be done when i
am able to do just such ...

Care to explain the procedure in detail to all us uninformed? I have a
couple external drives I would love to know how to use. Getting real
tired of promoting unecessary software you know.

--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[David Candy]

It easy. Place drive on a stack of papers and that stack of papers won't blow about.

 

[Michael Stevens]

It easy. Place drive on a stack of papers and that stack of papers
won't blow about.

LOL I know that trick, I want to try Steelybottoms unique method. ;-)

--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)

 

[Jan van Leeuwen]

On 11/8/2004 6:20 PM On a whim, Jan van Leeuwen pounded out on the keyboard

You didn't state your free space on any of the drives, so this is a
guess. You also didn't state whether you're using Windows Me or not.

Free space is limited (that's why I want to join the partitions). However, I
do have a 120 GB external drive that I could attach to the system
temporarily.

And yes, I am using the WinME partition occasionally. I wish to maintain it
as an independent partition.

1. Copy your E: data to C: or D: (copying to D: could put your data at risk)
2. Delete the E: partition
3. Size the D: partition as needed
4. Copy the data from C: to D:

Partition Magic, as mentioned is the utility to use if your C: or D:
cannot hold the data on E:. Or you could spend more and purchase an
external drive.

Does this mean that step 3 can be done without additional software and
without losing the data on partition D? I can temporarily 'park' the data
from partition E on an external drive, but I dread having to reinstall
everything on partition D.

I personally would leave your data separate from the OS. I have 5 OS's
on one drive, a data drive and a program drive (with redundant backups
on each of the 3 drives). The data & program drives are used and shared
by each OS. If you ever have to reformat, you won't have to worry about
your data.

The point is that this is an older system (Pentium 4, 1.5 GHz) and I don't
want to invest in it too much.

Now the free space on partition D and E is divided. I would rather have 8 GB
of free space on one partition that 5 on one and 3 on the other.

 

[Terry]

On 11/8/2004 9:56 PM On a whim, Jan van Leeuwen pounded out on the keyboard

Free space is limited (that's why I want to join the partitions). However, I
do have a 120 GB external drive that I could attach to the system
temporarily.

And yes, I am using the WinME partition occasionally. I wish to maintain it
as an independent partition.




Does this mean that step 3 can be done without additional software and
without losing the data on partition D? I can temporarily 'park' the data
from partition E on an external drive, but I dread having to reinstall
everything on partition D.





The point is that this is an older system (Pentium 4, 1.5 GHz) and I don't
want to invest in it too much.

Now the free space on partition D and E is divided. I would rather have 8 GB
of free space on one partition that 5 on one and 3 on the other.

Disk Management can only resize left to right, so if E is to the right
of D and you remove E, you should be able to resize D.

I would move the data to the external drive. That way if anything
happens during the resizing you won't lose your data.

--
Terry

***Reply Note***
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.

 

[Alex Nichol]

1 hd 20 GB, drive C with Windows ME

1 hd 40 GB, two partitions
- drive D with Windows XP Pro
- drive E with data only

I would like to join D & E to become one partition D. Can this be done
without any aditional software?

If additional software is needed, which would you recommend?

The only one I know of that will simply merge is Partition Magic 8.01,
but it is an expensive tool to buy for just this. I would use another
partition manager and move data from E to D as far as possible, then
shrink E and expand D to the space, until all had been moved so E could
be deleted and D expanded to full size.

What I would use is BootIT NG, from http://www.BootitNG.com ($35
shareware - 30 day full functional trial)

Download, to its own folder, extract from the zip, run the bootitng to
make a boot floppy.

Boot the floppy, Cancel Install, entering maintenance, then click on
Partition work. Highlight a drive, Resize, and probably Slide so as to
have the free space following the drive to be expanded.

That said I would not do it at all. Indeed I would probably shrink the
partition with XP somewhat, making sure that all data was on the other
partition. That way it is much easier to ensure you have a secure
backup from which you can restore the system without losing data that
has changed since the backup was made. And equally to have a separate
backup of data run on a different basis