Merging HDD partitions

[Daddio]

In all that I have read from the MVP's I guess it would be safe to delete a
partition (not containing the OS) providing I save the data on the partition
I wish to delete and then by deleting e.g. Drive letter "D" , am I correct in
assuming the space on the deleted partition will now end up on the OS drive,
e.g. Drive letter "C"?

This in a effort to merge the space seperated between the partitioning?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

It will not end up on the OS partition automatically.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In all that I have read from the MVP's I guess it would be safe to delete a
partition (not containing the OS) providing I save the data on the partition
I wish to delete and then by deleting e.g. Drive letter "D" , am I correct in
assuming the space on the deleted partition will now end up on the OS drive,
e.g. Drive letter "C"?

No, that assumption is *not* correct. You would end up with the space
the partition used to use being unallocated and inaccessible.

Think of your drive as a two-drawer file cabinet. Removing one of the
drawers does not make the other drawer any bigger.

This in a effort to merge the space seperated between the partitioning

Then what you want to do is *merge* two partitions, not delete one.

Unfortunately, no version of Windows before Vista 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.

 

[Nepatsfan]

In all that I have read from the MVP's I guess it would be safe to delete a
partition (not containing the OS) providing I save the data on the partition
I wish to delete and then by deleting e.g. Drive letter "D" , am I correct in
assuming the space on the deleted partition will now end up on the OS drive,
e.g. Drive letter "C"?

This in a effort to merge the space seperated between the partitioning?

As long as your D drive only contains data, there is no problem deleting the
partition. Once you delete the partition, that portion of your hard drive
becomes unallocated space. You will need a third party program to add this space
to your C drive. Norton Partition Magic, Acronis Disk Director, and BootIT NG
are three applications that will do the job. I believe that trial versions of
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

 

[Daddio]

Ken, thanks

As they say "aww schucks" no easy way out of this one, Partition Magic
pretty expensive proposition, Bootit might be my choice, I appreciate
everyones great responses!!

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

As they say "aww schucks" no easy way out of this one, Partition Magic
pretty expensive proposition, Bootit might be my choice, I appreciate
everyones great responses!!

PM might be "expensive", but if you can get a version before Symantec
go ahold of it, you will be happy.

As for BootIt... it definitely works, but it's not pretty, and might
not be intuitive for you.

The only time I see it mentioned here is when its FREE TRIAL is
mentioned... as if folks might only want it for a one-time use.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

In all that I have read from the MVP's I guess it would be safe to delete
a
partition (not containing the OS) providing I save the data on the
partition
I wish to delete and then by deleting e.g. Drive letter "D" , am I correct
in
assuming the space on the deleted partition will now end up on the OS
drive,
e.g. Drive letter "C"?

No, you are not correct in assuming this. It's actually quite wrong.

There is no way in Windows to resize a basic-disk partition once it's been
created; you have to delete it and re-create it at the new size.

And it is certainly not automatic.

If the disks are dynamic, which is a whole other issue (and your system
partition almost certianly isn't), you can merge volumes with the system
volume *if* they are physically contigious on the disk.

This in a effort to merge the space seperated between the partitioning?

The only way you can do this with Windows tools, if the system partition is
involved, is at the start of a clean install. Delete the partitions, and
create one new one of the size you want.

There are 3rd party tools like Partition Magic, and they can work well, but
do back up your data *first*.

HTH
-pk

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

Ken, thanks

As they say "aww schucks" no easy way out of this one, Partition Magic
pretty expensive proposition, Bootit might be my choice, I appreciate
everyones great responses!!

You're welcome. Glad to help.

 

[Bill in Co.]

PM might be "expensive", but if you can get a version before Symantec
go ahold of it, you will be happy.

Except the older versions can't deal with large partition sizes. Version
8 does, version 7 reportedly can (although in the specs they say 80 GB max,
IIRC), and that's about it. (Large meaning like say 250 GB).

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

Except the older versions can't deal with large partition sizes. Version
8 does, version 7 reportedly can (although in the specs they say 80 GB max,
IIRC), and that's about it. (Large meaning like say 250 GB).

I stopped upgrading at 7 and my largest drive is only 160G.

I've never tried to set a partition larger than 80G. Not because it
won't, but because I never needed one that large.

 

[Bill in Co.]

I stopped upgrading at 7 and my largest drive is only 160G.

I've never tried to set a partition larger than 80G. Not because it
won't, but because I never needed one that large.

Yeah, I didn't mean a partition size of 250 GB, but a drive of that size.
Sorry.

 

[Uncle Grumpy]

Yeah, I didn't mean a partition size of 250 GB, but a drive of that size.
Sorry.

No confusion here. I understood completely,.

 

[HeyBub]

Norton Partition
Magic, Acronis Disk Director, and BootIT NG are three applications
that will do the job. I believe that trial versions of Disk Director
and BootIT NG are available.

Trial editions are available. However, at the end of the trial period, the
partition snaps back to its original configuration, losing whatever was
deposited on the partion during the trial period.

Just kidding.

 

[Dave Cohen]

No, you are not correct in assuming this. It's actually quite wrong.

There is no way in Windows to resize a basic-disk partition once it's
been created; you have to delete it and re-create it at the new size.

And it is certainly not automatic.

If the disks are dynamic, which is a whole other issue (and your system
partition almost certianly isn't), you can merge volumes with the system
volume *if* they are physically contigious on the disk.


The only way you can do this with Windows tools, if the system partition
is involved, is at the start of a clean install. Delete the
partitions, and create one new one of the size you want.

There are 3rd party tools like Partition Magic, and they can work well,
but do back up your data *first*.

HTH
-pk

I've never used Partition Magic, have used bootitng for years. Bootitng
WILL NOT merge two partitions. You can delete, create, slide and resize.
Deletion and resize will do what you want, but not in one easy step and
if you don't want to lose your data you will have to do a file
backup/restore. The technical challenge of doing it in one step are
pretty formidable, although I suppose you could write a program that
simply automated what I have suggested.
Dave Cohen

 

[windmap]

If you perform deleting/Merging the existing partitions .Any Image backups
of partition and full computer backups will not work. Also you have to
rebuild the MBR.Also some Antivirus programs could interfere during the
changes. So I recommend disabling the antivirus. Also any programs in your
system partition that depends on the deleted partition resources may not
work properly. Extreme caution is very important while performing the action
some times after the changes computer may become unbootable. I recommend
performing such actions under steady power supply conditions preferably with
UPS.