Merging partitions, with Vista installed on the SECOND partition!

[Shailendra Sham]

Hi

I'm having a problem with partitions on my HD.. My first HD is 160 GB and
has been split into two partitions: c:143GB and d:17GB before installing
vista. I installed vista on the 17GB d:, naiively thinking that this would
be adequate for the OS for a while, and that it would be safer to keep the OS
on its own partition. During the installation, vista installed the OS on the
17GB partition as requested, but renamed the partitions so that the 17GB with
the OS is now the c: and the 143GB is now the d: ...
Now with installing additional programmes I've run out of space on the 17GB
"c:". I've moved all the data that was on the 143GB "d:" to a second HDD
(F, and tried to completely erase the d: and then delete the partition,
making the entire drive c: ; but vista refuses to allow deletion of a few
system files on the 143GB "d:" .
I then realised that the "d:" is actually the primary physical drive, and
that the logical addition is actually c: (with my OS on it)
So the D: partition can't be deleted, as it is the primary physical drive,
but my entire OS is on c: which is full. vista refused to MERGE them, and
attempting to gain extra space allocation on the "d:" only gives me 2-3 gigs,
even though the thing has over 140 GB free.
I don't want to re-install vista on the "D:" as I will lose all my
settings.. is there another way to merge the two or extend the "C:" (which
will encroach on the primary "d") ? will simply copying the entire "c:" onto
D: work, or is the system configured for booting from the "c:" ? Is there a
way of getting this done without fully re-installing vista and starting from
scratch?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.. thanks a lot

 

[Mike Hall - MVP]

Hi

I'm having a problem with partitions on my HD.. My first HD is 160 GB and
has been split into two partitions: c:143GB and d:17GB before installing
vista. I installed vista on the 17GB d:, naiively thinking that this
would
be adequate for the OS for a while, and that it would be safer to keep the
OS
on its own partition. During the installation, vista installed the OS on
the
17GB partition as requested, but renamed the partitions so that the 17GB
with
the OS is now the c: and the 143GB is now the d: ...
Now with installing additional programmes I've run out of space on the
17GB
"c:". I've moved all the data that was on the 143GB "d:" to a second HDD
(F, and tried to completely erase the d: and then delete the partition,
making the entire drive c: ; but vista refuses to allow deletion of a few
system files on the 143GB "d:" .
I then realised that the "d:" is actually the primary physical drive, and
that the logical addition is actually c: (with my OS on it)
So the D: partition can't be deleted, as it is the primary physical drive,
but my entire OS is on c: which is full. vista refused to MERGE them, and
attempting to gain extra space allocation on the "d:" only gives me 2-3
gigs,
even though the thing has over 140 GB free.
I don't want to re-install vista on the "D:" as I will lose all my
settings.. is there another way to merge the two or extend the "C:" (which
will encroach on the primary "d") ? will simply copying the entire "c:"
onto
D: work, or is the system configured for booting from the "c:" ? Is
there a
way of getting this done without fully re-installing vista and starting
from
scratch?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.. thanks a lot

You need to use Acronis Disk Director. There is a trial which will allow you
to see how it works, but the trial will not let you change anything as much
as you need to do. Buy the full version. It is the best way to reassign and
move partitions around..

http://www.acronis.com/homecomputing/products/diskdirector/

It is the most pain free application I have used for this purpose.

--
Mike Hall - MVP
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