XP with partioned hard drive

[Guest]

Is there a way to convert a partioned hard drive (c: / d for example and
make it a single drive (c without losing all your folders and programs on
the partioned drive. I am running out of space on the c: drive but the d:
drive has some space left on it. And I want to just put them together as one
drive.

 

[Carey Frisch [MVP]]

A good third-party partitioning program is Partition Magic 8.
http://www.symantec.com/partitionmagic/

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows XP - Shell/User
Microsoft Newsgroups

Get Windows XP Service Pack 2 with Advanced Security Technologies:
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| Is there a way to convert a partioned hard drive (c: / d for example and
| make it a single drive (c without losing all your folders and programs on
| the partioned drive. I am running out of space on the c: drive but the d:
| drive has some space left on it. And I want to just put them together as one
| drive.

 

[D.Currie]

Is there a way to convert a partioned hard drive (c: / d for example and
make it a single drive (c without losing all your folders and programs
on
the partioned drive. I am running out of space on the c: drive but the d:
drive has some space left on it. And I want to just put them together as
one
drive.

Third-party programs like Partition Magic can merge the drives, but if you
have programs on that second partition, they're not going to run correctly
after the partitions are merged because all of the links and pointers are
going to be referring to the previous drive letter.

Also, be sure to have everything important backed up before you do the
merge. While Partition Magic is reliable, if something goes wrong in the
midst of a merge operation, you could lose everything on the drive.

 

[Alan Smith]

Third-party programs like Partition Magic can merge the drives, but if you
have programs on that second partition, they're not going to run correctly
after the partitions are merged because all of the links and pointers are
going to be referring to the previous drive letter.

Also, be sure to have everything important backed up before you do the
merge. While Partition Magic is reliable, if something goes wrong in the
midst of a merge operation, you could lose everything on the drive.

When I've moved programs using partition magic it has updated the references
to the program and it has worked correctly. Move the programs before merging
if you think it won't update the references when merging drives.

 

[Alan Smith]

When I've moved programs using partition magic it has updated the
references to the program and it has worked correctly. Move the programs
before merging if you think it won't update the references when merging
drives.

Just thinking- it may have been Norton I used to move programs to other
drives.

 

[Shane]

Just thinking- it may have been Norton I used to move programs to
other drives.

Partition Magic has the option of running Drive Mapper after the move, to
update drive letter references.


Shane

 

[D.Currie]

Partition Magic has the option of running Drive Mapper after the move, to
update drive letter references.

I've always found those things pretty hit-and-miss, although I'll admit I
haven't used them for a while. Seems to me there was always something that
didn't run correctly. I recall one instance where Office seemed to be
working fine until I needed spell check or something similar, and it just
couldn't find it. Uninstall-reinstall didn't clear it up. And afterwards
there were other programs that had the same sort of issues, as well as some
that just didn't run at all. In the end, fixing the mess took more time than
it would have to simply install the programs fresh.

Maybe it's better now, but I still wouldn't trust it if it was something
truly important.

 

[Shane]

I've always found those things pretty hit-and-miss, although I'll admit I
haven't used them for a while. Seems to me there was always something that
didn't run correctly. I recall one instance where Office seemed to be
working fine until I needed spell check or something similar, and it just
couldn't find it. Uninstall-reinstall didn't clear it up. And afterwards
there were other programs that had the same sort of issues, as well as some
that just didn't run at all. In the end, fixing the mess took more time than
it would have to simply install the programs fresh.

Maybe it's better now, but I still wouldn't trust it if it was something
truly important.

I would tend to agree with you. I usually do it manually, it's easy enough.
Though sometimes I'll use an old DOS tool - Minitrue - to search particular
strings in particular filetypes and change any it finds.


Shane

 

[D.Currie]

I would tend to agree with you. I usually do it manually, it's easy
enough.
Though sometimes I'll use an old DOS tool - Minitrue - to search
particular
strings in particular filetypes and change any it finds.


Shane

When it comes to things like drive letter assignments, I tend to stick in
the "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" camp. Some things just aren't worth
messing with.

 

[Don Taylor]

When I've moved programs using partition magic it has updated the references
to the program and it has worked correctly. Move the programs before merging
if you think it won't update the references when merging drives.

I fought with Partition Magic, trying to get it to resize a partition.
Finally I just lost everything and reformatted the drive.

But recently I needed to do the same thing again and tried the free
trial version of BootItNG from www.terabyteunlimited.com. I was
amazed that it happily resized a partition for me without any problem.
It can also do a few hundred other things, and has a hundred pages of
manual to prove it. I believe it can copy your partition for you, etc.

I believe that if you only do things that are within the normal constraints
of what Windows will accept as a disk structure that you don't then have
to pay the $35 I think. You grab the copy, get your work done within 30
days and you are done. (It can also do things like provide up to 200
partitions on a single drive and that makes use of their software during
boot and I believe for something like that you need to buy it)

Nice stuff. Only wish there were a section of the manual "the six things
most folks want to use this for and a really quick set of steps to do each"