Partition Hell

  • Thread starter Thread starter Laphan
  • Start date Start date
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Laphan

Hi All

Just wanted to pick your brains on something

I've got a laptop partitioned into a C drive (20GB-ish system + data) and a
D (20GB-ish nothing on it) drive. Both in FAT32.

I want to merge the partitions together without losing any data or without
having to backup, wipe and then put back on.

Do you know of any software that will enable me to produce one 40GB-ish C
drive with all the data intact?

Rgds
 
Laphan wrote:
> Just wanted to pick your brains on something
>
> I've got a laptop partitioned into a C drive (20GB-ish system +
> data) and a D (20GB-ish nothing on it) drive. Both in FAT32.
>
> I want to merge the partitions together without losing any data or
> without having to backup, wipe and then put back on.
>
> Do you know of any software that will enable me to produce one
> 40GB-ish C drive with all the data intact?

Partition Magic
BootItNG
Etc...

Google...

Also - no matter what - you *should* backup because things CAN go wrong even
with the best of intentions by a software.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html
 
i wouldn't merge them.

in fact you should use
partition d to store your
personal files/folders/pics,
etc..

you can relocate the
"my documents" folder
to the d drive by right
clicking on it.

the advantage of this
is that in the event your
windows crash and need
to restore your system partition
your documents on the d will
be spared, as the c drive will
be where the default "my documents"
is recreated to its emptied state
by your restore disks.

also, it is simply easier to
backup or image the
d drive.

my suggestion is that
instead of merging the
two partitions,
i would convert them
to ntfs.

--

db ·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·..><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>¸.
><)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>


..


"Laphan" <admin@DontSpam.com> wrote in message
news:euJyfjEPIHA.5360@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Hi All
>
> Just wanted to pick your brains on something
>
> I've got a laptop partitioned into a C drive (20GB-ish system + data) and a
> D (20GB-ish nothing on it) drive. Both in FAT32.
>
> I want to merge the partitions together without losing any data or without
> having to backup, wipe and then put back on.
>
> Do you know of any software that will enable me to produce one 40GB-ish C
> drive with all the data intact?
>
> Rgds
>
>
 
"Laphan" <admin@DontSpam.com> wrote in message
news:euJyfjEPIHA.5360@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Hi All
>
> Just wanted to pick your brains on something
>
> I've got a laptop partitioned into a C drive (20GB-ish system + data) and
> a
> D (20GB-ish nothing on it) drive. Both in FAT32.
>
> I want to merge the partitions together without losing any data or without
> having to backup, wipe and then put back on.
>
> Do you know of any software that will enable me to produce one 40GB-ish C
> drive with all the data intact?
>
> Rgds

Why "Partition Hell"? This was ten years ago - nowadays there
are so many partition managers that it must be "Partition Heaven"!

Incidentally: While the failure rate of partition managers is low,
none are perfect. If you have important files on your PC then
you must back them up before repartitioning your disk. But
then I'm sure you're doing this already . . .
 
On Tue, 11 Dec 2007 22:55:00 -0000, "Laphan" <admin@DontSpam.com>
wrote:

> Hi All
>
> Just wanted to pick your brains on something
>
> I've got a laptop partitioned into a C drive (20GB-ish system + data) and a
> D (20GB-ish nothing on it) drive. Both in FAT32.
>
> I want to merge the partitions together


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.



> without losing any data or without
> having to backup, wipe and then put back on.



Such software usually works without a problem. But it's foolhardy to
rely on its working. You may not "want" to do it, but you should make
sure you have a good backup before beginning. You need to be prepared
for the possibility that you will lose everything, and have to restore
form your backup.


> Do you know of any software that will enable me to produce one 40GB-ish C
> drive with all the data intact?




--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User
Please Reply to the Newsgroup
 
You cannot merge two drives as there are two physically separate
computer hardware components. You can merge partitions only if they are
on the same hard drive. I suspect, however, you are misunderstanding the
terminology.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_partitioning

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Laphan wrote:
> Hi All
>
> Just wanted to pick your brains on something
>
> I've got a laptop partitioned into a C drive (20GB-ish system + data)
> and a D (20GB-ish nothing on it) drive. Both in FAT32.
>
> I want to merge the partitions together without losing any data or
> without having to backup, wipe and then put back on.
>
> Do you know of any software that will enable me to produce one
> 40GB-ish C drive with all the data intact?
>
> Rgds
 
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