Hard drive was partitioned, want to go back to one big drive in XP

Forums › Desktop computing › Hard drive was partitioned, want to go back to one big drive in XP - Thanks!

Jaxson

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#26867 6-Oct-2008 10:54

Hi all,

When I got my computer years ago I had the hard drive partitioned into two 60GB drives, C: and D:
Now I have an external hard disk and want to delete D: and put all the available 120GB into C: only.
I am running XP.

I went to the copmuter management/Disk Management feature of XP and was able to delete D:
This has left 60GB of available space, but did not automatically assign this to C: like I'd hoped.
I had a fairly good look around, but there doesn't seem to be a way via this tool to increase the size of C: to use this new available space.
I checked the BIOS setup too by hitting del at startup, but there was nothing in there.

I'm hoping this is clear enough and that I can achieve this aim without the need for additional programs, but we shall see....
Any help much appreciated, thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Jackson.

magu

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BitSignal

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#169255 6-Oct-2008 11:23

I know of two tools (one paid, one free) that should help you out.

You need a partioning program. The paid one (and sure to do what you want) is called Partition Magic.

The free one (but I'm uncertain if it will do the merging of partitions with the data on it being left untouched) is called gParted. It's a simple download-burn to cd-boot process.

But make sure you get a copy of the vital stuff first, as messing around with partitions is a dangerous thing.

"Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." - Doc Emmet Brown

garvani

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#169257 6-Oct-2008 11:27

There is no way to do this in windows unfourtently. You need to get a 3rd party app, such as Symantec Partition Magic, or Acronis partition manager program. Once you have the software its quite simple to do. Ove heard of free software but have not used it

Jaxson

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#169263 6-Oct-2008 12:04

Thanks guys,

I had a sneaky suspicion that XP didn't have the tools to do this. Apparently (?) XP does.

Had hoped it would be a simple point and click 2min job! I'll check out the Partition Magic software next.

Cheers.

Bung

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#169265 6-Oct-2008 12:05

XP comes with a command line app Diskpart.exe that can expand a partition into unused space. How to use here.

Edit would be useful if it did system/boot partition as well :(

Jaxson

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#169292 6-Oct-2008 13:41

Found this whilst googling alternative partition magic
http://www.partition-tool.com/personal.htm

will try it out tonight and let you know how I get on, or otherwise!...

RedJungle

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Red Jungle

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#169305 6-Oct-2008 14:55

Just make sure you've backed up all your data before playing with partitions.

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Jaxson

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#169494 7-Oct-2008 09:58

Hey tried that program last night, worked perfectly.
Free and legal too.
Did everything the windows disk manager did plus allowed me to easily drag the c: partition out to include the whole available space on the disk.
Hit apply, computer restarted and all done.
Cheers all,
Jackson.