making 2 partitions one...

[Ferretlovers]

I have 2 partitions on my HD, and I would like to make it 1 partition. C is mostly programs and such, and E is the windows partition. I am not sure why windows ended up on the E drive on my last format, but it frusterates me to no end. So I wanted to take those 2 partitions and make them one without having to resort to a reformat. Is there software that will do this, or am I destined to reformat?

Take Care,
Michael

 

[PseudoKiller]

PowerQuest Partition Magic should be able to do it but I am not sure how stable it will be. Merge the partitions and remap programs.

 

[LeeJend]

What Pseudokiller said and Backup your data first. Partition Magic does good merging drives but I never tried it with E: as the windows drive. You could end up with everything on E: or windows not recognized. If that happens try a reapir install to get windows straighetend out.

 

[Petros]

I've done it before. Partition Magic can do it as long as the drive you want Windows on is larger than the one it now resides in. In the case of your Windows install, the smaller drive has to go into the larger. Remember to have PM run the registry fixing program (I can't remember what it's called). And I just found out that Norton owns PM now!? Weird...

 

[Mainframeguy]

One last tip in addition to all the above, although I eventually partitioned as I wanted to using PM it did take me a number of attempts. During the course of this I discovered it it best to decide the sequence of changes you require and then only operate PM to perform one action at a time.

It does sound like you wil just be performing one Merge, but supposing you then decided you wanted a separate partition for backup, well do that as a separate operation, although PM allows you to make multiple changes in one reboot sequence it is then that it can become less reliable (Partition Tragic?!).

 

[manfromyard]

use hiren boot cd to make it to one drive.iav used this many times.

 

[falconguard]

I Have used Partition Magic before, another alternative is called Partition Commander.

 

[Ferretlovers]

When I tried to use Partition Magic it said I could not combine them because WinXP resides on one of them. Now I could not say if the boot disks that came with PM would work or not though.

I picked up Hiren's, but haven't burned it or tried it yet. Any clue how it is at working with NTFS drives when it comes tobrowsing and manipulating the files?

Take Care,
Mike