Merging Partitions

cormie

Hi,
I have a 250GB Hard drive which is split into 2 NTFS partitions. Drive G=224GB and Drive F=9.4GB. It's connected to my laptop via an external USB 2.0 case.

I want to keep everything on G. It is vital that nothing on G gets disturbed. I want to merge F into G thus giving G 233GB total and doing away with F.

It's extremely important I do this without disturbing anything on G. Is that possible? If so, what programme do I need? Can I do it using XP or will I need something like PartitionMagic? Is there any freeware that will do it if XP can't?

Any help appreciated.

Lump

Can't you just do it in the Admin tools for XP?

John

cormie

I don't know I don't want to wreck anything or disturb G drive. I'm thinking that if I format F, then G will automatically be given another 9GB. But I'm not sure and don't want to risk it until someone who knows can tell me

RangeR

Check out this site
http://www.powerquest.com/partitionmagic/

It's probably the best around. A bit pricey if it's only to be used once or twice in it's life time but it WILL do the job for you and it will do it very well.

HTH

cormie

Thanks for the link but I don't really fancy paying for something if XP Admin can do it

I just don't want to mess up G by testing if it will or not

cormie

Ok, just checked Disck Management in XP control panel and it says that G is an extended partition and that F is the primary partition. Will this make a difference to the way I have to do things? Again, if anyone knows what to do, please help

voxpop

ranish might do the job and its free

cormie

Hi, do you know which of them files do I actually have to download? I'm not too sure what all the different ones are for. I have XP Pro if that helps? thanks!!

SwampThing

You'll need a specialist partiton management tool for this, as in, Disk Management in XP will wipe all the partitions if you ty merge them. Maybe ranish will do, but I'd be testing it first. I wouldn't try a new piece of s/w on this type of job without being 100% of the outcome.
Do you have another drive to test it on?

Formatting F will NOT automatically give G an extra 9G.

My advice, seriously, get a copy of Partiton Magic!

snappieT

Don't risk it - trust me, I went there, and I learned the hard way.

It's only 9 gigs. Are you willing to gamble all your data for the sake of 9 gigs?

cormie

Thanks for the warnings! I was nearly going to do it in XP!! phew! snapscan, did you use PM? Will PM definitely do it? I need the 9 gigs, I've 18 gigs to put onto it and there is only 10 free so I need the other 9:P

voxpop

partition magic will def allow you to resize and merge your partitions. I've used it alot myself. I think ranish will do what you want, but I havnt used it before - only heard of it mainly from the open source crowd.
If you can backup your data first then trying ranish would save you some cash othewise go for partition magic

snappieT

I used partition magic on my laptop, and it made an utter mess of my disc. Couldn't access anything. Had to boot into Knoppix and copy everything across to my server (thank god I had the free space) using Samba. Lost an awful lot of data also though.

voxpop

what operation were you doing ? you wernt changing the driver letter of the os drive or anything mad like that ??

None of these repartitioning tools are 100% fool proof (no offence snap ) but, in my experience part magic is the easiest to use and gives mostly consistant results.

Resizing and merging partition is bread and butter stuff to partition magic - it should do it without any problems imo

case_sensitive

Done this a rake of times at work, and PartitionMagic is the way to go, you don't even need to reboot (V8).
Another way is to borrow another large external drive, copy all the data (Ghost or similar if you want to be certain of not losing stuff!), then repartition it any ol' way. It's easiest if you have a second PC to help the process...
Upgrading the disk in a PC that doesn't have enough power connectors in work was befuzzling me for a bit, just stuck the two disks into another machine with plenty of spare power, whole process was done in a couple of minutes.
Find a nerd, ask for his/her help, promise gifts/skills in exchange.