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Full Version: Deleting Partitions And Making One Large Ones
Suggest A Fix PC Support Forums > General Computing > Fdisk, Dual-Boot, File System and Partition Problems
ltolman
Alright picture this:

August 1st 2007; a 300 gig hard drive is divided into 3 sections:

Programs Drive=100gigs
Pictures Drive=100gigs
Music Drive=100gig (or 89 from all other stuff going on LOL)


September 1st 2007; a person doesnt like the way its set up and wants their 300 gig hard drive into 1 large 300 gig hard drive.

Using Windows XP what does one do?

One person tried Disk Management, right click and chose Delete Partition but then it came up saying "100gig unallocated" then saw the other partition and right clicked and deleted it and it came up saying "100gig unallocated" so therefore he saw:

Programs=100gigs
Unallocated Drive 1=100gigs
Unallocated Drive 2=100gigs

So how does one COMBINE Drive 1 and 2 so they see: 200gigs unallocated?

Or even better, how does one put both of those into one large one?

I told him, yes this post is for a friend of mine but hey at least I will know too, that the only way is to start over from scratch, reformat your HD, LOSE everything, CLEAN slate, re install your OS from ground up and then take advantage of the full HD.

But heres the next thought.

This person now owns the full retail version of Windows XP SP 2 and if they were to install it on a 320gig hard drive will the OS automatically detect it at its fullest size? See we own a Western Digital and once Service Pack 2 is installed we have to enable "Large Support" on the drive so Windows can detect it at its fullest.

So if Windows doesnt detect the drive at its fullest during installation and we enable it thereafter will it become an unallocated space or will it just enlarge the current drive. Hmm thats right 137gig is the highest size Windows will detect until certain drivers are installed so they can see a 320gig hard drive as 320.
Steve R Jones
You can purchase Partition Magic (about 75.00 USB) and combine the partitions.

XP SP2 doesn't have the 137gig limit and will let you use and see all of the drive if you want to start over.
ranchhand
If at least one of your drives is a Seagate or Maxtor, you can jump over to the Seagate website and download the free Seagate Tools which is actually Acronis drive image program and download it for free. I believe it will do this for you.
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