Repartitioning hard disks without format

I have two hard disks, each of which is divided into two partitions, making four logical disks (or w/e they're called) in total. Thing is, I want to recombine two of those partitions belonging to the same hard disk. Do I have to format to do this? Neither of the disks is the system disk.

If someone could help with a step-by-step walkthrough, that would be cool :major

 

Yes, you can combine the two partitions in to a single one, but you'll lose the data on the 2nd partition unless you copy it to the first partition before 'combining' the partitions. Actually, you're not really combining them; you'd simply be erasing the 2nd partition, and then resizing the first partition. This can be easily accomplished with BootIT-Next Generation. The download says 'Shareware' but the free download will provide all the functionality needed. So, download the program and create the boot disc (a floppy or CD depending on your circumstances; the CD is preferable). Boot to it. It will ask if you want to install it to the hard drive; answer "NO" and you will enter "Maintenance mode". Click on "Partition Work", then select the drive from the list shown. Select the 2nd partition and click "Delete" (assuming you have already saved all data on this partition, because it will be erased permanently). Once that is finished, select the first partition (the one you want to resize) and click "Resize". Then select the maximum size to take full advantage of the drives capacity. Click "OK" or "Apply"; BootIT will perform some error checking, then resize, the error check again. This may take some time depending on the size of the drive and how much data is on the first partition, so be patient. When it's done, BootIT will let you know if there were any problems (I've done this dozens of time and never had any problems). Then exit the program, and boot to Windows as usual. If you want to be sure the process goes smoothly, it's a good idea to clean the junk files from the 1st partition, perform a chkdsk c: /r to insure the file system is error free, then a good deep defrag, but these things are optional and only recommended if the partition has given you trouble in the past, or if you have reason to believe it will be prone to errors...
:-D
I hope this helps! Good luck!

[dlb]

. . . and Welcome to Major Geeks! :wave :major