Merging drives

I have a C and a D Drive. The C has under 3gb left on it whereas the D has almost 30 gb left on it. Is there a way I can merge the drives togheter? I am on vista home premium, if that is needed.

Also I have been unable to make the drives dynamic (even when going into computer management -> Disk management >_<).

If I cannot merge the drives (I open to most possibilities but I'd like to keep my programs as I have lost most of their CD's). If this is not possible, how can I maximize my D: Drive so I can install programs to there rather than taking up valuable C: Drive space.

 

do you know if c and d are on a single disk? or are they 2 different hard drives?

during installation of most programs, instead of doing an automatic installation, choose advanced or something similar and select the d drive. If you have to, uninstall larger programs and reinstall them to the d drive.

use a program like ccleaner to empty out unneeded files and temp folders
http://majorgeeks.com/download4191.html

 

They were built in so I'd imagine they're on the same disk. I already use CCleaner and most programs don't allow for installation onto D: Drive.

 

The D: drive is your recovery drive which is on the computer for the purpose of resetting the machine to it's "out of the box" state, or a Windows Repair. Instead of a recovery disc set, this is what manufacturer's provide for reinstallation and repair purposes these days.

This is a partitioned drive, and it is physically on the C: hard disk.

That is the reason you cannot install programs to it.

It is not meant to be used for ANY other purposes other than Windows and backups.

 

I do know that. But I want to merge the drives as I have little to know space left on the C drive. I'm not all that fussed about losing the function of the D drive being a recovery drive.

 

if it will allow you, you can format the drive, and use a partitioning program to merge the 2 together

Partition Logic
Easus Partition Master

 

I have just used Partition Master to resize the partitions on my wife's machine, and it worked great. Very impressed. That said, moving and resizing partitions is risky - one of the worst times for a power outage or other event so make sure you back up all your critical data first.

I would recommend you make your D: drive smaller first, then have your C: drive take up the extra room. And I agree 100% to run a disk cleanup utility, like CCleaner, first.

 

I use CCleaner a lot anyway, so that shouldn't be a problem. I'll buy a usb (never really needed one ), backup my important stuff then buy Partition Manager.

A question, did you do the back up disk thing that you can do? I've read about it, but that sure what it actually does if it all buggers up.

 

Partition Master (also called Partition Manager) is free for home, non-commercial use!

Not sure about your backup question. In my case, our computers are setup so almost all user data is somewhere under My Documents - so we just copy that folder to a safe location - since the data is MUCH more valuable than the machine, this works for us as we can always reinstall Windows and rebuild the applications - recovering lost data is not so easy.

 

You could get Acronis True Image(or another drive cloning program), and buy a new larger drive. Clone the hard drive and partitions to the larger drive.
You will have a fall back drive with all your programs and files to go back to..
I have had great luck with Cloning HD's, just clone from same size to same size, or to larger. For some reason if you have 30gig of data on an 80gig HD and try to clone to a 40gig, it fails (even though there is room?)

 

Acronis TI is a great program for this, as is Norton Ghost. But both cost money - and that's fine if you will be doing this often.

I note if you buy a new "retail" version of a hard drive, all the major players include a utility disk that includes tools to transfer all your old data and settings to the new drive.

 

Well, since the program install cd's are missing or whatever, I would proceed with caution since replacing programs is more difficult than files and folders.
Perhaps a pc repair shop could help. (probably cost more than a disk cloning program though)

 

Sure, a PC shop could help - but if all you need is a little more space on C drive, and you have free space on D (this assumes they are just partitions, and not separate hard drives) then Partition Master is pretty simple - you just move a slider or two over, hit Okay, and Apply and reboot. You can move the sliders all over the place to see how it will all look, and nothing happens until you hit apply - plenty of opportunities to cancel out. So you can down load and run the program, get familiar with it before hitting apply.

The only thing a PC shop has over you in this is more confidence. The odds of something going bad are the same. There is no guaranteed smooth sailing. But chances are, all will be good.

I guess to minimize any chances of something going wrong, you could do the following for a bit of insurance.

1. Backup any data you do not want to lose; work and school documents, email, favorites, music, pictures, etc.
2. Clean system of clutter using Windows (XP or Vista) Disk Cleanup, ATF Cleaner or CCleaner. If using CCleaner, uncheck the option to install the Yahoo toolbar during installation. Before first use, go to Options > Settings > Advanced and ensure Only delete files in Windows Temp folders older than 48 hours is unchecked. Know your site credentials (user names and passwords) for sites you frequent before cleaning; you may have to login again at next visit.
3. Ensure system is malware free
4. Defragment the drive/partitions
5. Run Error checking or chkdsk /r on each drive/partition
6. Use an UPS with AVR (automatic voltage regulation) - at least don't do this when storms are in the area

 

Thanks for all the tips. I'll try these tips before. If it does go wrong, can I still use my hard drive (obviously I'll have no installed programs that I've downloaded since I've had the computer).

 

Is there any free software that can increase the size of one partition by taking some from another?
Because the demo version of Paragon Partition Manager 10.0 does not let you, and I'm short of funds currently. >_<

 

Ummm, thesmokinggun and I both mentioned free alternatives - please read our previous replies.

 

I tried thesmokingun's suggestions, but those just allowed for creating partitions, not resizing one to increase another.

 

As I noted, I used Partition Master to resize the partitions on my wife's machine, and it worked great. I resized D drive, making it smaller, the gave that space to C drive to make it larger. You can do it one step at a time, or several at once - I did one at a time.

 

EASEUS Partition Master? I tried that but it allowed me to make the D: Drive smaller, giving me unallocated space - but I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to allocate that space to my C: Drive. I only new I could make another partition from this.

 

I think there just diffrent partitons

 

i think i remember that easus wont merge. But if you can, empty the 2nd partition by moving everything over to the first one (if you can) then remove the 2nd one, and expand the 1st (C: ) into the now, unallocated space. If thats not an option, you will have to use a different program that you can boot from,
cute partition manager will let you create a bootable cd or floppy and let you manage the partitions outside of windows...keep in mind it's not as user friendly when using a bootable program.

http://majorgeeks.com/CPM_Cute_Partition_Manager_d5369.html

parted magic is another good one
http://majorgeeks.com/Parted_Magic_d6183.html

 

Hi,

I like ghost for imaging, you can do partitions or the whole drive. Also the best thing is that you can resize the partitions on the fly so to speak, athough the images tend to be larger than some other apps the others might have an issue - if not "blown back out" to the same sized drive..? Ghost doesnt although it does cost a little it works no fuss really once you get used to it.

So one could get one large drive and say for eg... image off there old 40GB and say the next one along the food chain like a 120GB and throw these on two different partitions of a single partitioned 200Gb HDD. If these are both active partitions eg.. have windows on it, there maybe a bit of "fun" involved. Just remember the more partitions you have the bigger the performace hit to the unit especially if using multiple paging file on each partition.

I usually install my windows on anything but c:\ sure its a pain when nearly all files will want to install on c:\ but where \ do you think the hackers\ look...by default...

thats all for me today good luck with this one l8r world:wave i'm off to..:zzz

 

The reason I didn't use Paragon Partition Manager is because it costs money, not much chance of me going for this.

 

This is a long thread so I apologize if someone already answered this, but yes this can easily be done, and it can all be done with free software provided you have the tools.

You're going to need to backup all of the data on your D partition. Commercial products like Partition Magic can merge partitions without loosing data, but like I said this can be done with free tools as well, just a few more steps involved.

The only possible caveat to this solution is you need a space to backup the data thats currently on your D: drive. I dont know of a way you can merge partition with data currently on it , for free. Commercial software will do it, but free is good in my books, so here is what you need to do.

1 - Get a USB drive with enough capacity to move all of the data from your current "D" partition to the USB drive.

2 - Boot windows, go into disk management and (after you have verified the backup), delete all partitions that make up D. When this is done, you will have a C: partition, and the rest will show up in Disk Manager as "unallocated space".

3 - Download yourself a copy of PartEd Magic. Its a free, GNU licensed open source program that basically looks / works exactly like commercial products such as partition magic or acronis disk director.

4 - Burn PartEd Magic to CD. Boot that CD. Once the software loads, you will see your hard drive, the current "C" partition, and all the unallocated space you now have since you deleted the D partition.

5 - Use PartEd Magic, to 'resize' your C: partition to absorb all the newly created space that was allocated when your D: partition was deleted. Click apply, let the operations take place.

6 - Reboot your computer into Windows. You will now have one single drive, with a capacity of your original c: drive + the size of your logical drives. So if you started out with a 20gb C and a 20gb D, at this time, you should have a 40gb C.

7 - Restore your files that you backed up from your initial D: drive.

8 - Enjoy your new HDD space.

HTH...

 

Sorry - Id like to edit that. I meant to say GpartEd instead of PartEd Magic.
I just find GpartEd a little more user friendly.

Check it out here.