How to merge partitions?

[Marbas]

I wonder if anyone can help with this.

My PC originally had one hard drive divided into two partitions C 30 Gigs, & D 200 and something Gigs; C for Windows, Programs, etc, and D for Documents and Settings.

When I installed Ubuntu a while back it created a new partition for itself on D. I've since uninstalled Ubuntu, so now I have D reduced to 144 Gigs and an extra drive E 58 Gigs.

Is there any way that I can merge D and E back together again (preferably without losing data on D?


I've done a lot of Googling looking for a solution, but most of the answers either rely on the use of commercial software, or are completely over my head.

I just wondered if there is a relatively simply, free, way to re-merge these two partitions.

Any help or advice would be much appreciated.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

There is. I use Partition Magic, but it's not free and it's expensive. it will merge partitions without you losing any of the data on it.

also there are Linux tools you can use to resize, create, delete partitions, but i'm not sure if it will merge partitions. I believe it is on the ubuntu cds and it's on knoppix cds. i think it's called Gparted in Gome based linux systems (ubuntu) and QTparted in KDE based linux systems (knoppix). although you might want to wait and double check with one of the other guys on if it will merge partitions without deleting the data.

ps....i'm just saying this cause i noticed it, but i thought that the picture you have up is a picture of **Hoody** ? if it is...i hope you asked his permission to use it.

 

[Marbas]

^
I'm the Jubber formerly known as Hoody/HoodeRat.

see this thread: http://www.justusboys.com/forum/showthread.php?t=163924

Thanks for the reply, Mikey; I think I tried Gparted before but that was when I still had Ubuntu installed. I wonder if it can run as a stand alone program in Windows. I'll experiment and see what I can do.

 

[trawler69]

I doubt very much you can run it in windows as it written for linux but you can run it by booting into linux from a distro cd.

 

[Marbas]

^
Thanks, I'll try that tomorrow; I've got a couple of different Linux live cd distros .

 

[Marbas]

Personally I wouldn't merge the partitions - if one of them has nothing on it then I'd delete it and extend the other partition to occupy that space - merging is a bit messy.

Ah, now that sounds like a better idea.

 

[Marbas]

Problem solved:

I downloaded GParted http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Burnt the iso file to disc, told it to resize drive D to use the unallocated section, and it went ahead and did it.

All in all it took about ten minutes including the time for the computer to boot up from disc, resize the partition, shut down, and then boot up back into windows.

Thanks to eveyone for the help and advice.

 

[Marbas]

I like it when stuff like that works easily, and I get to discover a bit more about computing in the process.

 

[mike_n_herrin]

hey glad it worked!