Aspire 9300 - Partion question

I was surprised to find there are two partitions on the laptop making the "C & D drives".

I tried using partition magic to join them but it is one of the few programs does not work with Vista. I understand Acronis Disk Director Suite will work with Vista and join the two partitions with no loss of data.
I have never used Acronis.

I called tech help but when I mentioned joining the partitions they said they would not be able to support me any more, that the partition was to back up data on. I always back up my data to a USB drive using Ghost as I lost a hard drive with serious data on it once & now keep the data in two places.
The Ghost I have works with Vista.

My questions are; is there a simple way within the laptop's software or without having to buy a new program (Acronis) that I can merge these two partitions?

Also, Are there any other reasons this laptop needs to have two partitions? I am new to Laptops and to Acer and perhaps there are other reasons I am not yet aware of.

Thanks!

 

I had the same problem but what i did was to merge the C and D. Windows Vista has a disk management utility. Go to start right click my computer then click on manage. On the left hand side click on Disk management its right under Storage. Now, right click on the partition you want to extend then click on Extend. There is also a hidden parttion that for some odd reason cant be merge even when its have completely formatted.

 

Again you have helped me. I did have to delete the D partition before extending (Partition magic does that on it's own) but you sure got me there. Thanks so much, I think i'm good to go.

Now if I could only find some way to lock the caps lock off cause with this smaller board I still keep hitting that key... Heh, on my regular keyboard I've removed the key etirely. Won't do it with this one though...


Much appreciated & thanks!