Vista Hard Drive merge

My Asus G51vx-x1a came with a 320 gig hard drive, but it's split into two partitions C: and D: how can I merge these two and still keep all the data on them?

 

I think you'll need 3rd party program to merge system partition.

A few of paid programs commonly used to do this kind of task are Norton Partition Magic & Acronis DiskDirector.

I bet there must be other free alternatives out there, or just use Linux Live CD, gparted usually is more than enough.

 

Gparted will do it. As well as Partition Magic and DiskDirector.

 

I don't think that any of the applications suggested thus far will merge the two partitions AND keep the data. The "keep the data" part is the show stopper. You will need to move the data off the D: partition onto dvd's or an external hard drive. Then you can use the built in disk management utility of vista to delete the d: partition and expand the c: partition into the then unallocated space. Then you can copy the data onto the C: partition.

But you need to be careful in doing this. Specifically you need to be sure that there are no registry entries that point to files on the D: partition. If so those would need to be changed after you put the data back on the C: partition.

What directories are now on the D: partition? And why do you want to revert to a single partition in the first place. There can be really good reasons to have two. If you have ONLY data, no apps at all, on the D: partition and only you OS and programs on C: you can use an image app like Acronis to make backup images of C: only when you make changes to your OS or apps, and an external drive to make daily backups of your data.

Gary

 

"and keep the data"???

Gary

 

Be careful when doing this. Gparted is a great utility but if you start messing with the system partition, you may not be able to boot. I think mainly if you move the partition. You should be safe with extending it though.

Just have your Vista DVD handy in case you need to do a system repair. The automatic system repair option with the Vista DVD is quite useful for stuff like that.

 

Also make sure you defragment first

 

Why? If he is deleting the old D: partition and then expanding the C: into the newly unallocated space, why would a defrag be necessary?

Gary

 

Yes you can. I successfully used this tool and it works well. Almost like Partition Magic, but it's free. I would backup any pertinent data just in case of any complications during the partition merge (as you should always when doing modifications to the Partitions).

EASEUS Partition Master 4.0.1 Home Edition

 

Can it merge two partitions without data loss? I have used it to create, move, delete and extend partitions. But don't know about the ability to merge them.

Gary

 

All I have on D: are a few games and one .dll file. would I be safe doing the merge? The games are small and can fit on the C: partition right now

Edit: Out of those none work with 64 bit. well the free ones don't

 

One DLL? How did you get one DLL installed on the D: drive? Where is it on the D: drive?

As I have asked the folks who have been suggesting apps to you, I don't know that ANY of them will actually merge the partitions and retain the contents of the D: partition in the process.

If not you'll have to copy the contents of the D: drive to some other media. An external drive, a set of DVD's etc. Then after you delete the D: partition and extend the C: one, you'll have to copy the stuff back.

Here is where we have a problem. First the games are likely to no longer run. The registry entries for the games will still point to their old location on D: but they aren't there anymore. You COULD edit the registry or just uninstall the games before you start this entire process and the reinstall the games after you are done.

This one rouge DLL, will have a similar problem. Whatever uses this DLL will have record of it in the registry. You will need to edit the registry to fix that, or uninstall the app that needs it and then reinstall just like the games.

Is that ALL you have on D:? No user files. Nothing else?

Gary

 

I put everything else I needed on C: both games were uninstalled and the DLL is in the root of the drive so It's on D: "insert dll name here"

 

So the ONLY thing left on D: is this DLL? What is the name of the DLL? Any idea WHAT installed it here? Whatever installed it here will not work after you do the steps to "merge" the two partitions.

Gary

 

msdia80.dll

 

This is not EXACTLY the issue, since yours is in the root D: instead of C: but the workaround in this article should work for you. Some application you installed on D: screwed up and installed this DLL in the root of D:

The article tells you to move this file to a specific folder on C: Not the root, a VERY SPECIFIC FOLDER. (I would COPY the file there and once you are done, delete the one on D You will most likely get a UAC warning when you move this file to the proper spot. (That's fine and too be expected. Just tell it yes you want to copy the file there.) Then you will need to register the DLL. The article tells you how. Remember you will need to do this from a command prompt that has ADMIN rights. To get to such a command prompt click Start | Accessories and the RIGHT CLICK on "Command Prompt" and select "Run as administrator". Then type the regsvr32 command in the article.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/927665

Just scroll down in this article and look for the "workaround" section.

It looks scary, but it's relatively easy.

Gary

 

I have a Dell E1505 laptop, which has been upgraded to Vista Ultimate.
Dell initially placed four partitions on the hard drive: Utilities,
Windows
C:\ drive, Backup and something called "CP/M, Concurrent DOS, CTOS".
I want to get rid of the Dell partitions and merge all disk space into
a
single Windows C:\ drive partition.

I've used the Vista disk partition utility successfully to delete/
merge in the two
Dell partitions at the end of the drive, but I can't get rid of/merge
the small Dell
utilities partition at the beginning of the drive (I can delete it,
format it, but I can't
merge it with the main partition). Can someone tell me how to do this?
________________________________________________________________________________________
Tom..
cctv equipment | Telephone Answering Service | pass marijuana drug test

 

It is impossible to merge a partition in front of the C: partition using the Vista built in utility. That utility cannot actually merge partitions at all. It can EXTEND a partition into adjacent unallocated space created by deleting a partition. But not really merge them. And even then it can only extend the C: partition into unallocated space AFTER the C: partition.

The only way to do what you want is to use a bootable partition manager like Easus or Gparted. Then you will have to slide or move the existing C: partition into the space at the front of the drive. (Doing this will make the system unbootable, until you boot from a Vista install disk and repair the booting info. There are various threads here about this issue and how to fix it this way and a couple of other ways as well.) Once you have done this you can then extend the c: partition into the unallocated space created when you slide C: down.

Gary