Removing a Partition

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When I installed XP, I had to divide my 500 G drive into two. When I installed Win 7, I thought it would give me the option of removing partition D and including it into C for a larger drive. It did not do that. I thought maybe I could use Norton’s Partition program, but found out while trying to install it, that it was not compatible with Win 7. So, I am wondering:

1. Is there a program in Win 7 to do away with D by bringing it back into C?
2. If not, is there some program that is compatible that I could use to do that?
3. When I attempt to make D a part of C, will that cause me to lose what is on C?

Ray

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Please clarify for me what you currently have going for you. Do you still have XP installed? What is on C: and D: ?

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To install Win 7, I saved all my files on C, cleaned C of XP and installed Win 7 – 32bit. On D I had pictures, articles from Windows Secrets, etc. I have since bought a second drive that is 320G and installed it. I have moved everything off D to the new drive. I wanted to merge D back into C, but Norton PartitionMagic is not compatible with Win 7. In fact, before I received Win 7 and was still running XP, I tried to merge the two, but it never would work. I went to Norton to see if they were going to do a Win 7 upgrade, but haven’t heard from them yet.

Ray

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… I wanted to merge D back into C, but Norton PartitionMagic is not compatible with Win 7…

OK, if I’m understanding everything, you have C: and D: as partitions on a single physical drive and you have copied everything from D: to a second physical drive. I don’t know anything about Norton as I currently use Paragon Partition Manager for this kind of task. It IS Windows 7 capable as well as 32 and 64 bit ready. However, I use their Pro version so I can’t say for sure if its Personal version will allow you to discard the D: partition and enlarge the C: to take in that discarded space. I would hope it would since that’s one of the basic functions of a “partition manager” program. But you could write to them to be sure.

I just noticed while I was at their site making the above link that they have a “weekend special” running where you can buy the Personal version for $10 instead of the normal $40 price. (The Pro version sells for $80 and I don’t think is included in the special.)

Also be careful of trial downloads on this type of software. You might confirm that it WILL do what you want but you probably won’t be able to “commit” the change until you BUY your copy. Good luck.

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Go to Computer Management – in the AdminTools subdirectory of Control Panel.

Choose Disk Management. That should provide you with enough tools to achieve what you are attempting.

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I think you need to do one thing, and one thing only: boot from your PartitionMagic CD, and perform all of the operations from that. It won’t make the slightest difference what operating system(s) are on your drives or partitions, so long as you boot from the CD you will be in business. The same is true for any other partitioning software; you may want to install it on the hard drive for certain purposes (such as creating a boot disk that includes it), but I advise against running it from the same drive you intend to use it on.

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Thanks fellows. I’ll try Norton’s program first to see if it will boot off the CD. If so and that works, no need for the other program. If not, I just may buy the other. Again, thanks.

Ray

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You can also use a free program “Partition Wizard” (http://www.partitionwizard.com). It works with Windows 7. I used it to get rid of a hidden partition containing Media Direct on a Dell laptop (a quite exotic program and very difficult to erase) and then to merge this partition with C. It works quite well.

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Another good free partition tool is Partition Master and it’s W7 compatible.

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You can do everything you want without a 3rd-party product!

Go to Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management. Right-click on D: and Delete Volumne then right-click on C: and Extend Volume,

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One more 3rd party freebie that I like:
Easeus Free Download

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Norton

I avoid anything Norton. There are always better free or cheap programs.

1. Is there a program in Win 7 to do away with D by bringing it back into C?

Yes, try Partition Wizard.

3. When I attempt to make D a part of C, will that cause me to lose what is on C?

I believe not, though am not positive. So before trying that, make an image backup to an external drive of your internal drive. Use Windows7 backup if you don’t mind waiting hours or days, or see this thread on backups.

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After I installed Vista (now using 7) I booted a CD with Ubuntu 9.04 and used the partition manager that came with it. I was skeptical at first, but it worked great. I deleted my old restore partition and expanded the main system partition to use all of that leftover space.
It was so easy a caveman could do it!

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Thanks fellows. I downloaded one of the freebies and now have the problem taken care of. Thanks again.

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New User here,
Just my two-cents worth. Ed Bott’s article about creating a dual-boot system also mentioned a free program”EASEUS Partition Master”. That’s what I used to transition my XP Pro setup to Win7 Pro. Worked fine and once you get all your data, settings, programs installed, it’ll delete the extra partition without ANY DATA loss, IMHO.

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I used a bootable GPartEd CD to do what you described and it worked fine. No W7 compatibility needed as it boots into Linux. Easy to use interface, very intuitive.

Edit: GPartEd is a free download, assuming you can create a CD form an ISO…

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I also used “EASEUS Partition Master” to remove the XP partition from a dual-boot drive with Win 7. It allowed me to combine the 2 partitions and move the Win 7 installation to the front of the drive.

Thanks, Ed Bott.

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I also used “EASEUS Partition Master” to remove the XP partition from a dual-boot drive with Win 7.

Me three. But since I use x64 I had to buy it

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My drive has a second partition on it which contains the HP Vista restore files. I’m running Windows 7 Ultimate. In Drive Management, this second partition has a grey, crosshair pattern to it. EASEUS Partition Master will not allow me to delete it, nor merge it with the main Windows 7 partition. In fact, I can’t even format this partition, although it show up with a drive letter. I created the EASEUS boot disk on a CD, but my computer refuses to boot with it. ‘Loading’ flashes by really quickly, and I’m left with a flashing cursor with no CD drive activity. Frustrating,

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My drive has a second partition on it which contains the HP Vista restore files. I’m running Windows 7 Ultimate. In Drive Management, this second partition has a grey, crosshair pattern to it. EASEUS Partition Master will not allow me to delete it, nor merge it with the main Windows 7 partition. In fact, I can’t even format this partition, although it show up with a drive letter. I created the EASEUS boot disk on a CD, but my computer refuses to boot with it. ‘Loading’ flashes by really quickly, and I’m left with a flashing cursor with no CD drive activity. Frustrating,

Give Acronis Disk Director a try HERE
It’s under the Home and office download>dropdown tab and you can get free 30 trial download.

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Give Acronis Disk Director a try HERE
It’s under the Home and office download>dropdown tab and you can get free 30 trial download.

Have you been able to get Disk Director to work under Windows 7 Bob? I haven’t had any luck so far!

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Have you been able to get Disk Director to work under Windows 7 Bob? I haven’t had any luck so far!

It worked for me, or at least I think it did, as I have several different means of accomplishing the same thing and this was in setting up a new drive, for which I had the Seagate utility available as well. Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor doesn’t flag it as incompatible.

My advice is the same as it was for PartitionMagic (for which I have two copies of version 8, when it was PowerQuest, before Norton bought them out): boot from the CD. Make the standard rescue CD of the latest version of Disk Director, and boot from the CD. If you have other Acronis products, you can make a combined rescue CD, which is a very elegant and useful resource.

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Have you been able to get Disk Director to work under Windows 7 Bob? I haven’t had any luck so far!

I don’t have the final Win7 version yet but I did use DD to do some minor changes and set up for the Win7 partition before installing the RC. Seemed to work fine.
I wondered if that type of partition management really makes a difference, so far as the OS is concerned?

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Give Acronis Disk Director a try HERE
It’s under the Home and office download>dropdown tab and you can get free 30 trial download.

I thought this was a winner. I downloaded and installed the 30 day trial. It deleted the pesky partition and resized the remaining partition to include the deleted one. Until I tried to commit it. Then it informed me that I had to have the paid version to complete the operation.

Not a problem, I shelled out $49 and downloaded the real thing.

It won’t install under Windows 7 x64. According to their website, version 11 will but the release date is unknown.

I wasted a DVD installing the ISO file only to find out it won’t read SATA RAID drives, either.

Now trying to get my money back

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I thought this was a winner. I downloaded and installed the 30 day trial. It deleted the pesky partition and resized the remaining partition to include the deleted one. Until I tried to commit it. Then it informed me that I had to have the paid version to complete the operation.

Not a problem, I shelled out $49 and downloaded the real thing.

It won’t install under Windows 7 x64. According to their website, version 11 will but the release date is unknown.

I wasted a DVD installing the ISO file only to find out it won’t read SATA RAID drives, either.

Now trying to get my money back

I apologize for giving what has turned out to be bad advice. I should have checked before recommending it, but then again, the trial version misled you even more directly and the makers of that are the experts. You have every right to be angry, and I hope that Acronis will do something to set things right with you beyond just a refund.

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I apologize for giving what has turned out to be bad advice. I should have checked before recommending it, but then again, the trial version misled you even more directly and the makers of that are the experts. You have every right to be angry, and I hope that Acronis will do something to set things right with you beyond just a refund.

That’s not your fault at all. They should be a bit more forthcoming on their website. Or at least not allow the demo software to install, knowing that the paid version would not.

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