How to combine two primary partitions into one.

Raul · 21 Mar 2014

Hi.

First I'd like to say that this is my first post on this site, if I've posted on the wrong forum do let me know. I picked general discussion because it seemed to be the most correct one to post this kind of issue.

I have an Acer Aspire 5920G from way back which originally came with Vista, but I upgraded to Windows 7 a while ago as I like it more and it is compatible according to windows 7 upgrade advisor.

I want to know if can put all the stuff I need to keep the laptop up and going into one of the drives(C drive), and format the other drive(D drive) for personal use.

I want to do this because at the moment they both have used space but I don't know for what. I'd like to use the C drive for all the stuff the laptop needs, and empty the D drive and only put stuff in there of my own choice. Like my private files, pictures, university documents etc, and I have 100GB+ of those. I have been mingling around with the laptop recently myself as well, like removing the windows.old folder and some minor changes here and there(dont know if that is of importance or not).

Under computer-manage-disk management it says that both drives are primary partitions.

Here is a picture of the disk management;

How to combine two primary partitions into one.-pic.png

You can see the C and D drive, but I have no idea what the two empty ones above them are.

Please keep in mind that I'm IT illiterate. If there is any information regarding the laptop that I can give to aid the question, ask away.

AddRAM · 21 Mar 2014

Ideally, that`s what you want, a drive for windows and a drive for your stuff and maybe an image.

Here is how to post a proper image of disk management, you have no link there.

Disk Management - Post a Screen Capture Image

Are you sure you have 2 hard drives ?

Or do you mean 2 partitions on 1 hard drive ?

Post the pic of disk management for us.

Raul · 21 Mar 2014

@AddRAM My bad regarding the picture, I edited it now. How do I know if I have two hard drives or just two partitions on one hard drive

ignatzatsonic · 21 Mar 2014

Still no pic.

In Disk Management, you should see individual discs labeled Disk 0, Disk 1, Disk 2, etc.

Partitions typically have letters like C, D, E.

But we need the pic.

Raul · 21 Mar 2014

Really still no pic? I followed the steps on the link AddRam provided. This is how it looks on my part; Here is a picture of the disk management; Attachment 311289(In light blue colour and i press it and it takes me to the picture)

Looking at disk management I think I have one hard drive then. Let me try to fix the issue with the picture one more time.

ignatzatsonic · 21 Mar 2014

For the pic, you have to use "go advanced" at the bottom of the posting window and then look for "manage attachment".

When I poke your link, I get an "invalid" error.

Raul · 21 Mar 2014

I think it should be ok now?

ignatzatsonic · 21 Mar 2014

That's quite a mess.

4 partitions, 2 of them OEM partitions from Acer. That's OK.

It looks like Windows is on what is now called the D partition and your boot files are on what is now called the C partition.

Normally, you'd expect to see the C partition carrying the tags of system, boot, and active.

If the boot files were copied to the D partition, I suspect that partition would be renamed from D to C.

You can copy boot files with third party tools--such as Easy BCD I think.

In your opinion, where are your personal files right now--on C or on D, referring to that picture?

Wait for more comments before changing anything.

Is the PC performing fine?

whs · 21 Mar 2014

The D partition is your active partition - that is it contains the bootmgr. The first thing you have to do is copy the bottmgr to C - Like this:

Bootmgr - Move to C:\ with EasyBCD

Then you have to check what else is on the D partition and possibly back that up. After that you can delete the D partition. Best is to use the bootable CD of Partition Wizard. The iso is in the last box of the webpage. And here is how:

Delete Partition - Partition Wizard Help Video

Once you have unallocated space in lieu of D, you can either create a new partition or add it to C. For that you also have to use the CD. Here is how:

How to extend partition easily with partition magic ? Partition Wizard video help.

Make sure you make an image of C before you do that operation. Here is how:

Imaging with free Macrium

If you have questions, post back.

Raul · 21 Mar 2014

@ignatzatsonic To be honest I've done plenty of mingling with the laptop. As I mentioned it came with Vista at first, and I've gone back and forth several times between Vista and Windows( several version). This could be the cause of why it's so messy looking at the disk management.

It had plenty of issues and I meant to just format and clean the laptop back to factory settings, but it did not work out I think, and it's gone through a lot of change in the last year.

I only started using it a year ago, before that it was unused for a year or two because it was just a mess because of what I'd done on it.

I would say it's on C drive, but I'm not so sure if I have anything of significance on it as I saved all my personal files(100gb+) on another laptop for the moment until I can get this issue fixed.

I use dropbox and I have 50gb on it(about 5% is used), there I keep all my personal files which I access through this laptop.

Ideally, I'd like to wipe the laptop and fix this issue but keep all the programs i have installed. Bitdefender, Office 2013 etc. Or just wipe the laptop and reinstall the programs can work, although it's a hassle.