merging two partitions

What I would really like is to remove unallocated spaces ( i.e. allocate them) and have my data drive as D:

gregrocker said:

Are you sure you don't want C: drive in the left-most space? Lower addresses have faster disk read. We do them all the time here.

Hmmm ... how do I do that?

Back up your files and a Win7 image as moving/copying operations can fail. If so, reimage and try again.

In Disk Management query how much space is available to shrink Win7 partition. Shrink as much as possible temporarily.

Then boot into Partition Wizard, right click Resize/Move Win7 partition to move it over to the far right temporarily.

Next rightclick Resize/Move on Data partition and slide right border over to newly-sized Win7 partition. Then slide left border over making room between 100mb and Data partitions for the size you want for your Windows 7 partition.

Right click WIndows 7 partition and Copy over into unallocated space created for it. THen rightclick delete old Windows 7 partition.

Adjust remaining partitions size as desired. Apply all steps.

After restart Win7 should start up since MBR is in 100mb and unaffected by changes. If not, boot into Win7 DVD and run Startup Repair 3 times as there may be multiple issues.

When job is completed, rightclick to run File System check and Surface Scan on all partitions.

Thanks to all of you for your wonderful support to the junior member. Love you all. my problem is fixed !!!
i am so happy.
Thanks a million again
gagbel

i needed some help with merging two partitions. i have 3 partitions in my hard drive
MBR (around 35 MB)
D drive (empty)
C drive (has Win 7 in it)

i want to merge C & D partitions and then create two partitions with almost equal capacity. Since D is to left of C, Disk management does not allow me to extend into D (by deleting D).

please advise.

tarun said:

i needed some help with merging two partitions. i have 3 partitions in my hard drive
MBR (around 35 MB)
D drive (empty)
C drive (has Win 7 in it)

i want to merge C & D partitions and then create two partitions with almost equal capacity. Since D is to left of C, Disk management does not allow me to extend into D (by deleting D).

please advise.

I suggest you get rid of the OEM Recovery partition since it is probably not functional after installing Win7, and is occupying valuable lower address. If you want to know for sure, select Recovery F key listed on first boot screen and see if it starts up to Vista recovery (doubtful).

Download free Partition Wizard and burn to CD. Boot into it.

Right click on OEM recovery 1st partition and Delete.

Right click on D: and Delete.

Right click on C: and Resize/Move, dragging left border all the way over against left side of drive.

Now drag C: right border over to make desired C: partition size, click OK.

Right click Unallocated space to right of C: and create a new partition, format Logical NTFS or as desired.

Apply all steps, when complete boot into Windows 7 DVD Repair console and run Startup Repair 3 times as it will attempt repair and then rewrite MBR.

Make a backup image save externally of finished job so you never have to reinstall again.

Thank you for your reply gregrocker. i am a little skeptical about deleting the OEM partition (as i am new to disk management). i had tried something similar to what you said for C and D. i deleted the D partition and tried to move C partition into leftmost. But what i found was that the C does not completely swallow D partition and there is some space left behind. please correct me i am wrong or if i am doing it incorrectly.

i tried installing Acronis Disk Director suite(trial). After performing merging operation, it wont let me complete it because it is a trial version.

Then i tried installing XP on D drive from where i could join C and D (i have a running version of partition magic which can work in XP). But to my dismay, XP could not recognize any hard drive in the system.
so, i left it as it was and created another partition (please refer the screenshot).

is it possible that now i can join the D and E partitions with C untouched.

thank you

To find out if that Recovery partition even works anymore (most won't after installing new OS), look on first screen during bootup for F-Key to Recover and try it. If it doesn't work then it is wasted space.

Download and burn to CD free Partition Wizard which is the best anyway.

Right click on E partition: Delete, click OK

Right click C: Windows 7 drive and Resize/Move, drag left border over to take up all of unallocated space where E: drive was. Then drag right border to where you want it. Click OK.

Now right click on D: partition and Reisze/Move, drag left border into unallocated space from resizing C: Click OK.

Now apply all steps and restart.

If you decide to get rid of the useless OEM partition, post back for help.