Merging Partitions Help Please

[TDKMate]

I've already Googled merging/joining but didn't find what was looking for. I found plenty on how to join a second partition into the first one; for example, how to merge 'D' into 'C' but I want to do the opposite: merge the first partition into the second ('C' into 'D') without losing data, of course.

The reason is I just installed an SSD for my OS drive and now have a hole where the OS use to be.

I have 3 partitions on the 'old' hard drive: The now vacant 1st partition (formally 'C' but now assigned as 'J'). The remaining 2 partitions, 'D' and 'E' drives, have both programs and data on them so I need to keep their drive letters the same so the programs and my links still work.

I have a second hard drive that is not affected by this.

Is there any quick and easy way to do this??

Using Win 7 Pro 64

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Should be relatively easy, but details needed.

Post a screen shot of Windows Disk Management with all drives connected.

You may be able to correct the problem with Windows alone, but more likely will need a third party tool---Partition Wizard.

Post the picture.

 

[TVeblen]

Ah. Windows 7 Disk Management only works 'to the right'. It is a common problem that it will not easily allow you to extend a partition 'to the left'.

To do this in Windows you must create a new partition in the unallocated space and format it, then copy all your data from 'D' to 'C', then delete partition 'D', then expand 'C' into 'D'. Easy if the data on 'D' will fit into 'C'.

Or you can use a third party program like:
Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online
You can use the free Home Edition, which will easily expand a partition to the left.

In either case it is always a good idea to back up the data to a separate disk anyway. Even the best programs have bad days.

 

[TDKMate]

Should be relatively easy, but details needed.

Post a screen shot of Windows Disk Management with all drives connected.

You may be able to correct the problem with Windows alone, but more likely will need a third party tool---Partition Wizard.

Post the picture.

Screenshot posted. I put a red box around the two partitions I'd like to join/merge.

Note that I used the wrong drive letter in my first post: It is 'K' drive, not 'J' drive.

You can see that 'D' has 702GB of programs and data on it.

'K' is newly formatted and is empty.

 

[TDKMate]

Ah. Windows 7 Disk Management only works 'to the right'. It is a common problem that it will not easily allow you to extend a partition 'to the left'.

To do this in Windows you must create a new partition in the unallocated space and format it, then copy all your data from 'D' to 'C', then delete partition 'D', then expand 'C' into 'D'. Easy if the data on 'D' will fit into 'C'.

Or you can use a third party program like:
Free download Magic Partition Manager Software, partition magic alternative, free partition magic, partition magic Windows 7 and server partition software - Partition Wizard Online
You can use the free Home Edition, which will easily expand a partition to the left.

In either case it is always a good idea to back up the data to a separate disk anyway. Even the best programs have bad days.

A second vote for Magic Partition, so it must be good.

I don't really know the difference between 'extend' and 'merge' but I suspect that 'merge' is what I want.

However... in reading their help pages, it appears I would need to by the $40 Pro version. (And I'm not sure at this point if it's worth it for one use.)

I say that as it says under the Merge help (found here: How to Merge C Drive and D drive in Windows 7 without Data Loss? )

"... Comparing the 2 solutions above, we can find resorting to partition manager is the best way to merge partitions since users do not need to backup data in advance. Nevertheless, if users want to make partition merging realized, please download MiniTool Partition Wizard Professional Edition because home edition does not support merging partitions."

And under the Extend help (found here: How to extend partition on Windows in an easy and secure way? ):

"... In order to realize partition extension on Windows, users need to download professional partition magic and install it on computer."

Am I missing something?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Looks to me like the simplest thing to do is to move the stuff on D over to E, temporarily. It should fit easily if that pic is correct.

Then delete D. That will leave a bunch of "unallocated space".

Then extend K to the right to take up that unallocated space.

You should be able to extend K by right clicking it in Windows Disk Management and using menus.

I think you could futz around with Partition Magic and get it to extend without first moving stuff to E, but that would require you to ascend a learning curve and I doubt it would be quicker. Certainly not more intuitive.

If you have a bunch of installed programs on D, I assume you'd have to rename K to D when you finish in order for the programs to work.

 

[TVeblen]

You extend a partition into unallocated space.
You merge when you want to combine 2 existing partitions into one, including all the data on both.
Merging is a more complicated, riskier process, which is why you only get that option in the paid version.

You don't need to merge partitions. You have the free space to move data and delete a partition, creating unallocated space that you can extend into. Much safer. And if you can do it in Disk Management it is even easier.

The procedure outlined by ignatzasonic would be the simplest for you.

 

[Kaktussoft]

K is empty, so there's nothing to merge!

Just delete K and afterwards extend D to left side using Partition Wizard for example.

Or do I totally misunderstood the question(?)

 

[TVeblen]

Nope. Either way works. It just simpler for some to do it with Windows.

K is empty, but it's still a partition, so it still would need to be deleted in Partition Magic.

 

[Imrankhan]

GDay Mate.(whatever GDay means..) EaseUS Partition Master.
www . easeus . com / partition-manager /
I use this one. This could do what you want.

 

[TDKMate]

Sorry but I have been around for a couple of days... Thanks for the posts

 

[TDKMate]

Looks to me like the simplest thing to do is to move the stuff on D over to E, temporarily. It should fit easily if that pic is correct.

Then delete D. That will leave a bunch of "unallocated space".

Then extend K to the right to take up that unallocated space.

You should be able to extend K by right clicking it in Windows Disk Management and using menus.

I think you could futz around with Partition Magic and get it to extend without first moving stuff to E, but that would require you to ascend a learning curve and I doubt it would be quicker. Certainly not more intuitive.

If you have a bunch of installed programs on D, I assume you'd have to rename K to D when you finish in order for the programs to work.

I don't think it will all fit into 'E' as I add 'D' and 'E' up to be 1859.85 GB and 'E' is only about a 1.61 GB partition. I can save 'E' to an external drive, however.

Thanks for the reminder to rename 'K' to 'D'.

 

[TDKMate]

You extend a partition into unallocated space.
You merge when you want to combine 2 existing partitions into one, including all the data on both.
Merging is a more complicated, riskier process, which is why you only get that option in the paid version.

You don't need to merge partitions. You have the free space to move data and delete a partition, creating unallocated space that you can extend into. Much safer. And if you can do it in Disk Management it is even easier.

The procedure outlined by ignatzasonic would be the simplest for you.

Thanks for the clarification between 'extend' and 'merge.' Using Disk Management will be a lot cheaper, too.

 

[TDKMate]

K is empty, so there's nothing to merge!

Just delete K and afterwards extend D to left side using Partition Wizard for example.

Or do I totally misunderstood the question(?)

You understand correctly. But to my understanding, Partition Wizard Free won't do that, I'd need the $40 Pro version, which I'd like to avoid.

 

[TDKMate]

GDay Mate.(whatever GDay means..) EaseUS Partition Master.
www . easeus . com / partition-manager /
I use this one. This could do what you want.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

 

[TDKMate]

I'll try to get to this 'project' this weekend, hopefully. I haven't checked out the above link yet, but the Disk Management routine sure seems like a good way to do it.

Again, thanks for all the help! I'll keep you posted (no pun intended...).

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I don't think it will all fit into 'E' as I add 'D' and 'E' up to be 1859.85 GB and 'E' is only about a 1.61 GB partition.

??

D has 861 occupied.

E has 1158 free.

The occupied on D should fit in the free space on E.

 

[Kaktussoft]

K is empty, so there's nothing to merge!

Just delete K and afterwards extend D to left side using Partition Wizard for example.

Or do I totally misunderstood the question(?)

You understand correctly. But to my understanding, Partition Wizard Free won't do that, I'd need the $40 Pro version, which I'd like to avoid.

PW can do it!

 

[TVeblen]

Agreed^
The free version of Partition Wizard will extend a partition to the left.

 

[TDKMate]

I don't think it will all fit into 'E' as I add 'D' and 'E' up to be 1859.85 GB and 'E' is only about a 1.61 GB partition.

??

D has 861 occupied.

E has 1158 free.

The occupied on D should fit in the free space on E.

And that is exactly why I need all the help I can get! LOL