I have 2 seperate partitions, want to combine

[memory]

On my hard drive that has Windows 7 installed has 2 partitions. This was my mistake, messed up using gparted. The main partition is 465gb's and the second partition is 1.96gb's which is unallocated. How would I combine these two partitions into 1? Would I need to reinstall Windows?

Under disk management, if I right click on the small partition, the only option I have is new simple volume.

 

[Cromewell]

If you don't mind the slight risk of needing to reinstall windows gparted can extend your main partition to use that unpartitioned space. It usually works without losing your data but in rare cases it can happen.

 

[memory]

Thanks Chromewell. Can this be done inside Windows using disk management?

 

[tremmor]

thats a good question for windows 7. the only way i did it was create a boot disk in the past and made sure fdisk was on it. run fdisk then remove the extended partition.

i would think with windows 7 you would be able to at least remove logical drives and extended partition.

 

[Sam_VDC]

Just leave it alone......why bother the risk to reclaim 1.96GB?.....unless you wanted to redo it again

 

[Jon Boy]

Acronis Disc Director ... This will merge the two partitions and not corrupt any information and wont require windows 7 to be reinstalled.

 

[Cromewell]

Thanks Chromewell. Can this be done inside Windows using disk management?

Windows can only do it if you have set up the partitions as dynamic. Most people have their partitions as basic so they can only be resized by 3rd party tools.

 

[tremmor]

Windows can only do it if you have set up the partitions as dynamic. Most people have their partitions as basic so they can only be resized by 3rd party tools.

Ok, im listening, what is the difference between dynamic and basic.
I have two seperate hd's with 500 gig barracudas. If i was interested in a partition should i be doing the partition with windows 7 pro (64 bit). i do not have any right now. maybe i will want one later.
thanks
then again if i did add i might want to remove it later.

 

[Cromewell]

You can read about the differences on MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa363785(VS.85).aspx

Keep in mind certain versions of Windows cannot read dynamic disks.

 

[tyttebøvs]

If the free space is next to (right side) the partition then Win7's disk management will happely extend it.

 

[tremmor]

whats that mean. with a clean install and wipe install the operating system then add the partition? or partition 1st then add the operating system to the primary partition.

 

[Cromewell]

If the free space is next to (right side) the partition then Win7's disk management will happely extend it.

Really? I did not know that.

whats that mean.

Say you had a disk with 2 partitions and you deleted one for some reason. You could then extend the remaining partition into that space.

Basically, if you had a bunch of partitions and either deleted one or left some unpartitioned space on the drive you could extend an adjactent partition into the free space.

 

[tyttebøvs]

Even before Vista you could do it, but only for non-system partitions using diskpart.