hard drive partitions

leron8

New Member
i got a used computer with three partitions....

one has xp and the other ubuntu... and the other is just unallocated....

i would like to know if i can join the unallocated partition with the xp to have more storage using qtparted....

thanks in advanced...
 
The problem there is that the root and possibly swap partition for ubuntu are sitting inbetween where those would have to be moved to the rear of the drive first. That is time conuming.

Once moved the unallocated drive space not actually any partition is easy to fill by simply resizing the XP primary with the option seen with GParted. That only takes about a minute or so in comparison.

A second and third set of alternatives if you have no plans at running ubuntu or any other Linux distro would be deleting any for ubuntu and simply expanding the XP primary to fill in the drive as a large single primary or grow the XP primary to a certain point and see a second storage partition created for storing and backing things up.

At present you can simply grow the XP primary somewhat by moving the Linux partition(s) and creating a new one for storage to still retain a working dual boot. These are the options available unless planning a clean install of Windows for your own use there.
 
ohhh ok thanks so i would have to delete the partitions in order to join them right???

because there is no problem with me installing the os's again...
 
With plenty of unallocated space following both OSs the option for expanding one or both into the free space or creating a brand new storage partition is available. You simply have to decide on how you want the free space used.

It's a little time consuming but you can use GParted to move the one or two Linux partitions to the rear of the drive to leave ubuntu intact or see that removed to see even more drive available for XP there. You could then easily increase the size of the XP primary and see a second storage partition created along with that or simply expand the single primary into the free space.

If you want a fresh copy of Windows with your own original user account then seen you have the option for that without doing more then reformatting the existing primary for a fresh start with a new copy of Windows going on as long as you have a full install disk to work with. First you have to plan out the way you want the partitioning scheme to be and then proceed to make the changes needed.
 
ohhh ok yeah i was trying to expand a partition but the following partition had xp...
so i couldn't do that but now what i will do is delete all the partitions and then resize everything...

so thanks your your help...
i really like this forum!!!
 
On a single drive system you also have the option to see a second storage partition while one large single primary is the fast and easy method. Once you delete all partitoins you will have to create a new primary for XP to go on however.

When going to do that simply select NTFS from the list of types on the menu. GParted is a great tool to work with as long as you have one of the platform independent releases with the 0.3.3.0 or older 0.3.2.0 number seen on the download page. The rest are strictly for non MS OSs.
 
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