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Thread ID: 37722 2003-09-16 05:27:00 HDD Partitions bk T (215) Press F1
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175709 2003-09-16 05:27:00 I've got an existing HDD with the following partitions:

C: 10 GB D: 5 GB and E: 5 GB

Now, I want to install Window XP on this machine and have deleted partitions C and D; retaining partition E where some important data are stored. I would like to make full use of the unpartition space, i.e. 15 GB to host my WinXP but the XP setup won't allow me to do so. The two deleted partitions (10 & 5 GB each) still showed as separated unpartitioned space.

How do I combine the 2 deleted unpartitions into one partition so that I can install Win XP into this combined space of 15 GB?

This machine was previously running W2K.

Cheers
bk T (215)
175710 2003-09-16 05:51:00 That's because you're installing to a partition in the Extended partition area.

You'll need to install WinXP and use Partition Magic to do that :-)

Cheers


Chill.
Chilling_Silently (228)
175711 2003-09-16 06:08:00 At a guess the original setup used an extended partition to contain D and E.

ie:

P1) 10GB
P2) a) 5gb
P2) b) 5gb.

Which is now:

P1) empty
P2) a) empty
P2) b) 5gb allocated.

You can check this by running FDISK from a dos prompt and choosing display partiton table.

Short of buying partition magic, I can't think of an easy way to fix it using the standard tools available.

You could do a 10/10 split by recreating the 10 gb partition (P1), copying the files over to it. Then delete both 5gb subpartitions and the extended partition (P2). And finally create a 10gb partition in the unallocated space and copy the files back.
bmason (508)
175712 2003-09-16 06:45:00 Another solution Ive used before:
Ghost!

You can install the OS onto the 3rd partition, install Ghost, modify the boot.ini to point to the 1st partition, then Ghost the image!

You can then remove the 2nd and 3rd partitions and make them into a single 10gb!

That's just if you have Ghost though ;-)
Chilling_Silently (228)
175713 2003-09-16 08:57:00 Careful! You must have WindowsXP on the first partition of a hard drive, otherwise it won't boot. You want XP on the first part of the drive anyway, because its the fastest.

I found out the hard way last night when trying to put a partition at the front of the drive for a speedy swap file. Had to use DriveImage to recover it all, and have only just now got everything going again.
kiki (762)
175714 2003-09-16 09:37:00 Ive installed to secondary partitions on master HDD's, secondary partitions on slave HDD's... Could it be that I use a seperate boot loader?

XOSL should do the same as GRUB, right (I use GRUB ;-))
Chilling_Silently (228)
175715 2003-09-16 09:39:00 easiest way is with partition magic 8 if you dont want to lose any data have it on my hdd kiwibeat (304)
175716 2003-09-16 10:37:00 Ahh it might be ok if you install it onto the second partition, but it isn't good if you use Partition Magic to relocate the current XP partition further down the disk ;) kiki (762)
175717 2003-09-16 10:58:00 Not if you modify the boot.ini file.. you can always run a repair to fix it! Chilling_Silently (228)
175718 2003-09-16 11:59:00 Thanks, folks for all the suggestions.


Cheers
bk T (215)
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