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Glen Miyashiro
October 11th, 2005, 12:31 AM
The 40GB hard drive on my friend's WinXP notebook PC, for reasons unknown, was partitioned into a C: drive and a D: drive of roughly equal sizes. I'd like to merge the existing C: and D: into a single C:. All the PC's data is on C: and there is no data on D:. If it's safe enough, I'd like to avoid having to do a backup. Do I need to use a 3rd party program like PartitionMagic, or are there built-in XP tools that will do the job?
adrian
October 11th, 2005, 09:40 AM
Since I already have PartitionMagic, I just use that myself.
Glen Miyashiro
October 11th, 2005, 12:37 PM
I have an old version of PartitionMagic, probably from Windows 98 days. Would it still work on an XP system? I'm hesitant to try it.
adrian
October 11th, 2005, 04:05 PM
I have an old version of PartitionMagic, probably from Windows 98 days. Would it still work on an XP system? I'm hesitant to try it.
You can try to run it with program compatibility (right click on the installer or program, then go to the compatibility tab). I don't know if it'll work, but if you want, then I can lend you my copy.
1stwahine
October 11th, 2005, 04:20 PM
Way to Go, Adrian!!!!!! :D
Glen Miyashiro
October 11th, 2005, 04:27 PM
You can try to run it with program compatibility (right click on the installer or program, then go to the compatibility tab). I don't know if it'll work, but if you want, then I can lend you my copy.I'll try that. Thanks for the offer but I can probably handle this myself.
helen
October 11th, 2005, 04:35 PM
I don't know much of PartitionMagic but Windows 98 only dealt with the FAT32 file system while Windows 2000 and Windows XP dealt with NFTS file system as well FAT32.

I know you want to save time and money by not buying a new version of the software and not backing up the data before you attempt the repartition but I would suggest at least backing up the files in the My Documents folder (and maybe files that are located on the desktop), if the system in question has a CD burner. Just in case.
Glen Miyashiro
October 11th, 2005, 04:42 PM
Good point about FAT32 versus NTFS. I'll double check that. Thanks.
tvhawaii
October 11th, 2005, 06:10 PM
Fwiw, I had problems with Partition Magic on XP, so I went to BootIT Next Generation:

http://www.bootitng.com/

Which has proven to be excellent with great support.

Look on google for "partition magic problem"...They don't call it Partition Tragic for nothing...<g>

--Michael