D partition empty...want to add to C partition

[Bogey Man]

I am using Window 7 and have a 750 GB HD with C and D partitions of approx
345 GB. The D partition is empty and I would like to add this space to the C
partition and not have a D partition at all.

If I use disk management and reduce the D partition to 0 bytes, and add this
to the C partition will the D partition disappear or will I have to delete
it? I see "Shrink volume" and "Delete volume" when I right click the D
partition. Is the correct procedure to shrink the D partition to 0 add the
space to C and then delete the D volume or could I simply delete the D
volume and then extend the C volume to take up the space that was occupied
by the D partition?

Thank you.

 

[Bogey Man]

Oops, forgot!! Operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium X64.

 

[Seth]

I am using Window 7 and have a 750 GB HD with C and D partitions of approx
345 GB. The D partition is empty and I would like to add this space to the
C partition and not have a D partition at all.

If I use disk management and reduce the D partition to 0 bytes, and add
this to the C partition will the D partition disappear or will I have to
delete it? I see "Shrink volume" and "Delete volume" when I right click
the D partition. Is the correct procedure to shrink the D partition to 0
add the space to C and then delete the D volume or could I simply delete
the D volume and then extend the C volume to take up the space that was
occupied by the D partition?

If D: is empty, just delete it. You would only use shrink if it had data
that you needed to maintain but wanted to reduce it's size.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

I am using Window 7 and have a 750 GB HD with C and D partitions of
approx 345 GB. The D partition is empty and I would like to add this
space to the C partition and not have a D partition at all.

If I use disk management and reduce the D partition to 0 bytes, and add
this to the C partition will the D partition disappear or will I have to
delete it? I see "Shrink volume" and "Delete volume" when I right click
the D partition. Is the correct procedure to shrink the D partition to 0
add the space to C and then delete the D volume or could I simply delete
the D volume and then extend the C volume to take up the space that was
occupied by the D partition?

Thank you.

You're talking about a procedure called concatenation, and it's done
through Windows' Disk Management interface. It's highly not recommended
to do this on your boot drive, unless you also mirror it. The reason is
that if either drive fails, then neither drive will be accessible. Now
if you had a third drive, and you decided to concat the second and third
drives together, the same caveat applies, but at least you won't have
screwed your boot drive, so it's much more okay to do that.

If you still want to try it, then here's some info:

Create a spanned volume: Storage Services; Local File Systems; File and
Storage Services
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784653(WS.10).aspx

Yousuf Khan

 

[Char Jackson]

You're talking about a procedure called concatenation, and it's done
through Windows' Disk Management interface. It's highly not recommended
to do this on your boot drive, unless you also mirror it. The reason is
that if either drive fails, then neither drive will be accessible. Now
if you had a third drive, and you decided to concat the second and third
drives together, the same caveat applies, but at least you won't have
screwed your boot drive, so it's much more okay to do that.

If you still want to try it, then here's some info:

Create a spanned volume: Storage Services; Local File Systems; File and
Storage Services
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc784653(WS.10).aspx

Yousuf Khan

The way I read it, he has a single 750 GB drive that currently
contains two partitions. He wants to eliminate the second partition
and expand the remaining partition to use the entire disk space.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

I am using Window 7 and have a 750 GB HD with C and D partitions of approx
345 GB. The D partition is empty and I would like to add this space to the C
partition and not have a D partition at all.

If I use disk management and reduce the D partition to 0 bytes, and add this
to the C partition will the D partition disappear or will I have to delete
it? I see "Shrink volume" and "Delete volume" when I right click the D
partition. Is the correct procedure to shrink the D partition to 0 add the
space to C and then delete the D volume or could I simply delete the D volume
and then extend the C volume to take up the space that was occupied by the D
partition?

Thank you.

It's easy with third party software, such as GParted, the Gnome
Partition Editor, http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php

For Windows, I'm pretty sure you'd have to burn the ISO file to a hard
disk and boot from that.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

The way I read it, he has a single 750 GB drive that currently
contains two partitions. He wants to eliminate the second partition
and expand the remaining partition to use the entire disk space.

Yes, looks like you may be right, I misunderstood his original message.

Then he needs a partition resizer utility. A good one would be BootItNG.
It's shareware, but it is not disabled in any way if you don't pay for it.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Seth]

Yes, looks like you may be right, I misunderstood his original message.

Then he needs a partition resizer utility. A good one would be BootItNG.
It's shareware, but it is not disabled in any way if you don't pay for it.

He can just use the built in tools. Delete D: cause it's empty and then
just extend C: into the unused space. All within Disk Management.

 

[Yousuf Khan]

He can just use the built in tools. Delete D: cause it's empty and then
just extend C: into the unused space. All within Disk Management.

Is that available now with Windows 7? Windows XP's Disk Management
couldn't do that.

Yousuf Khan

 

[Roy Smith]

Is that available now with Windows 7? Windows XP's Disk Management
couldn't do that.

Yes it's available in Windows 7. Starting with Vista the disk
management snap-in has had the ability to resize partitions.

--

Roy Smith
Windows 7 Home Premium

Timestamp: Wednesday, February 17, 2010 5:59:51 AM

 

[Seth]

Is that available now with Windows 7? Windows XP's Disk Management
couldn't do that.

Since Vista.

 

[Bogey Man]

Thanks you all for the advice. I deleted my empty D partition and then
Extended the C partition and it all took less than 30 seconds.

Everything is working well.

Thanks again.

Ron P

Oops, forgot!! Operating system is Windows 7 Home Premium X64.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

It's easy with third party software, such as GParted, the Gnome Partition
Editor, http://gparted.sourceforge.net/index.php

For Windows, I'm pretty sure you'd have to burn the ISO file to a hard disk
and boot from that.

And I now see in others' replies in this thread that you have learned
that Win 7 disk management can do it. That's also useful for me to know

 

[Bogey Man]

And I now see in others' replies in this thread that you have learned that
Win 7 disk management can do it. That's also useful for me to know

The deleting of the D partition and adding the space to the C partition
turned out to be one of the easiest things that I have ever done. I should
have done it months ago.

Ron P

 

[Char Jackson]

The deleting of the D partition and adding the space to the C partition
turned out to be one of the easiest things that I have ever done. I should
have done it months ago.

You didn't see any advantages in keeping two (or more) partitions? I
always cringe a little when a system comes into the shop and I see
that it's running everything from a single partition. IMHO, two hard
drives are better than one, but if that's not possible I always
encourage the creation and use of at least a second partition.

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

You didn't see any advantages in keeping two (or more) partitions? I
always cringe a little when a system comes into the shop and I see
that it's running everything from a single partition. IMHO, two hard
drives are better than one, but if that's not possible I always
encourage the creation and use of at least a second partition.

It's an excellent idea.

I don't do it...

I do back my system up almost every year

 

[Char Jackson]

It's an excellent idea.

I don't do it...

I do back my system up almost every year

There are multiple winning strategies.

 

[Bogey Man]

You didn't see any advantages in keeping two (or more) partitions? I
always cringe a little when a system comes into the shop and I see
that it's running everything from a single partition. IMHO, two hard
drives are better than one, but if that's not possible I always
encourage the creation and use of at least a second partition.

There is no real advantage to have two or more partitions in my opinion. If
the hard drive crashes, all the data on other partitions is probably gone
too. Two hard drives are better than one but a partition is NOT another
physical drive. A partition on a hard drive is like having a room in a
house. If the house burns down that room is gone too.

Each to their own but if I want a D "drive" it will be a separate physical
drive.

Ron

 

[Char Jackson]

There is no real advantage to have two or more partitions in my opinion. If
the hard drive crashes, all the data on other partitions is probably gone
too. Two hard drives are better than one but a partition is NOT another
physical drive. A partition on a hard drive is like having a room in a
house. If the house burns down that room is gone too.

The advantage is that you have a place to store downloaded apps,
videos, digital music and photos, documents, etc., where they won't be
lost if you find that you need to reinstall Windows.

Obviously, losing the entire drive means losing all of its partitions,
but many times a system crash can be rebuilt without touching any
other partitions, so it's a measure of safety.

Ramping up the safety even more could involve adding a second internal
drive, a second external drive, or off-site (or even online) storage,
but there's no denying that a second partition is safer than a single
partition.

Each to their own but if I want a D "drive" it will be a separate physical
drive.

For my own systems, I agree with you. That's why I have 6 internal
drives and sometimes 2 external drives. I'm not a fan of external
drives, but sometimes they make it easier to move large amounts of
data between systems, especially when it's not practical to move it
over the network.

 

[Seth]

The advantage is that you have a place to store downloaded apps,
videos, digital music and photos, documents, etc., where they won't be
lost if you find that you need to reinstall Windows.

I do that all under the default profile folders. Heck, they're already
named just like you describe above.

Obviously, losing the entire drive means losing all of its partitions,
but many times a system crash can be rebuilt without touching any
other partitions, so it's a measure of safety.

I can still access the data on a no longer bootable partition using PE or
putting the drive into a dock if need be.

Ramping up the safety even more could involve adding a second internal
drive, a second external drive, or off-site (or even online) storage,
but there's no denying that a second partition is safer than a single
partition.

All my data is backed up to the RAID servers in the basement. My important
data is replicated off-site (my "lab" consists of my house and a few others
connected sit-2-site VPN with servers in each location. My deal with those
people... I manage their stuff in exchange for them being my guinea pigs).