Delete Partiontion on HDD

  • Thread starter Thread starter Deon
  • Start date Start date
D

Deon

Hi there,

WIN XP Prof

I had a hardware failure on the HDD and had to have it replaced. The guy
and the compu shop created two partitions on the HDD. I don't like to
have my HDD partitioned into two drives.

The XP Prof CD with SP2 on it, does not have the option to boot from CD
for me to have access to the command prompt. Neither does it have fdisk
on it.

How do I delete this second partition? I want to do this before
re-installing all my software.

Regards,
Deon
 
Deon said:
Hi there,

WIN XP Prof

I had a hardware failure on the HDD and had to have it replaced. The guy
and the compu shop created two partitions on the HDD. I don't like to have
my HDD partitioned into two drives.

The XP Prof CD with SP2 on it, does not have the option to boot from CD
for me to have access to the command prompt. Neither does it have fdisk on
it.

How do I delete this second partition? I want to do this before
re-installing all my software.

Regards,
Deon
Click to expand...

You need a third party program such as Partition Magic or Bootit to
reorganise you HDD, there's nothing available in windows that can do
this.

rgds
Roberto
 
Deon,

Download the Windows XP Boot Disks from the XP Download Center. Create the
disks and boot from them. When asked in Text-mode Setup, delete all of the
partitions shown, and then create a new one.

Unless you have a really strange XP disk, you should be able to continue
installation with your CD. If it is really strange, go back to the computer
vendor, demand a proper disk, and tell him to ASK his clients how they want
the computer to be configured BEFORE he just decides on it himself (typical
Geek behavior). I always do, and explain the pros and cons to those who do
not understand.
 
Deon said:
Hi there,

WIN XP Prof

I had a hardware failure on the HDD and had to have it replaced. The
guy and the compu shop created two partitions on the HDD. I don't
like to have my HDD partitioned into two drives.
Click to expand...

Why ever not? It means that you can segregate your data from the OS and
applications - if you need to re-install Windows then the data stays
put.....
 
Deon said:
Hi there,

WIN XP Prof

I had a hardware failure on the HDD and had to have it replaced. The guy
and the compu shop created two partitions on the HDD. I don't like to
have my HDD partitioned into two drives.

The XP Prof CD with SP2 on it, does not have the option to boot from CD
for me to have access to the command prompt. Neither does it have fdisk
on it.

How do I delete this second partition? I want to do this before
re-installing all my software.

Regards,
Deon
Click to expand...

Not sure what you mean when you say the XP CD "does not have the option
to boot from CD for me..." All retail and generic OEM XP CDs allow you
to boot from the CD. From there you can repair XP, install it, or enter
the recovery console. Are you setting the computer's BIOS for the CD to
be the first boot device? From the recovery console you can run
diskpart from which you could delete the 2nd partition, however you
won't be able to combine it with the first partition to make a single
one. You can also delete the non system partition from within XP using
the Disk Management console. Neither way will allow you to non
destructively combine the two partitions into one, however. XP's tools
aren't capable of that.

One option is to reinstall windows and in so doing delete the two
current partitions, create one new partition encompassing the entire
drive and install to that one.

Another option is to use one of the 3rd party partitioning programs such
as Symantec's Partition Magic. That one is costly. There is also
BootIt Next Generation (BING) which offers a 30 day free, full featured
trial version that will repartition the drive non destructively.

It is not a bad idea to have two partitions, one for the OS and
programs, and a second for data. Keeping data separated on it's own
partition makes backup easier, and allows for a reinstall of the OS
without harming data.
 
Start ==> Run ==> diskmgmt.msc

This will start the disk management console. Right click the partition and
delete it. You will need a 3rd party tool if you want to extend your system
partition into the now unallocated space. You can't do it with the built in
tools in Windows.

A better solution would be to buy an external hard drive and a disk imaging
program. Image the system partition to the external drive. Boot from the
imaging program's boot CD, delete both partitions, and restore the image to
one large partition. This has the added bonus of creating a backup and also
a means of creating future backups.
 
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