The Pianist

I am going to reinstall my OS in a few days (Vista Home Basic) and I want to
merge the two partitions I have now (C and D) together. They each have
approx. 38GB of space.

Is this possible? Isn't it when you install using Boot-from-CD and you just
select "remove" the D:\ partition and the remaining space gets transferred to
C:\? Or do you have to do something else?

FYI: I'm going to perform a clean install.

Hopefully I don't have to purchase a third-party solution, unless it is an
absolute must.