Vista - merging partitions

I created a second partition D: on which I installed Vista, XP being
installed on C: .
Vista works well, allbeit slow, and I thus deleted XP from C.
Now I would like to merge D: and C: I deleted C, thinking I could expand D:
and then rename it, but that seems impossible to do with the disk manager of
Vista.

Has anyone a solution ?

Thanks in advance.

Most people would agree renaming your system/OS drive is a bad idea. I've seen articles on how to do it, but i've never done it myself. I would advise you reinstall now before you get your Vista to established. That or leave it as D drive.

"Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote

> I created a second partition D: on which I installed Vista, XP being
> installed on C: .
> Vista works well, allbeit slow, and I thus deleted XP from C.
> Now I would like to merge D: and C: I deleted C, thinking I could expand
> D: and then rename it, but that seems impossible to do with the disk
> manager of Vista.

The files to boot the system are on C. If you delete that partition Vista
won't boot. Did you actually delete the C partition? Does vista boot?

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

"Rock" <Rock@nospam.net> a écrit dans le message de
news:uME$oD0UHHA.204@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
> "Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote
>
>> I created a second partition D: on which I installed Vista, XP being
>> installed on C: .
>> Vista works well, allbeit slow, and I thus deleted XP from C.
>> Now I would like to merge D: and C: I deleted C, thinking I could expand
>> D: and then rename it, but that seems impossible to do with the disk
>> manager of Vista.
>
> The files to boot the system are on C. If you delete that partition
> Vista won't boot. Did you actually delete the C partition? Does vista
> boot?
>
> --
> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
Yes, I deleted the partition and the system boots perfectly well. This is
not my question. My question is how to expand/extend the D partition to the
(deleted )C partition.

"Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote

> "Rock" <Rock@nospam.net> a écrit

>> "Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote
>>
>>> I created a second partition D: on which I installed Vista, XP being
>>> installed on C: .
>>> Vista works well, allbeit slow, and I thus deleted XP from C.
>>> Now I would like to merge D: and C: I deleted C, thinking I could expand
>>> D: and then rename it, but that seems impossible to do with the disk
>>> manager of Vista.
>>
>> The files to boot the system are on C. If you delete that partition
>> Vista won't boot. Did you actually delete the C partition? Does vista
>> boot?

> Yes, I deleted the partition and the system boots perfectly well. This is
> not my question. My question is how to expand/extend the D partition to
> the (deleted )C partition.


In Disk Management if the unallocated space is located to the left of the D:
volume then you'll need 3rd party software. I haven't worked with any in
Vista so I don't know which ones to recommend.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

I did the same thing. I ended up purchasing a program called Acronis Disk
manager. With a program like this you can delete, create, move and resize
partitions. I was able to fully recover all the disk space into one
partition by doing this.

"Rock" wrote:

> "Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote
>
> > "Rock" <Rock@nospam.net> a écrit
>
> >> "Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote
> >>
> >>> I created a second partition D: on which I installed Vista, XP being
> >>> installed on C: .
> >>> Vista works well, allbeit slow, and I thus deleted XP from C.
> >>> Now I would like to merge D: and C: I deleted C, thinking I could expand
> >>> D: and then rename it, but that seems impossible to do with the disk
> >>> manager of Vista.
> >>
> >> The files to boot the system are on C. If you delete that partition
> >> Vista won't boot. Did you actually delete the C partition? Does vista
> >> boot?
>
> > Yes, I deleted the partition and the system boots perfectly well. This is
> > not my question. My question is how to expand/extend the D partition to
> > the (deleted )C partition.
>
>
> In Disk Management if the unallocated space is located to the left of the D:
> volume then you'll need 3rd party software. I haven't worked with any in
> Vista so I don't know which ones to recommend.
>
> --
> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
>
>

"Jim Heily" <JimHeily@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote

>I did the same thing. I ended up purchasing a program called Acronis Disk
> manager. With a program like this you can delete, create, move and resize
> partitions. I was able to fully recover all the disk space into one
> partition by doing this.
>
> "Rock" wrote:
>
>> "Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote
>>
>> > "Rock" <Rock@nospam.net> a écrit
>>
>> >> "Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote
>> >>
>> >>> I created a second partition D: on which I installed Vista, XP being
>> >>> installed on C: .
>> >>> Vista works well, allbeit slow, and I thus deleted XP from C.
>> >>> Now I would like to merge D: and C: I deleted C, thinking I could
>> >>> expand
>> >>> D: and then rename it, but that seems impossible to do with the disk
>> >>> manager of Vista.
>> >>
>> >> The files to boot the system are on C. If you delete that partition
>> >> Vista won't boot. Did you actually delete the C partition? Does
>> >> vista
>> >> boot?
>>
>> > Yes, I deleted the partition and the system boots perfectly well. This
>> > is
>> > not my question. My question is how to expand/extend the D partition to
>> > the (deleted )C partition.
>>
>>
>> In Disk Management if the unallocated space is located to the left of the
>> D:
>> volume then you'll need 3rd party software. I haven't worked with any in
>> Vista so I don't know which ones to recommend.

Isn't it Acronis Disk Director? Also I thought they didn't have a Vista
compatible version yet.

--
Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]

"Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote in message
news:8A123A3D-D680-4629-B038-0023C4056BEA@microsoft.com...
> "Rock" <Rock@nospam.net> a écrit dans le message de
> news:uME$oD0UHHA.204@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>> "Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote
>>
>>> I created a second partition D: on which I installed Vista, XP being
>>> installed on C: .
>>> Vista works well, allbeit slow, and I thus deleted XP from C.
>>> Now I would like to merge D: and C: I deleted C, thinking I could
>>> expand D: and then rename it, but that seems impossible to do with
>>> the disk manager of Vista.
>>
>> The files to boot the system are on C. If you delete that partition
>> Vista won't boot. Did you actually delete the C partition? Does
>> vista boot?
>
> Yes, I deleted the partition and the system boots perfectly well. This
> is not my question. My question is how to expand/extend the D
> partition to the (deleted )C partition.

You must move that partition to beginning of the disk and then you can
extend it with any program, even with system utility diskpart.exe. I can
recommend BootIt Next Generation http://www.terabyteunlimited.com for
this, it's 30-days trial is fully functional.

But, you will have probably more serious problem in the future. If you
clear nt-signature from this disk - even unintentionallly - then your
partition letter will be C, not D, and you will have lost access to your
system. In this case you must change back that signature to original (if
it will do). It can be done with many utilities, for ex. with freeware
application MBRTool. Or, you can simply recover your MBR sector from
backup - if you have one, of course.
--
Michal Kawecki [Windows - Shell/User MVP]
Warsaw, PL

"Rock" wrote:

> "Jim Heily" <JimHeily@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote
>
> >I did the same thing. I ended up purchasing a program called Acronis Disk
> > manager. With a program like this you can delete, create, move and resize
> > partitions. I was able to fully recover all the disk space into one
> > partition by doing this.
> >
> > "Rock" wrote:
> >
> >> "Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote
> >>
> >> > "Rock" <Rock@nospam.net> a écrit
> >>
> >> >> "Olivier Marquet" <olivier.marquet@skynet.be> wrote
> >> >>
> >> >>> I created a second partition D: on which I installed Vista, XP being
> >> >>> installed on C: .
> >> >>> Vista works well, allbeit slow, and I thus deleted XP from C.
> >> >>> Now I would like to merge D: and C: I deleted C, thinking I could
> >> >>> expand
> >> >>> D: and then rename it, but that seems impossible to do with the disk
> >> >>> manager of Vista.
> >> >>
> >> >> The files to boot the system are on C. If you delete that partition
> >> >> Vista won't boot. Did you actually delete the C partition? Does
> >> >> vista
> >> >> boot?
> >>
> >> > Yes, I deleted the partition and the system boots perfectly well. This
> >> > is
> >> > not my question. My question is how to expand/extend the D partition to
> >> > the (deleted )C partition.
> >>
> >>
> >> In Disk Management if the unallocated space is located to the left of the
> >> D:
> >> volume then you'll need 3rd party software. I haven't worked with any in
> >> Vista so I don't know which ones to recommend.
>
> Isn't it Acronis Disk Director? Also I thought they didn't have a Vista
> compatible version yet.
>
> --
> Rock [MS-MVP User/Shell]
>
> It's not listed as compatible but it worked well. I deleted partition D: which listed it as unallocated space and the expanded Drive C: on my system to acquire the unallocated space and when I rebooted, Vista accepted the changes and I had a Drive C: that utilized the entire hard drive with no errors. The product I used was Acronis Disk Director Suite 10. I had used it before with XP Pro for partitioning.

acronis' partitioning software would not work for me. whenever i tried to merge a partition, and it'd do its reboot, it'd get stuck and freeze writing to the first sector, allowing me (if it wasn't frozen of course) to choose retry, ignore, or ignore all.