[Ferrari]

Hello,

Well I have done some researching and googling, and I'm not sure if I can do this or not. This is my set up and how it appears in order in Disk Management...


D: Windows XP Pro
?: Unallocated, I got this space from shrinking Drive D(XP)
C: Windows 7
Was F: Unallocated now, but was named "All Storage" for my Pictures, Documents, Videos, and Music. Data was backed up of course, unallocated it on purpose.


I want to use the two unallocated partitions as a big Partition "Drive F: All Storage" for my pictures, documents, etc. How do I merge them or get them to be all ONE big drive? I got the two unallocated partitions when I shrunk Drive D: XP and then backed up my data and deleted Drive F: thinking I could just simply merge or extend them. Whoops... Anyways, I have downloaded Easeus Partition Program, but I'm scared to do anything with it, not sure if it can even do what I need to do. Did some googling for how and haven't been real lucky. Kinda scared...

Thanks,

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One thing you can do is create an extended partition on one of the drives, and create logical drive F:\ from it. Once you have done that, you can create an extended partition from the second drive and mount the logical drive as a folder on F:\. I believe this should work, but I'm not sure if that's what you wanted.

[mpascal]

One thing you can do is create an extended partition on one of the drives, and create logical drive F:\ from it. Once you have done that, you can create an extended partition from the second drive and mount the logical drive as a folder on F:\. I believe this should work, but I'm not sure if that's what you wanted.

[Ferrari]

Hi mpascal, thanks for the reply...

What you said is very hard to follow, could you put it in better words maybe? Use the names of the drives I gave? Also, I forgot to mention, the whole reason for the "All Storage" drive is to beable to access my pictures and documents whether I boot into XP or 7, also, so I only have to copy and paste them from my SD card, or Flash Drive only once! lol Anyways, will that still work?

This is what I'm hoping for...

C: Windows 7
D: Windows XP
F: All Storage (and beable to access this from XP or 7, also create my shortcuts(which I already know how to do) to this drives folders which are "all music", "all pictures", "all video", etc.


Thanks,

Edited by Ferrari, 17 July 2009 - 09:24 PM.

[Broni]

One thing unclear here.
In first post:
C: Win 7
D: XP

In last post...
C: XP
D: Win 7

In any case, you should be able to use Win 7 Disk Management to achieve what you want:
http://www.winvistaclub.com/t11.html

[Ferrari]

One thing unclear here.
In first post:
C: Win 7
D: XP

In last post...
C: XP
D: Win 7

Fixed, I actually noticed that about the same time you did I think, sorry about that.

As quoted from that link you gave me...

You can not merge partitions in Vista with this Utility. If your 2nd partition is empty, you can delete the 2nd partition and then extend the 1st partition, to use the freed up space. Also note that you can extend only to the right; if you are desirous of extending the partition to the left, you may have to use a 3rd party utility, like Acronis.
Sometimes one or more options may be grayed out and thus unavailable. It could be that such a step may be physically not possible.

This is my exact problem and why I posted here. Also why I downloaded the Easeus Partition Manager, however it seems to be Disk Management, no special options except the "move" option. I think what I may have to do is Move my 7 partition(Drive C) so it looks like this...

D
C
unallocated
unallocated
(I don't know why C is not first, that's just how it is)

Then format the first unallocated partition and then extend it. However, I have the strong suspicion it will still not let me Extend one to the other.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Edited by Ferrari, 17 July 2009 - 09:50 PM.

[Broni]

I don't understand.
Why don't you delete 2nd unallocated partition, and extend 1st one to the right?

[Ferrari]

Deleted is the same as unallocated, I can't delete unallocated. This is how I got here, I thought when I resized XP and got the unallocated space, I would just delete my Drive F so that the 2 spaces would automatically become one, however they did not. They stayed seperate.

[Broni]

You have to format 1st unallocated partition first, in order to extend it.

[Ferrari]

I think you are right, but you can only extend to the right...

Also note that you can extend only to the right; if you are desirous of extending the partition to the left, you may have to use a 3rd party utility, like Acronis.

So what I did was use Easeus Partition Manager to move my C Drive to the left of the first unallocated partition. By doing this, it put the first two unallocated partitions next to one another. When I went into Disk Management after this, it now showed those 2 groups as ONE WHOLE SPACE AUTOMATICALLY. So I just formatted it and Voila! Drive F! I should have taken screen shots, probably would of been easier for you to see what I mean Broni. Darn it!

As far as I know, all of this can't be done with Disk Management because it does not allow you to move a partition, I think... lol Anyway, I think I got it now, and I appreciate your time.

Thanks!

Also note, when the computer restarted after using Easeus to move Drive C, it did the moving and all(took forever) and then it said there was a problem and to insert my disc and do a repair. I read that this might happen, and that a repair usually will solve the problem, however, the Windows 7 CD I made from downloading it, doesn't have a repair option. I rebooted again and the error message wasn't there. I rebooted again to make sure, and the error message did not appear. So I must be in the clear.

[Broni]

Nice job then

[Ferrari]

See above, I'm double posting.

You have to format 1st unallocated partition first, in order to extend it.

I actually tried that right after I shrunk my XP partition when my Drive F(All Storage) was still there and formatted, but when I tried to do that, the option to extend was not there. So I tried to just make a "simple new volume" and make the size bigger than what it started with(like 100GB) but as soon as I did that the option to click the "NEXT" button would go away. Simply, it would not let me make it bigger than the beginning unallocated space(100GB) when I in fact had another 250GB of unallocated space on that drive. I think it all has to do with the "You can only extend to the right" rule because Drive C was in the middle of these two unallocated spaces. Anyways, Thanks again...