Help merging partitions

[Flavcool]

Hi,

I'd like to merge my 2 partitions on this harddrive with Partition Magic 8.0. C is 40gb with 10gb free and D is 53GB with 25GB free. Will it work? (My concern is that I understood the way it works is by copying D onto C, deleting D, and resizing C, but since my D has more stuff than free space on C, would it still work?)

And how safe is this? I googled "partition magic merge" and found a bunch of people freaking out b/c of problems. I'm really scared.

Thanks,

Flaviu

 

[furballi]

I would avoid merging a primary active partition with an extended logical partition. It should work, but you should image both partitions on another HDD before the merge, just to be safe. Resizing the partition is safer and should be done if you're running out of room in one of the partition.

 

[Flavcool]

I don't have space to back them up, but I have saved my crucial information from D.

 

[furballi]

Burn the important stuffs on DVD to be safe.

 

[Flavcool]

Well well well. I merged the partitions. Completed the "shifting data" stage (or at least last time I saw it was 96%) but ended w/ error 1520 header mismatch. I boot up, and drive D is now gone, and the folder it created on C says empty. Partition C is still 40GB and I basically just lost 54GB. If I open partition magic, it shows the old D drive as "unallocated"

Same problem here: http://help.lockergnome.com/lofivers...hp/t27022.html

and here

http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?p=375549

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPP

I backed up important stuff but this is just pissing me OFF MAJORLY. How can they release such bad software?

Upon starting partition magic it gives me some geometry warning:

http://i1.tinypic.com/wtaxbr.jpg

Partition TRAGIC now:

http://i3.tinypic.com/wtaao1.jpg

I can use TestDisk (http://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/TestDisk_Download) to change geometry and many other things but I have no idea how.

 

[Mday]

sorry for your loss of data. you were warned.

=(

 

[Bozo Galora]

hmmm.....

getdataback can prob get your stuff

 

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, Partition Magic will do it for you. Use the MERGE function and it will make the second partition a Folder (Directory) in the First Partition or however you want to do it. Then go back to Windoze and move all the contents of the new partition into C: where you want it and delete the new partition or just use it the way it is. Have done this many times with no problems. Carefull! Good Luck, Jim


EDIT: As stated above I have done this many many times. It does work. Check the old drive for a new FOLDER. It may have done the job and the results would be as you now describe them. Good Luck, Jim

 

[powerMarkymark]

I avoid Partition Magic as it seems to create more problems than it solves.

I use only Acronis software for perfect results everytime.

M@rc

 

[Fullmetal Chocobo]

diskpart.exe. Wonderful little program, already in windows. Great for upgrading drives on RAID arrays, and then running it to claim the extra space.

 

[furballi]

There's no excuse for being lazy. You were smart enough to ask the right question. Live and learn.

At least you have backed-up important data.

BootitNG is a neat little program with drive imaging, drive partitioning, and boot loader in one affordable package. 30 day free trial!

 

[Flavcool]

I'm gonna try and recover data and burn (just lost some movies and games)

Couldn't you guys have told me to use other programs before

After that, what do you suggest I do? Should I image my now screwed up C, reformat evertyhing into one big partition, and burn back the image? Or just use the resize function in, I hate to say it, partition magic.

Originally posted by: JimPhelpsMI
Hi, Partition Magic will do it for you. Use the MERGE function and it will make the second partition a Folder (Directory) in the First Partition or however you want to do it. Then go back to Windoze and move all the contents of the new partition into C: where you want it and delete the new partition or just use it the way it is. Have done this many times with no problems. Carefull! Good Luck, Jim

You don't like to read do you?

Originally posted by: Fullmetal Chocobo
diskpart.exe. Wonderful little program, already in windows. Great for upgrading drives on RAID arrays, and then running it to claim the extra space.

And how exactly would it work in my case?

Originally posted by: powerMarkymark
I avoid Partition Magic as it seems to create more problems than it solves.

I use only Acronis software for perfect results everytime.

M@rc

So for next time I'll use this. It has merge right?

 

[furballi]

The best strategy is to keep only the OS in the C primary active partition. This is the partition that is often damaged. 5GB size should do it.

Put all other stuffs in another extended logical partition. I keep all the programs in one logical partition, and games and other large files in another partition. Finally, I have one more large extended logical partition to house the image files of the other partitions. You can also use another HDD to keep the backup image file.

That's the quickest way to backup and restore data. The average speed for drive imaging is around 1GB/min. Image restoration is a little faster at 1.4 to 1.5GB/min. Course this depends on the speed of your CPU. A slow 600MHz PIII may deliver 160MB/min.