Is there any free way to combine two partitions that have data on them?

[Nocturnal]

Basically I have this laptop here that has two small partitions. The main partition is almost out of space and I can't do all the Window's updates. I want to combine the two partitions if it's at all possible. Right now the cd-rom drive is broken so I can't reinstall Windows at this time.

 

[Navid]

I have no experience with this. But, I have heard about it.
http://www.ranish.com/part/

Don't just merge partition and expect everything to work!

Backup all the data first.
Copy data from the source partition to the destination partition.
Delete the source partition.
Resize (increase) the destination partition to become the size you want.

 

[P0ldy]

It's pretty dangerous to the integrity of your files. Agreed on all Navid's recs.

 

[fr]

^Partition Magic can do that. Just a warning though...I tried this in March 2000 and it screwed up and I lost all my data.

 

[Tarrant64]

I second that. Partition Magic should be able to do it. However, I notice that when I use Partition Magic to partition a drive, it will unpartition(or rearrange, or whatever you want to do), just fine. However if you used another utility to partition it, Partition Magic can get iffy about moving stuff back or around again. However, in my personal experiences I've had a "+" the whole way. Be sure to back it up, Parittion Magic also gives the option of creating rescue discs. I have no experience with this but it may be worth a shot.

 

[aatf510]

Originally posted by: fr
^Partition Magic can do that. Just a warning though...I tried this in March 2000 and it screwed up and I lost all my data.

Samething happened to me.

 

[CalvinHobbs]

lol without a cd-rom how do you plan to install partition magic in the first place? then if u wanna dowload it then you will have to pay for it so how does that make it free? anyway partition magic has always worked nicely for me but as others have said, do back up your data before merging the partitions

 

[Jiggz]

I've tried Partition Magic, Ghost and other partition softwares, but the only one that worked for me is Partition Commander. This programs works great and is so simple to learn and use.

 

[Navid]

First of all, he said he wanted it to be free.
Secondly, the worst thing you can do with partition magic is to use it to merge partitions. Just run s Google search for Partition Magic and merge, and you will see how many people complain about lost data after using that function of partition magic.