Reformatting drive but can't merge system partition

[TitusPullo]

Hi all,

I just got an SSD and am running Windows 7 Ultimate off of it.

My next step was to reformat my 1.5TB former hard drive, and make it my data drive for holding installed apps/games etc.

I go to Disk Manager and see the 1.5TB drive is split into two, the latter being a "System Reserved" partition of 147MB.

So I delete the reserved partition, it turns into unallocated space. Then I attempt to Extend Volume on the remaining healthy partition, but when I click OK, I get first a warning that I'm changing it to a "dynamic" drive, then when I click Next I get an error message saying "there is not enough space on this hard disk" to merge the two partitions.

WTF?

Should I even care at this point? I could just reformat the main partition and leave 147MB of unallocated space floating around, but that seems annoying and stupid.

 

[Cr0nJ0b]

I remember running into something similar on a system drive that i converted. I ended up using the command prompt diskpart utility to clear things up. It's pretty easy to use and is quick. just pick the drive and start deleting partitions. Others will probably advise parted or some other boot disk partition utility...but for me the command line is fine. just be really careful you pick the right drive. The way diskpart works is that you "select" a disk, then you can "list" the partitions and then you can "delete" the partitions. all will effect the disk that is selected. at any time you can check which disk is selected with the "list disk" command that will show a * by the selected drive. google for better instructions.

 

[razel]

When you extend volumes in disk manager it can only extend 'forward.' It sounds like you want to extend 'backward.' As if the system partition is before your main partition. You'll need to use a different partition manger to extend 'backward' or just extend.

It's not stupid... It's just the DOJ making sure that MS doesn't have a monopoly on partition mangers. It is annoying that the same DOJ has castrated Win7 built in image backup. It is just short of being great. It's a hell of a tease. But I'm used to getting teased.

 

[TitusPullo]

When you extend volumes in disk manager it can only extend 'forward.' It sounds like you want to extend 'backward.' As if the system partition is before your main partition. You'll need to use a different partition manger to extend 'backward' or just extend.

Yes, the system partition is shown graphically in front of the larger main partition.

Would the command line work? Or do I have to go download Partition Magic??

 

[Elixer]

Yes, the system partition is shown graphically in front of the larger main partition.

Would the command line work? Or do I have to go download Partition Magic??

Many ways to do it, Paragon's free program does it, Gparted does it... and so on.

No need to pay for a program to do what you want.