Windows Vista Consolidating partitions...want to get rid of XP, for good!

Alright everybody, I'm ready for a new experiment. Before I start that, I would like to know how I can get rid of Windows XP once and for all, and gain the space currently occupied by an OS I have not used for over half a year.

I initially used Partition Magic from within XP to create a 2nd Primary partition. On my other computer, I have once tried to give more space to Vista from within XP using Partition Magic, and ultimately rendered Vista unusable, so I obviously have to do it from WITHIN Vista, right? I've used Partition Magic for years and it has always worked great. Acronis I didn't like as much, but I'll give it another shot if it's all I can use.

XP resides on my C: drive, which is set to active, and Vista is on my E: drive, also a Primary partition. I know Vista has its own boot manager, and it frequently uses the C: drive to store updates, drivers, etc., which is fine. I just don't want to have to re-install Vista all over again, along with all the apps and its respective configurations.

So...how do I do this? I already backed up all of my files to DVD's, so I'm ready. I guess I'd like to "de-partition" my system by first consolidating the C: and E: drives, and subsequently re-partition the drive to where I can start my little project.

First things first. How do I consolidate the C: and E: partition, along with a hidden partition, which contains the Rescue and Recovery files, for which I have the original disks to, so I'd like to free up those unused 6GB's as well.

Where is Vista's boot manager located being that Vista resides on the E: drive? Might it be on the C: drive? Also, when I consolidate the two partitions, will that not become the C: drive after "de-partitioning? ". Will this be a problem?

I wouldn't mind giving Acronis another shot (install the 30-day trial), and if it works, and all the other functions work as well, I'd be fine with buying a license for it, instead of Partition Magic.

What do you think guys? Maybe this can help other people in the future. I know several people who want to do very similar things, but they do not participate in forums like these, so out of fear of screwing it up (like I did once before lol), they'd rather suffer through the likely unimaginable pain of not being able to get rid of XP, for example, but being too fearful of the unknown. Oops, well, telling some of them that I had tried this and wasted that particular Vista installation probably didn't help (sorry Nancy. lol...she is so hot!).

Anyway, a few facts, which may be of interest: Both partitions are NTFS, except for the 6GB "hidden" one, which is formatted in FAT. Both XP and Vista are 32-bit.

I'll be happy to write a detailed step-by-step "directions guide" for anyone who wants to do this, or something similar, when I'm done implementing your excellent advice and superior knowledge. Let's do this. It would be my distinct honor and privilege to be the guinea pig.

 

Crunch, were gonna have to down grade you experience rating. Just kidding dude.
In Vista right click on Computer and select Manage. wait for it to open. Then you should see in the left pane Disk Management click on it. Then right click on desired disk and go from there.
Tip; you must delete a part before you can merge it with another.
and you can change drive letters from there.

 

Dude, you might be right. LOL...Thanks for feeling sorry enough for me to respond.

Hah, that easy, huh? Ok...I know about the Disk Management. I just always felt more comfortable using third-party apps like Partition Magic for stuff like this, as they are "idiot-proof ". lol...

Hmm...since I no longer use a third-party firewall, as Vista's two-way one seems to be rock solid, I guess the Vista Disk Management tool looks good enough, and it'll save me a couple of bucks.

Having played around with it a couple of nights ago, there was already a problem when I tried to "unhide" and delete the 6GB restore partition. It was a halfass attempt, though, so whatever. If I really can't do it, I'll just use Part. Magic from XP, and then Vista's Disk Management will likely nuke it for me.

One question, though. Being that I will simply delete XP, which is on the C: partition, and in order to play it safe, should I just shrink the C: partition to maybe like a few gigs, and then extend the E: partition on which Vista resides? I can't just rename the E: drive to C:, as my apps are all installed on the E: drive, or am I missing something here? It won't look as pretty and organized, but I don't care, as I will upgrade to yet another bigger hard drive soon anyway.

Thanks a lot dude!

P.S. How's the Vista defragger? It looks a little weak to me. I still use Diskeeper for defragmentation. Is it worth it? I'll have to make a decision soon as to whether or not upgrading to the latest version is necessary/recommended, or just plain ol' stupid and a waste of money. Thanks again!

 

Alright, update. I successfully extended my Vista (E: ) partition with the 6GB now former restore partition. Now, I shrunk the C: partition by 5GB, and now have that much in unallocated space. I attempted to extended the Vista (E: ) partition, but it was grayed out, so not an option.

Do I need to set the the Vista E: partition active? I almost did, but a warning message came up that if I was to set the partition active and no OS existed, I would like render my system unusable. Well, of course there is an OS on the E: drive, but setting it active must entail some other things as well.

Thanks for any replies. So far so very good!

 

I'm not sure how to fix your partitioning issue, as I have not yet tried playing with disk manager in Vista. I am thinking about removing some of the sapce from C: (vista partition) and creating a new partition for backup of files, etc. I'm also going to back those up to dvds.

Anyway, may I make a suggestion? Try JKDefrag from www.kessels.com/defrag

I use it all the time, it does an excellent job and it's free. Why pay for a disk defragmenter when there's a free alternative that does the same thing? This disk defragmenter has several optimization methods too, sort by most used files on front of the drive, followed by less used files, sort files and folders by alphabetical order, and a few more.

It had a regular program (jkdefrag.exe) that you can double click and it will analyze, defrag, and fast optimize all your drives. Or you can set commands by using the jkdefragcmd.exe (just read the included docs in html format on how to use it). Therew's even a handy screensaver program where you can tell windows to use jkdefrag as the screensaver, so it will defrag whenever the screensaver comes up.

 

Tell about your crunching

Hey CrunchDude-

Tell us about your crunching. For whom? Which agent?
Why?

I have taken it upon myself to spread the word about crunching for WCG and BOINC projects. I could use some help.

Public distributed computing is a great use of idle computer time to help on projects aimed at research on Cancer, AIDS, Malaria; cosmological projects like Einstein and Milky Way; a bunch of mathematical problems.

So, tell us what you do and why you do it.

>>RSM

 

I did it!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm so glad. I found a person crazier than myself. Thank you so much. I thought this day would never come. You have no idea how relieved I feel right now. I owe you.

 

Please explain.

>>RSM

 

Check the other thread. It's all cool. Simple misunderstanding. So I'm still the craziest person on here. It felt good while it lasted. LOL...

 

Thanks, I found it.

>>RSM