Merging Two Partitions 1

[mcladam]

I am in the middle of upgrading to Windows XP Home for the second time after a dody upgrade to Win 98 that left my machine unstable. I chose to do a clean install having read the forums. My hard drive had 2 partitions, both FAT. I chose to delete the second partition during install, because I wanted to merge it to create a single partition on NTFS. I think I may have made a mistake!

These are my questions:
1. will my clean install wipe everything including data (I hope so!)?
2. how will I be able to incorporate the deleted partition back into the main drive after the install?

Thanks
MCLAdam

 

[Marcs41]

1: If you delete a partition, all is gone.
2: During installation, also delete the other partition and create a new one, covering both 'old' partitions. That is a whole lot easier then to merge them.

But !!! Don't forget to backup any data you need first !!! The solution is out there.

 

[mcladam]

The good news is that I have a backup of all my data. The bad news is that the first partition woudl not delete - apparently files were in us. Looks like I may have blown away the last 3gb of my drive by deleting the second partition. Can I get it back - in effect joining the missing 3gb back to the first 15gb?

 

[Marcs41]

Did you already install?
Or do you still have to do that?
Better yet, can you do that?

If so, just start again and delete all partitions before doing anything else.

A partition cannot have files is use during install.
Why would it not let you delete a partition?
Are you upgrading or doing a fresh install?

As I said before there is no easy way to just add that 3Gig to the 15.
There are tools like Partition Magic, but if you are in the early stage and nothing else is done on that PC, just start fresh.
The solution is out there.

 

[mcladam]

Thank you for your help ...

I re-installed XP, and found that:
1. my data is mostly still there (I wanted a completely fresh start)
2. all the programs are uninstalled (good!)
3. the second partition is gone.

I want to try again with a completely clean disk. I have two questions:
1. How do I wipe everything on the entire disk and start from scratch with one big empty partition? I cannot find fdisk on my hard drive.
2, I have an upgrade disk for XP. If I wipe everything off the machine then how will it know that the upgrade is good? I do not have the OS disk for the machine because it was factory installed (Compaq).

Thanks for your help!
Mike

 

[Marcs41]

1: you don't need to
Just in case, fdisk is supposed to be in the C:\Windows\Command directory.

2: If you have an upgrade, you can still just boot from it as long as you have the orig Win98 CD or diskete 1 at hand. But .. you don't have it.
So, just boot with the CD, it should detect the Win98.
If not, run setup from within 98 after getting rid of any software running like antivirus etc. Get rid of it all, you will format it anyway.
During setup, it will, eventually .., come up with the screen where it askes you where to install. At the bottom of that screen you can delete partitions. When they are all gone, select create partition and accept the full disksize.

Have fun. The solution is out there.

 

[Starudin]

marcs41's advices were good, but you had to boot your computer from CD-ROM (make it the first boot device in BIOS), so that setup wouldn't have to copy all the necessary files to a hard drive (then you could delete it). At least, that's what I thought was your problem before I saw your last post... What do you mean by "upgrade disk for XP"? Since you don't want to keep any data, just boot from CD! If you can't find fdisk - great! Use Drive Manager in XP after installation to merge your partitions if you want...

 

[Marcs41]

Starudin, you cannot just merge a boot partition with another one.
And with Upgrade disk for XP, he means he does not have the full version. If you boot from it, it will look for an existing OS to upgrade (point 2). If it fails, he cannot do it again if any partitions are removed, because he does not have the orig 98 cd.
Please read everything before adding, including the last posts. The solution is out there.

 

[wawan]

i suggest to use parttion magic 7.X. this can fixed partition without erasing data

 

[mcladam]

I am in the UK, and was fast asleep while you guys here discussing my problem ... that's what I call an efficient service!

I think the mistake I made was not booting from the upgrade disk. I am going to try that.

My understanding is that before I get to the 'delete partition' bit the installation will already have found the Windows installation on the disk, and it will therefore work.

If this fails, I do have an old Win 98 CD from a different computer - if prompted I will put that in the drive.

If this also fails then I will go to PC World and buy a full install of XP Pro!

I will let you know the outcome,
Thanks again
Mike

 

[Marcs41]

O well, but that solves it!
If you have an old 98 cd (not an upgrade!) then you are all set.
Boot from the cd, it will detect your old OS.
Whipe out all partitions, creat 1 big one and go.
If it fails, you can do the same and indeed whenm prompted use th ol 98 CD.

BTW, I am in Belgium and was late awake ;-)
The solution is out there.

 

[mcladam]

Yes, it worked! One 18GB partition, and a machine that now works. My next question is ... how do I stop XP dialling my ISDN connection every 5 minutes? Anyway, I will search the forums and find out.

Thank you for your help.
Mike

 

[Marcs41]

Got to your internet properties and on connections, select , never dial a connection. The solution is out there.