My Laptop HD is partitioned

[Jinkster]

My laptop hard drive is partitioned between C: and D:

the C: drive is full to busting and D: is quite empty. I have deleted most programmes from C: and transferred them to D: but the drive is still full!!!

Without formatting the drive, can i destroy the partition to make one big drive?

Thanks

[planecrazy.eu]

I hope some more helpful person can say how, but i know you can, some one merged my drives for me, i ran into a problem when it came to reinstalling the os after major system failure (windows). The restore partition had some how vanished too, so take caution when merging them you dont delete a restore partition as these clever companies seem to be getting more and more tight and putting the OS Restore on the HD and not a disk... I have an Acer...

[Jinkster]

Oh.....

I have an Acer aswell!

[Rick Storm]

Jinkstar
Your D sector on the HD holds the back-up of your OS, I presume xp as does my HP. Copy 'D' HD sector to dvd NOT CD or you'll need 2+ disks and it's a right piss about.

After backup you can delete all on D to free up disk space.

Rick

[tlf]

Buy yourself a copy of Norton Partition Magic, currently version 8.0.
This will allow you to resize your partitions without losing any data contained on them. Wonderful product.

[Saab Dastard]

You may well find that a cheaper alternative is to find a PC mag with a cover disk containing such a utility.

Or search for same on the internet.

Do back up your important files before playing with partitions!

Without going down the partitioning route, you should be able to find more space on the C: drive by moving the swap file to D; moving the location of "documents and settings" from C (default) to D; searching for and deleting the .tmp and ~*.* files that have accumulated, and emptying the temp folders, then empty the recycling bin.

Oh yes - almost forgot - you may be able to compress some folders - I suggest "Program Files" as a minimum. Depends on what OS you have.

SD

[SyllogismCheck]

Looking at the HD on the Acer I'm using just now, it appears that D drive is completely empty, no back up or restore files, no nothing. In this case the disc is split into two equal portions, C is a 36GB partition with all the OS and program files and D is as yet completely empty.

I think, not sure mind you, but think, that what Acer had in mind was that people might use the D partition for their music and picture files etc. whilst leaving C for program and system files.

If your C drive is full, I'd be more inclined to move a good chunk of that with which you filled it over to D, then delete all the now duplicated pics, mp3s, programs etc from C once you know they're safely on D. Better to shove the stuff you've put on about than try to start shifting the meat of the machine's OS and programs around.

Oh yes, one last word of warning. I don't know that there is any OS backup on the HD. This here Acer prompted for CD images/recovery discs to be made when it was first run, so be sure you burn some off before you do anything too brave. That said, this isn't my machine, so I've not RTFM and may be completely wrong.