Hi

I've bought a new laptop and my 80gb hdd has been preformatted to 2 drives with equal size each. I dun like this setup, can I use Partition Magic to merge them and recreate my partition again? Or should I use fdisk? Steps given will be greatly appreciated.

My preference is 15%-20% for c: and the rest for d:. I'm using XP pro SP2. thx for reading.

It's unusual to have a "split drive" other than for restoration or utility files; so what is contained in the two partitions and what make/model of laptop is it?

You can certainly use PM to merge partitions but I don't recommend it. It is generally better and safer to break such operations up into its consituent parts and use PM that way. You would first copy the contents to the drive you were intending to keep. Then delete the partition you wanted to lose and then resize/move the partition you wanted to keep. Merging does all three operations in one but if it fails (not uncommon if one of the partitions is already pretty full) you can be into recovery software. In fact any partitioning manouvres can go wrong with any utility so the advice is always to have your data backed up before you do any of these.

Also be warned that if you change the references to boot.ini while doing these operations you can finish up with an unbootable system. To be on the safe side first make a new WinXP boot floppy. Use a new floppy and ensure you full format it with WinXP. Then copy the three files boot.ini, ntdetect.com and ntldr (usually in the C drive) to the floppy. Then check that you can boot up your system using it.

You can use fdisk if you want to delete all the partitions but you will lose all data on the drive and have to reinstall Windows. PM would do the deletions just as well of course. If you are clean reinstalling Windows then after booting to the CD and choosing new installation you would be able to delete all the current partitions before reinstalling into a new partition of your choice.

A variation of a method I have used:
1. Make individual backups of the two partitions.
2. Re-partition and format using [preferably] the HDD manufacturers utilities, or [not so easy] fdisk.exe & [easy] format.com.
3. Restore the backup of the C: partition [to the C: partition][using the backup prog's bootable floppies].
My "HP Simple Backup" would often complain that the partition size had altered, but proceeding caused no problems.

[This is the bit I've not tried, but I think it would work.]
4. Boot into Windows, and from there restore all the files [or those you would like restored] from the backup of the D: partition to the C: partition.
You could alternatively do this using the bootable floppies.
It all depends which prog you use and what capabilities it offers.

If the partitions are already very full then using a backup on CD could be a good intermediary. If not, then simply copying the files across would seem much more straightforward.

It's still not clear what (and indeed if any) data is on these two 40gig partitions - but if an OS has been installed I would reiterate caution about how you procede to get rid of one of them.

If starting over then all you need is the WinXP install CD without any need for any other utilities unless you want to create partitions > 32GB formatted as FAT32 (the FAT32 limit for the XP "formatter").

Another variation based on Paul's idea of moving the files from one partition to another [drag 'n drop or cut 'n paste].
This method is only necessary if you cannot move them over in one go right at the start.

1. You backup the C: and D: partitions separately.
2. Re-partition/re-format the partitions so as to make the D: as small [and C: as large] as can be made and still hold all the D: files.
3. Restore C: and D: from the backups. [The files on D: should be a neat fit.]
4. Whilst within Windows: Drag 'n drop [or cut 'n paste][= move] as many files as you can from D: to C: until it's full.
5. If necessary: make new backups of C: and D: and repeat steps 1 thru 4 as many times as it takes to move all the files from D: onto C:

Now you see why Partition magic CAN make things so much easier!
The above method might [if you're lucky] work 1st time; if not, then PM is a boon.
I used this method to resize partitions.
It worked 1st time, and since I was making a backup anyway, and perhaps restoring a backup anyway, then the only extra steps were to re-partition and re-format. It seemed to me to work rather well.