Hard Drive partitioning

[raydeon]

How do you remove partitions from a slave H.D.?

I have a second H.D. (slave) installed in my computer. It is set up with 2 partitions. I want to remove the partitions to have only one. Windows xp does not let me do it. (It was easy before xp, using the fdisk utitily).

 

[Cobster]

right click MY COMPUTER > manage > disk management

or use this freeware utility http://www.ranish.com/part/
but make sure you BACK UP any files. playing with partitions is a dangerous thing.

Your best bet, for a smoother flowing system.
Save everything, delete the partitions and reinstall everything from scratch.
More time consuming but a safer more stable bet.

 

[skihrdr]

Do the following:

START;
CONTROL PANEL;
ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS;
COMPUTER MANAGEMENT;
DISK MANAGEMENT;

from this point, you can do what you're after.

 

[CharlieX]

Be very careful!
If you've previously installed programs in this partition, better uninstall them first because you might have a lot of entries in the register pointing to this partition. When window boots up and cant your deleted partition, then it's going to be nasty. Make sure you've a backup disk image to go back to!

 

[Keebler Elf]

If you're starting from scratch, you should be installing at least two partitions. Put your OS on one of them (preferably a small one, between 10-20 GB). Everything else goes on the other partition(s).

 

[raydeon]

Do the following:

START;
CONTROL PANEL;
ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS;
COMPUTER MANAGEMENT;
DISK MANAGEMENT;

from this point, you can do what you're after.

That did not work. Disk management sees 2 separates logical drives in that HD, "D" and "F" and can only change the partitions on each of them.

I solved the problem by wiping the disk with Bcwipe first. (free download at www.jetico.com) After that disk management showed only one drive, "D" which I then reformated.

 

[raydeon]

If you're starting from scratch, you should be installing at least two partitions. Put your OS on one of them (preferably a small one, between 10-20 GB). Everything else goes on the other partition(s).

Read my question. I am talking about a slave HD, not the main C drive. The OS does not come into the picture.

 

[frankcastle]

Why just one section instead of partitions? Isn't it better to break the HD up into smaller parts...... unless you are working with extremely big files?

Any thoughts on this theory of mine?

 

[Keebler Elf]

Read my question. I am talking about a slave HD, not the main C drive. The OS does not come into the picture.

Ah, I see. You should still have two partitions though. That way if you ever need to install Windows to it in future, you won't have to reformat.

 

[raydeon]

Why just one section instead of partitions? Isn't it better to break the HD up into smaller parts...... unless you are working with extremely big files?

Any thoughts on this theory of mine?

I agree with you and that is what I normally do, i.e. on my main Drive, a partition for the OS and another one or two for data and files.
In this case that slave HD is dedicated to one function only, and dealing with extremely large files. This is a temporary measure, as I will be getting a larger external storage drive.

 

[WoodPeckr]

eHOW.com

Here's a site that helped me out with lots of PC questions and just about anything else you can imagine.

www.eHOW.com it's a handy site to know.

This is the sublist dealing with PCs.
www.ehow.com/sublist_2206.html

It told me how to format a HD, add a HD, add a 2nd HD, partition a HD, external HD & enclosures....everything.

 

[samcan]

If you only have one hd. partition it, OS on one partion, data on the other. But with the price of drives these days I advise having 2 in your machine. Internal or external doesnt matter.
Lets just say you have 2 partions on 1 drive and it fails, all is lost. Not saying the data drive wont fail but, remember back up is your best friend, kinda like the search button.
Also you can burn impt files to dvd/cd and not worry about it.

Just my 2 pennies

 

[raydeon]

Ah, I see. You should still have two partitions though. That way if you ever need to install Windows to it in future, you won't have to reformat.

Windows is already installed om my C drive. Why would I want to install it on a slave?

 

[raydeon]

Here's a site that helped me out with lots of PC questions and just about anything else you can imagine.

www.eHOW.com it's a handy site to know.

This is the sublist dealing with PCs.
www.ehow.com/sublist_2206.html

It told me how to format a HD, add a HD, add a 2nd HD, partition a HD, external HD & enclosures....everything.

Very usefull information WoodPeckr. Thanks.

 

[raydeon]

If you only have one hd. partition it, OS on one partion, data on the other. But with the price of drives these days I advise having 2 in your machine. Internal or external doesnt matter.
Lets just say you have 2 partions on 1 drive and it fails, all is lost. Not saying the data drive wont fail but, remember back up is your best friend, kinda like the search button.
Also you can burn impt files to dvd/cd and not worry about it.

Just my 2 pennies

My original question refers to a second drive. I already have a Master drive which is partitioned.

 

[Keebler Elf]

Windows is already installed om my C drive. Why would I want to install it on a slave?

As a backup. Someone once told me to do it and it's been quite useful ever since. If your original Windows gets corrupted, you just switch HD cables and run Windows from your other drive. Then you can transfer data and/or investigate the problem, possibly without having to wipe the original Windows altogether. I've used this setup and it can be quite handy.

 

[Papi Chulo]

I prefer to use Partition Magic for patitioning.. it is a little more user friendly than XP