I want to combine two partitions

[Druid]

Ok, last time I formatted my computer I put the hardrive in two partitions, one for the OS, and one for everything else. However, even if I install everything to the other partition, stuff still gets put in the partition with the OS. I'm running out of room, and now I need to combine the partitions. I should never have partitioned in the first place. It is just stupid for my purposes. I downloaded acronis disc director, but I don't see any option to combine the partitions. How do I do it?

 

[carnageX]

GParted.

 

[Druid]

what?

 

[eyeCpc]

You won't be able to combine the two but remove the second to see the OS primary expanded. And if that should somehow fail you would need to remove that for seeing a brand new large single primary created. Before going ahead you may want to back anything important up on removable media.

 

[carnageX]

You can combine them, eyeCpc... GParted can do it easily.

download this:
SourceForge.net: GParted: Files

Download the ISO from there, and then burn it with ImgBurn:

The Official ImgBurn Website

And use this guide to use ImgBurn if you don't know how:
Burning ISO Images with ImgBurn - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

 

[eyeCpc]

You can combine them, eyeCpc... GParted can do it easily.

download this:
SourceForge.net: GParted: Files

Download the ISO from there, and then burn it with ImgBurn:

The Official ImgBurn Website

And use this guide to use ImgBurn if you don't know how:
Burning ISO Images with ImgBurn - NeoSmart Technologies Wiki

There is no merge option to find in GParted live. You may want to review the thread seen at http://www.techist.com/forums/f9/how-do-i-join-partitions-139107/

There a portion of the drive was simply seeing unallocated space where the second storage partition was expanded into it. As all too familiar the advise given was to first backup anything on the partition prior to making any changes. Here's another one to look over as well. http://www.techist.com/forums/f9/partition-not-getting-recognised-xp-pls-help-176778/

 

[KSoD]

Actually there is a Merge Partition is GParted. I know cause i have personally done it. I have merged 2 partitions together along with moving a whole Recovery Partition from the front of a drive to the back of a drive.

It can be done. I will load up GParted and take some pics on how to do it.

 

[carnageX]

Thought there was a merge option in Gparted, guess not. Been a long weekend can't keep everything straight lol...

Anyway, he should be able to move the data he wants to keep over to the main parition, so that the 2nd partition is empty, boot into GParted and delete the 2nd partition, and then resize the main partition.

Edit: Mak posted while I was posting. I just loaded up v0.3.7 of my GParted liveCD, and I can't see a Merge option...must be missing it, unless its built-into a newer version?

 

[eyeCpc]

Don't forget that one of those two just happens to be the OS partition where if anything goes wrong say goodbye to Windows! As far as the merge option I've never run across that in any live cd version of GParted. There's also no reference found in any of the documentation. GPARTED DOCUMENTATION - GENERALITIES

Some additional screenshots are seen at GParted -- Screenshots In fact the only actual instructions for seeing two partitions merged in generally found in a Linux turorial of some type.

"Optional: merging the first two partitions
For this step you need to boot your pc from an alternate linux distribution. The recipe below is for puppy linux (see Installing Puppy Linux for the eeePC for information on how to install puppylinux on an usb disk.) You may also use Gparted LiveCD from USB stick.

It might be desirable to merge the first two partitions, in order to create one bigger partition. To do so perform the following steps:

make one more time sure that you do not have any data you do not want to loose on your second partition; if you still have data on your second partition probably the best way to back it up is by “sudo bash” then “mount /dev/sda2 /mnt; cd /mnt; tar cvf <dirwhereyourusbdiskismounted>/sda2.tar”)
Boot a linux distribution from an external medium (usb flash disk, SD card, CD/DVD drive)
start a console window
run gparted
in the UI you will see 4 partitions. Select the second one (the ext3 partition, for me /dev/hdc2)
press the delete button.
select the first partition (the ext2 partition, for me /dev/hdc1).
press the resize/move button
in the dialog box that pops up, enter the maximum size (shown in the first line of text) into the box: New Size (for my 4G this was 3797, but this might be different for you)
press the resize/move button on the form
check the apply button, confirm by pressing the apply buttion that appears in the confirmation box.
you'll now see a progress indicator. The operation will take several minutes. Once completed close gparted.
If you made an sda2.tar file above you can recover it by rebooting then “sudo bash” then “cd /; tar xvf <dirwhereyourusbdiskismounted>/sda2.tar” " Removing UnionFS/aufs [EeeUser Eee PC Wiki]

 

[EricB]

I hope that anybody that want to do this will want to back their data up anyway. I think that I once use partition magic to merge two partition into one with deleting one first