I want to combine two partitions

[KSoD]

eyeCpc again you put to much stock in what you read. They do not show the right click menu at all and they do not show every option that is available on the GParted screenshot.

The GParted Documentation that you linked to? Yeah hasnt been updated in over 2 YEARS. Could be why it doesnt talk about the Merge partition information.

As i have said i have PERSONALLY done this. So it is possible. I will write up the guide. Since it apears that 2 year old documentation is more correct than me who did it jsut over 3 months ago.

Eric is also right. If you plan on taking steps like this. You should have already backed up. Cause trying to merge 2 partitions, no matter what the case maybe, will cause some corruption within the OS.

Not specifically for the OS files, but as Druid said he had installed some stuff to that partition. Those things will be corrupt. As he will have to uninstall and reinstall them cause they will not work. They will think they are on a partition that doesnt exist.

Now this is going to be very basic. But you will get the idea.

First is the picture of the drive.

Then you just click the REsize/Move.

Now place the drive preceding or following using the appropriate arrows.

Now the one thing where they will be similar is that the space preceding or following has to be unallocated in order for you to merge it. So if the free space is before use the preceding space and make the drive larger. IF it is following the drive you want to combine then use the following. It is really quite simple and yes it is a Merge partition in GParted.

 

[eyeCpc]

I'll let the following speak for itself namely the features supported even in the latest stable 0.3.9.13 version.



GParted -- Features

 

[Druid]

So if I merge the two partitions, all my installations will stop working? That would be annoying. I'm only going to be using this pc for another 2 months, so I'd rather just shrink the one partition and move the space to the other. I can do this right? Everything will continue to work?

 

[carnageX]

So if I merge the two partitions, all my installations will stop working? That would be annoying. I'm only going to be using this pc for another 2 months, so I'd rather just shrink the one partition and move the space to the other. I can do this right? Everything will continue to work?

Yes, you can resize the partition easily. I've done it before with no ill effects (dual-boot Vista/Ubuntu, then resized partitions to make room for a third-boot [Kubuntu]).

 

[KSoD]

eye you just proved my point with your graph. Move, Grow and Shrink are ALL supported. Grow is increase or merge while shrink is decrease or subtract from. They just use different terms is all.

FAT16, FAT32 and NTFS all support this feature in GParted. Jsut because they dont use the word "Merge" doesnt mean it cant be done. The terminology is jsut different. Shocking i know that a Linux uses a different term for it than Windows but it does happen.

 

[eyeCpc]

We both know all too well that the second partition can be shrunk down in size easy enough and later moved towards the back of the drive in order to see the OS/boot primary expanded into the empty space. Moving the second partition over will take a bit of time there however.

Druid you will still want to consider backing things up whenever going to make any changes to a partition in case something should go sour on you your data would remain safe. On some occasions when removing a second partition to expand the OS primary all went well to see that take up the entire drive. But there's still a risk to consider as well.

 

[EricB]

back everything up to be sure. then you just move everything to the first partition then merge.

you will be cover 2 ways now, but you really don't have to do the second step

 

[eyeCpc]

Have a cd or dvd burner there? For anything unreplacable burn a few data disks for things you can't simply download again for copying back on later.

Once you have everything you need backed up simply boot with GParted, toss the second partition, and expand the first into the empty space. While booted live with GParted that only takes a few minutes to see done.

With multiple drives/partitions here I've done that enough times. Have a large screened lcd? You'll want the last stable release seen at SourceForge.net: GParted: Files

The latest 0.4.1-1 version is still in beta form at the present moment. SourceForge.net: GParted

 

[Druid]

I forgot about doing this, but now I think I should still do it to the old comp since other people still use it. So if I just want to shrink the non-OS partition down and then expand the OS partition, I have to get linux and dual boot? Is there a way to do this just staying on xp?

 

[carnageX]

No, you don't have to dual-boot. Did you not read the thread at all? Use GParted LiveCD.