I am using Partition Magic to try to fix a disk problem. The computer shows: Disk 1: Local Disk (c) NTFS, 19,084.5 MB. Then it shows Disk 2, no drive letter, just "Unallocated" 19,091.9 MB. I want to add that to "C", but if I try "Redistribute free space" and select the unallocated, it tells me "cannot redistribute free space. there are no eligible partitions on this drive". If I create a new partition using the "unallocated" and call it "D", then try to Merge the partitions, Then it asks me to select the disk that contains the two partitions. The problem is, it sees it as 2 disks, so it can't merge it. Any suggestions?

If you have the CD, the pdf MANUALS are in the \DOCS folder on the CD. If you have installed Partition Magic in Windows, they may also be on your hard drive - search for PM*.pdf
READ them!
If you don't have a version of Adobe Acrobat Reader installed, go to the Adobe web site and get a version of it, and install it. The default is version 8.x, but you can get and install 7.x or 6.x instead if you poke around on the site - the higher the version, the bigger it is.
If you have very little free space on C, look on program and device installation CDs you have - there is often a 5.x version of the Reader on it you can install that is much smaller than the current versions.

Disk 1 and Disk 2 are two different physical hard drives.
If you have two physical hard drives, you cannot add the unallocated space on the second drive to the partition on the first drive to make it bigger - at least you can't without making a certain type of RAID array, which Partition Magic cannot do, and you must have other things in place and a hard drive controller that supports RAID arrays, etc., etc.

Merged partitions can only be done on the same physical hard drive, and there must be at least two partitions on that drive, already partitioned as a type, FAT32 or NTFS in this case, and formatted.

If you need more space on C, assuming you have only one partition on the physical drive C is on and it fills the drive, you have to un-install some programs and re-install them on another partition, or move some of the data that isn't programs to another partition, or delete or un-install (don't delete what you can un-install - that causes problems) some of the data on the C partiton, or burn some of the data to CDs or DVDs and delete the data you copied from the drive, etc., etc.

You DO NOT have to install most programs on C!
- if you choose the Custom install option or similar instead of Express or whatever the no-brainer default is, and/or choose a location other than C where the program is installed, it will install a little bit on C and most of the program on the other partition.

That's especially space saving if you try to install most installations that take up a lot more hard drive space to other partitions.

(An exception - don't install Power DVD (or other CyberLink software) anywhere except the default location unless it's in it's own folder and no other files are in that folder - it's un-install is often poorly written and it will delete everything in the folder where it is installed, including all files that were not installed by the program - it's not huge anyway.)

You can "Create" a "Primary" "FAT32" or "NTFS" partition on the second physical drive in Partition Magic, or more than one partition, and have a place you can copy data to or install programs on, etc.

The way a drive is designated Drive 1 or 2 etc., and the drive letters assigned, in Partition Magic, are not necessarily the same as the ones assigned in XP. Be careful - e.g. you may need to go by a hard drive or partitions size , not the Disk number or drive letter PM gives it.

ok, thank you very much.

You can just add it as a folder to C: for example add it as c:\space\ and you will have 19g free under \space.

You can just make it D:

No need for PM.

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

jefro
read the original post and response 1 more carefully

FYI
If PM calls them Disk 1 and Disk 2 they are on two physical hard drives.