Hello I have a self built pc with an MSI V class mobo Windows XP SP2 80gb HD also have a 400gb external HD Before I loaded windows I partitioned with Fdisk as follows Primary partition 11gb, C drive used for OS and programs, NTFS Extended partiion with 4 logical drives D 39gb used for "my documents" . Only 3 mb used at present. NTFS E 11gb not yet formatted, unused F 9gb unformatted, unused G 4gb unformatted, unused The C drive now has 9 mb used and I need it to be bigger, how can I enlarge the C drive using the space on E, F, or G? (or if necessary the D) Can I merge one of these in to the C drive without losing data, or achieve something similar by Resizing? I thought, at the time I originally created the partitions, that I would be able to do this later if needed . I would like to do it in F disk, or via Control Panel> Administration>Computer management> Disk management, or from the windows CD, or maybe Ranish or Partition ReSizer or other freeware if that's not too difficult, rather than use "partition manager" I've also found out about Gparted open source program but am not clear whether that works for XP or just Linux. I don't know if C and D are contiguous, or any of the others. Is it necessarily the case that C and D are contiguous? If necessary I could back up data on the D drive and merge in to that, but first I would want to divide the D in to smaller partitions as I wouldn't want the whole 39 gb to be used for the operating system. Would a viable alternative be to put my programmes on to one of the smaller partitions?

Partition Magic will allow you to take some space from one or more partitions and give it to another partition. I believe gparted will do this too. And yes, it works with both Windows and Linux. -Ryan Adams Computer Tips, Guides, Downloads, and more:http://RyanTAdams.com

I agree on the Partition Magic. You must be new to post Windows 9X versions, because starting with Windows NT, it's not necessary to Fdisk before formatting or installing, as you can do that during the installation process. You cannot combine/merge non-contiguous partitions. Think about that for a moment. Once the OS is installed and the partitions created, you can merge/combine partitions within Windows Disk Management (excluding the OS Partition of course) as long as there is no data you wish to keep. You just delete the partitions and recreate. With an 80 Gig drive, I'd go probably 20 on the OS partition, and divide the other two partitions for data and program installation files (downloaded programs, etc.) Life's more painless for the brainless.

Partition magic can only merge spaces that are adjacent to each other. This means you may get error messages when trying to merge. There is never any guarantee that you won't lose data. You do maintain backups on the 400 don't you? If so, you need not worry about data loss.

I have done this with gparted. I would reboot after each step. In other words, resize a partition to create free space, then reboot. then resize again to add the free space to the desired partition, then reboot. XP will want to run check disk, with each reboot. There is always risk in this, so back-up. You realize if you had installed you programs on the d drive, you would not have this problem. larry

"Would a viable alternative be to put my programmes on to one of the smaller partitions?" Yes like larryf215 said, if you had installed new programs on one of the other drives, you wouldn't have a problem now. If you want, you might consider reinstalling whatever programs you can, and put them on another drive. That should let you avoid repartitioning.