5punk

Hai Guise, I was just wondering if it's possible to merge an old partition to another.

Basically, I have 3 current partitions on a 400Gig HDD, Fista, XP and a storage folder for documents, torrents, prons etc. and was wonderig if I'd be able to format the Fista partition and then add the spare space to the documents partition whilst keeping all my current shit intact on the same partition so I'm only left with 2.

Ta!

Yes, it is possible.

But it can be risky (data loss is a real risk) MAKE LOTS OF BACKUPS.

I'd use acronis partition expert.

Move all the stuff from the partition you don't want into the partition you're not gonna resize (or are going to resize last).
Delete the partition you don't want.
Then resize the partition(s) you want into the empty space. (always keeping super important data on the partition not being fucked with)

apply changes after each step, that should lower the risk of massive fuckups a bit.

Woo, thanks sir!

Would it help to defrag the drive first too?

Stoat wrote:Would it help to defrag the drive first too?

a little, especially if it comes to having to recover shit, but wouldn't do much otherwise.

Stoat wrote:Would it help to defrag the drive first too?

Defragging massively reduces the time it takes to shrink a partition, but does little when increasing one.

I use a patched version of Partition Magic 8, which is Fista-aware - earlier, non-patched versions almost lost me a lot of data. Not used the Acronis product, but as long as you don't run it under Fista I don't forsee major problems.

There are ways to merge while retaining all the data, but since your plan is to remove the Fista one and reclaim the space, it should be easy - have your Windows boot CD handy in case you need to modify the boot partition at all, and make new recovery disks after.

And yes, backup. Grab a 500GB USB disk or something and do an ASR+a full backup just in case.

FatherJack wrote: And yes, backup. Grab a 500GB USB disk or something and do an ASR+a full backup just in case.

Yup, after looking through my files I need at least 100GB~ to store so I'll have to invest in some external storage.

Is it just me or if you want to merge two partitions and you move the stuff off/backup all the data, then it'd be quicker to simply delete the partitions and move the stuff back on/recover.

cheeseandham wrote:Is it just me or if you want to merge two partitions and you move the stuff off/backup all the data, then it'd be quicker to simply delete the partitions and move the stuff back on/recover.

well, when the software works, your data stays intact so that would be more work. however, the software is not as reliable as it could be, and you can't count on it to not fuck everything up.

deject wrote:
well, when the software works, your data stays intact so that would be more work. however, the software is not as reliable as it could be, and you can't count on it to not fuck everything up.

Exactly, so why rely on the software?
All things considered there's no reason you have to merge partitions like this and I wouldn't trust it. So just go straight with backup -> delete & readd partitions -> recover
Call me old school. I'm aware of these apps, I've used them and they fill a role I guess but I wouldn't bother.

If you're adding to a system partition then image & backup other partition -> delete partitions -> recover.
If merging two other partitions then just backup -> delete partitions -> recover.

You can also create and use NTFS mounted drives or Spanned volumes as well to help with the situation.

My personal view is that while the apps can be iffy as fuck, they're very easy to use and as you're gonna have to backup whatever you do, you might as well give it a shot and hope you don't have to restore your datas.

Resizing a partition up without moving it is virtually instantaneous - much quicker than a restore.

Also it's actually safer, as unless it goes wrong you've got all your data plus the backup (which you can unplug and store safely well away from the action). If you start deleting things, you're down to a single copy of your data - and I'm sure we've all experienced the "deleted the wrong one" error.

FatherJack wrote:Resizing a partition up without moving it is virtually instantaneous - much quicker than a restore.

Also it's actually safer, as unless it goes wrong you've got all your data plus the backup (which you can unplug and store safely well away from the action). If you start deleting things, you're down to a single copy of your data - and I'm sure we've all experienced the "deleted the wrong one" error.

cheeseandham wrote:Is it just me or if you want to merge two partitions and you move the stuff off/backup all the data, then it'd be quicker to simply delete the partitions and move the stuff back on/recover.

Yeah it would be, I would do that however I don't have anything to backup shit on so the initial question was built around that factor. However It seem seems I will have to get some anyway.

Also, If I can keep the XP I've already installed, rather then install it again and sit through numerous updates, plus having to download Steam (I even tried copying some of the cache files from Fista to XP, some games worked however Portal, TEEF and HL2EP threw a hissy fit) again and install all my shit, then I'd prefer to stick with what I'd already installed.

FatherJack wrote:Resizing a partition up without moving it is virtually instantaneous - much quicker than a restore.

Also it's actually safer, as unless it goes wrong you've got all your data plus the backup (which you can unplug and store safely well away from the action). If you start deleting things, you're down to a single copy of your data - and I'm sure we've all experienced the "deleted the wrong one" error.

Yes I miss you, 2003 musics folder.

FatherJack wrote:Resizing a partition up without moving it is virtually instantaneous - much quicker than a restore.

Yes very very true. But merging was the discussion.

TezzRexx wrote:Also, If I can keep the XP I've already installed, rather then install it again and sit through numerous updates, plus having to download Steam

But of course, everyone has an up to date Ghost/Acronis/DriveImage image of their system partition that is reasonably up to date on their backup drive so that's not a problem.