Reconfiguring partitions - help please!!

[bigweed]

Hi all

Sorry if this is a noob question, but as I am a noob, maybe that qualifies me in asking it??
Anyway, I have just bought a Seagate 7200.10 250GB SATA2 hard drive, and want to reconfigure my hard drive setup. I already have a 37Gb Raptor SATA, and a Seagate 160Gb SATA hard drive. Originally I had setup the Raptor into two partitions, a 6Gb partition for Windows (C: drive), and the remainder for other important programs eg Office, UT2004, CSS, etc (e: drive)! The Seagate 160Gb drive is the F: drive at the moment. Somehow, the Windows partition has pretty much filled up already, and so I have decided to do the following.

I want to have all of the Raptor hard drive as the Windows partition, and to copy all of the files that were in the e: partition onto the existing Seagate 160Gb f: hard drive. Then I will use the new 250Gb hard drive as the photos, videos, etc storage area. However, I have two problems - I dont know how to combine the two Raptor partitions (C: and E: ) into one partition c: (preferably without reinstalling Windows??). The second problem is (probably) more complicated. As the current e: partition holds most of the program files, is it possible to rename the existing Seagate hard drive (F: ) as the e: drive, transfer all of the files onto it from the e: partition, and everything will carry on running as before? Or will I have to reinstall everything?

Hope someone can make sense of what I have just said, and can help!!

Many thanks

Bigweed

 

[bigweed]

Anyone???

 

[freonchill]

u can use partition magic to non-destructively merge the partitions
e.g. make E: a directory on C:

then you just have to fix the registry and or reinstall programs to fix pointers for some programs.

as for making the F: become E: (letter wise)
if you do it before you run any of the programs (including programs running on boot)

what you would have to do is
set msconfig to not load any programs on boot
merge the partitions from E: to C:
reboot
format new drive (it gets E
copy program files to new E:
re-enable programs on msconfig
reboot

 

[Farva]

Screw Partition Magic. Use a free program called GParted. After you move all your stuff over, reboot the pc, throw in the CD, delete old partition, merge, and enjoy.

 

[bigweed]

u can use partition magic to non-destructively merge the partitions
e.g. make E: a directory on C:

then you just have to fix the registry and or reinstall programs to fix pointers for some programs.

as for making the F: become E: (letter wise)
if you do it before you run any of the programs (including programs running on boot)

what you would have to do is
set msconfig to not load any programs on boot
merge the partitions from E: to C:
reboot
format new drive (it gets E
copy program files to new E:
re-enable programs on msconfig
reboot

Thanks for the reply freonchill :>) If I am reading correctly, I only need to do the bit at the end of your email which I have highlighted in bold?
Use msconfig to disable all progs at startup,
merge the partitions C: and E: using partition magic (or GParted as its free!),
reboot,
format the old Seagate F: drive so it gets the letter E: (after having moved all files that I need from it onto the new Seagate drive which will become F,
copy prog files which were on the old E: to the new E:,
transfer all files from the new Seagate hard drive to the old Seagate hard drive,
format the new Seagate hard drive so it gets the letter F:,
transfer files I need on F: back from E:,
reenable progs via msconfig,
reboot,
done!
Phew!

Maybe I should just reinstall Windows?? Also, how do I go about formatting hard drives?
One other, kind of related, question - yesterday I used the 'Safely remove hardware' thing in the bottom right hand corner of the screen to accidentally remove my 8 in 1 card reader thingy which was labelled as drives G: and H: in 'My Computer'- now it doesnt appear in 'My Computer' anymore - is there any way I can bring it back?? Or have I lost it forever?

Thanks
Bigweed

 

[freonchill]

if your 8in1 is USB, just unplug it and plug it in again
if your 8in1 is not USB, go into the system and 'scan for new hardware'

and sorry protias, i meant a program that does what he needs it to do
not so much giving an endorsement for pqmagic over qparted
its just that i have used it since version 2.0 and never had a problem...

either way - the mantra always goes - backup EVERYTHING "just in case" something does go wrong

 

[Farva]

and sorry protias, i meant a program that does what he needs it to do
not so much giving an endorsement for pqmagic over qparted
its just that i have used it since version 2.0 and never had a problem...

Umm, I guess what I said wasn't what was said by bigweed, just not for all the programs.

freonchill, you should try the newest version, it is a lot better than it used to be.

 

[bigweed]

if your 8in1 is USB, just unplug it and plug it in again
if your 8in1 is not USB, go into the system and 'scan for new hardware'

and sorry protias, i meant a program that does what he needs it to do
not so much giving an endorsement for pqmagic over qparted
its just that i have used it since version 2.0 and never had a problem...

either way - the mantra always goes - backup EVERYTHING "just in case" something does go wrong

Hi freonchill, it is not USB, but am not sure about what you mean when you say 'go into system and scan for new hartdware' - how do I do this??

Thanks

Bigweed