How do I merge two HD partitions into one?

Question

I've just swapped a 200 GB Win XP boot drive for a 300 GB one. I used Acronis True Image to create a copy of the C: drive, swapped the disks, then restored the image to the new 300 GB drive. All worked fine: I am able to boot off the new C: drive, but True Image created the same partition size as the original drive (186.25 GB) leaving 93.20 GB of unallocated space (unpartitioned too for that matter).

I simply want to reclaim that 93 GB of space. How do I do this without re-partitioning C: (and thus losing my data)? It's formated using NTFS.

Many thanks in advance,
Dan

osprey4 · Answer

You should be able to resize and relocate the destination partition by dragging it or its borders with the mouse or by entering corresponding values into the appropriate fields, as shown here:

http://acronis.apposite.com.hk/products/Imagesever/restoring.htm#

You may need to re-do the image restoration.

Dan_Honemann · Answer

Thanks, Osprey. I didn't get that option on restore because I chose to restore then entire disk rather than the specific partition. I'm re-running the restore and chose the partition this time and stretched it to fill the 300GB drive. I'll let you know if the drive remains bootable once it's done...

Dan

Dan_Honemann · Answer

It worked! Many thanks, Osprey. Dan

fulch92a · Answer

Is it possible to do this the opposite way?  Can I make an image of my drive and decrease the size of the partitions when I restore it so that the partitions will be smaller?

osprey4 · Answer

I know you can do this with Ghost. It appears that Acronis True Image can both shrink and expand the partition.

fulch92a · Answer

Is there a fully functional freeware version of Ghost or Acronis?  I'm a college student and don't really have the dough to dish out.  I'd just format and reinstall but I'd like to keep the PC restore.  Plus, it would be pretty hard to reinstall since dell didn't send me the driver disk.

rickmktg · Answer

@fulch92a wrote:
Is there a fully functional freeware version of Ghost or Acronis? I'm a college student and don't really have the dough to dish out. I'd just format and reinstall but I'd like to keep the PC restore. Plus, it would be pretty hard to reinstall since dell didn't send me the driver disk.

No, both packages cost money. But you can buy Norton SystemWorks Pro, including Ghost, FREE after rebate if you keep your eyes open.

Storage, Drives & Media

How do I merge two HD partitions into one?

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