Merging 'System' and 'Boot' Partition. -Windows 8

guywitheglasses · Apr 4, 2013

Hello all

With my, 'Wonderful' experience with Hard Drive partitions. (No, really, Partitions are enough to make me rip my hair out, and my past experiences with them in the last 3 months have all been terrible...)

Anyway's, I had Windows 7 on this Laptop, Installed Windows XP instead and split my 500GB HDD up and stuck everything from Windows 7 onto a 100GB Partiton. I have upgraded to 8 earlier tonight.

So now, I have my 372GB C Drive (Boot, Logical) and 93.1GB E Drive (System, Primary). Windows is installed on C.

My goal is to Delete everything on E and merge that partition with the C drive without making my OS unbootable. I do have EaseUS Partition Master. I just wan't to make sure I do this right. :ouch:

Thanks Everybody,
Stephen R

System Info
Windows 8 Professional 32-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz
3.00GB DDR2 RAM
500GB SATA HDD
Dell Latitude E5400 Laptop

j2j663 · Apr 5, 2013

Unless I a missing something this shouldn't be terribly complicated. The only problem would be if you have another partition (maybe D

physically between your 2 current partitions (C: and E

. If there is a partition that is physically between your 2 partitions that there is no way to merge them easily.

However if C: and E: are physically next to each other and you don't need anything on your E: drive then it should be simple. You would delete the partition (E

in windows disk manager. Then you can extend the C: partition with the windows disk manager and you should be all set. No need for EaseUS

guywitheglasses · Apr 5, 2013

j2j663 :

So even if my E drive is the Primary System Partition, I can just delete it and merge it with C no problemo?

Also, deleting and formatting aren't options in EaseUS or Disk Manager :ouch:

I've attached a picture, Thank you

Ritchie

j2j663 · Apr 5, 2013

The primary partition designation doesn't mean a whole lot in this scenario. All of the partitions that are allocated on my system are primary partitions. All of this especially makes sense if you have had windows installed on any of the other partitions. As long as you are not trying to format your current C: drive or any other drive that is currently in use by the bootable operating system you will be fine. Just know that once you format a partition all the information will be gone so back up anything you are not willing to lose.

Second the screen shot that you have shared is not the windows disk manager. To get to the windows disk manager you need to right on the my computer link and them chose "manage". You will need to be using an administrator account as well (if it is your personal computer then you are probably the administrator). Then in the left hand column of the screen that shows up click on "Disk Management" You will then get a screen that shows details of all of your logical drives (partitions) on top and a list of your physical drives and their partitions underneath. If you right click on any of the partitions (top or bottom) you will have many options including: formatting, shrinking, extending and deleting partitions.

guywitheglasses · Apr 5, 2013

j2j663 :

The primary partition designation doesn't mean a whole lot in this scenario. All of the partitions that are allocated on my system are primary partitions. All of this especially makes sense if you have had windows installed on any of the other partitions. As long as you are not trying to format your current C: drive or any other drive that is currently in use by the bootable operating system you will be fine. Just know that once you format a partition all the information will be gone so back up anything you are not willing to lose.

Second the screen shot that you have shared is not the windows disk manager. To get to the windows disk manager you need to right on the my computer link and them chose "manage". You will need to be using an administrator account as well (if it is your personal computer then you are probably the administrator). Then in the left hand column of the screen that shows up click on "Disk Management" You will then get a screen that shows details of all of your logical drives (partitions) on top and a list of your physical drives and their partitions underneath. If you right click on any of the partitions (top or bottom) you will have many options including: formatting, shrinking, extending and deleting partitions.

I know that's not the Disk Manager, I was just showing the Partitions.
Alright, so just to be sure, I can safely format and merge them together?

j2j663 · Apr 5, 2013

I am nit picking here but only because a misunderstanding could be very bad. The answer to your question is no, you cannot format both of them. You would only format and/or delete the partition you do not care about. You would NOT format the C: drive (in fact I don't even think that windows will let you). You would extend the C: partition once the other partition is deleted. Once the partition is deleted it should show up as un-partitioned space (black in windows disk manager) right after the C: drive. If there is a partition between these two then the extension will no work.

guywitheglasses · Apr 6, 2013

j2j663 :

Sorry, meant to write format E:.
Alright, so I'm gonna format System Primary drive E, and merge it with C, and hope this thing still boots.

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Merging 'System' and 'Boot' Partition. -Windows 8

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