Removing a partition and adding it to Windows partition

[zellett]

This seemed like a pretty straight forward problem, but my initial attempt didn't exactly work out.

I've got a computer with an 80 Gig hard drive with 3 partitions:

Windows XP - 10 GB
RedHat Enterprise Linux - 68 GB or so

We don't use RedHat anymore, and Windows is running out of space on its partition, so I want to delete the Linux partition and add it to Windows so that it is just one big partition.

I know Windows doesn't allow this kind of stuff, so I downloaded Gparted Live. Where I can select which drive it is looking at, it shows the entire drive, only the Linux partition, and a 10 MB boot partition as options from the menu in the upper right hand corner.

If I select the entire drive, it shows the correct partitions, with the 10 MB boot partition in the middle. I can delete both the unwanted partitions and extend the Windows partition to encompass the entire disk, but when I try to apply it, it works for a few seconds and then I get errors, and nothing changes. Its at work, so I don't remember exactly what the error was. I'll post again on Monday. After I tried that a few times, I rebooted and Windows seems to run fine.

I think we still have the reinstall disks that came with it ( its a Falcon NW) so if I have to, I could just reformat the entire disk and reinstall Windows, but I'd rather not.

Any ideas what the problom might be? I think it might have something to do with that small boot partition. It isn't listed under disk management in Windows, so does that mean it is part of Windows?

Is there another program I can use to do what I want (that is free)?

 

[roadrunner197069]

You can do it in windows disk management.

 

[zellett]

Are you sure?

I thought you couldn't because Windows would want to format the entire space. I know I can just reformat the linux partition, but I want everything to become one partition. I didn't think Windows would allow that.

I guess since I don't need the linux partition anyway then it won't hurt to try. Thanks for the quick response though.

 

[roadrunner197069]

Im positive. Just delete it and the right click C: and choose extend.

Windows wont let you format your C: partition.

 

[Shawnhath]

Not to hijack but can I enable JBOD by doing this?
I have a 250gb as my C: and I have an extra 40gb as my D:, can I make in one big disk in vista?

 

[roadrunner197069]

Not to hijack but can I enable JBOD by doing this?
I have a 250gb as my C: and I have an extra 40gb as my D:, can I make in one big disk in vista?

No. You can merge partitions, not hard drives.

 

[Paperdoc]

You can do it in windows disk management.

I'm not so sure about that. My understanding is that Windows (including XP, the particular one here) will allow Partitions to be expanded into available disk space EXCEPT the C: Boot Partition. That one you can't change in windows, and you need Gparted or Partition Magic to do it.

To OP, if I read it right you tried to expand the C: Partition to take in two other empty spaces all at once. Maybe Gparted will only let you do one addition at a time, then the other afterwards?? I don't know - have never done this this way - just a thought.

 

[cjl]

I've successfully expanded my C drive before using the windows tools (though I use diskpart via the command prompt, not the gui based disk management). You could always try the command prompt version. Start an elevated command prompt (type cmd.exe in the start menu thing on vista, and then right click the result that comes up and do run as admin). Type "diskpart". Once the diskpart prompt shows up, type "list volume". It should list off every volume on your system, the drive they are on, the size, and the associated letter. You can then type "select volume 1" if the volume you want to select is number one for example. You can then type "delete volume" to delete the ones you want to get rid of, or "extend" to extend it (if you don't add any parameters to the extend command, the default is to extend it to fill all available space on the disk).

 

[wheelthrown]

goto disk management
Right click on partition you no longer want and delete it
Right click on main"boot " partition and select extend... your done!

 

[zellett]

Well that didn't exactly go as planned.

When I got to work I discovered that what ever I did on Friday must have done something. In disk management, It read that the C: drive was 68... GB (what it should have been) plus that 100MB space. But in Windows explorer, it only showed the 10 GB that were there earlier. And nothing else, like the entire disk was only 10 GB.

Now that I look back, I probably should have run chkdsk or something so that it would discover the extra space, but I didn't.

Anyway, I couldn't try what some of you had suggested (extending the C; partition through disk manangement) because it already read that it was all one space. So I ran gparted again and recreated the old partitions about where they were. Then I went back into disk management and tried to delete/extend to make it right, but extend was not one of the options as far as I could see.

But while I was there, I deleted that 100MB partition. I think it was what would cause the RedHat boot menu to come up during startup (where I could select which OS to load).

I put the gparted disk back in again and restarted. I again merged everything into one partition and I didn't get any errors. So I finished up and restarted, only to find some strange prompt that I'd never seen before. (it was some sort of Linux thing, obviously looking for the operating system that is no longer there.) But I can get around that. There is not way to boot into Windows.

Probably shouldn't have removed that small partition.

So I decided to just copy some files off the drive onto another computer. And when I go to pull off the SATA data cable, the plastic part that is supposed to be part of the drive casing (that holds the leads) snaps off, stuck in the end of the cable.

So I managed to screw a lot of things up.

(I managed to wedge the cable back into the drive so I can get the data off it. but I ruined a perfectly good 74 Gig Raptor.)

Thanks anyway to all of those who responded.

 

[zellett]

I ended up just reinstalling everything from a recovery image that came with the computer. (It didn't even have SP2 yet!!)

And I think the HD itself might still be okay. I used some electrical tape to hold the cable in place, so it should be fine unless I knock the case over, in which case I'd probably have bigger issues.

 

[wheelthrown]

LMAO... that sux... good luck...