Use the D: drive instead of the C: drive WinXP FAT32

If there isn't much data on D, then I recommend you back it up to DVD. Then use cloning software like clonezilla or macrium reflect to clone C to D. Afterwards, change the boot drive in the bios to use D as the boot drive. If all goes well, you can then format the old drive and copy the data from DVD onto it.

NOTE: windows will probably renumerate your drives in which case the drive letters may change. I use C & D referring to the drives as they are now. In most cases, your boot drive will end up being C.

I forgot to mention... why is he using FAT32? FAT32 restricts file sizes to a 4gb limit and doesn't support ownership or access lists. He'd be better off converting those drives to NTFS. There should be a program in the winows\system32 folder called convert.exe that can do this.

Just so you know, this is one physical drive partitioned with C and D. I wasn't sure if there was enough room to convert from FAT32 to NTFS. I read to use the command prompt and convert C: /fs:ntfs.

Also I was wondering if in disk management if I could just delete the D: partition and somehow extend the C: partition?

try this -
1 copy d: to c:\copyofd if there's room
2 go to 'mycomputer'
3 right click the d: drive
4 open properties
5 select 'compress drive', and unselect 'allow indexing'
6 copy c:\copyofd back to the d: drive
delete c:\copyofd

this will compress the drive and make it larger with no external differences.

Thank you for the replies... Maybe I didn't include enough detail the first time around.

I have a friend that has an old Sony VAIO desktop that has WinXP on it. Since the system is so old he doesn't want to put any money into it. The file system is FAT32. His hard drive is a wdc wd800jb-00jjc0 80GB. The C: drive is 32GB and there is 12GB free. The D: drive is 42.5GB and only has 800kb on it. This is one physical drive partitioned into logical drives C: and D:. He thinks the C: drive will be full soon and is wondering what the easiest and cheapest way would be to gain extra space.

My/his questions are:

1. Can the drives be merged somehow?

2. In disk management could he just delete the D: partition and somehow extend the C: partition?

3. Can he start saving files to the D: drive?

4. Can the drive names be switched?

5. Is there a way to just use the D: drive from now on?

6. Can he transfer the folders from C: to D:?

7. How much space is needed to convert from FAT32 to NTFS?

Are any of these questions possible? Can someone help answer these questions and tell me what would work and how to do it because I have no clue.

Well I took your advice after deleting the d drive in disk management I downloaded easus and used it to resize the c drive and after the operation it says "Mounting Volume Failed" with no other explanations. I am searching Google for any help and haven't had any luck yet. Any clues? Anyone?

Can easeus partition manager still see it properly? If so, make sure it's still listed as the active partition. I've used this program before with no problems, so not sure what could have gone wrong.

I gave up searching and all I did was retry the operation using less of the unallocated space and it worked! Thank God  
Thank you for your help, your suggestions have been most valuable!

Great, glad it worked out for you. Sorry for the scare/inconvenience. Like I said, never had it do that to me before.

Best answer selected by wiljim.