Unpartitioning Drive

carlingman · 11-02-2004, 18:25

Does anyone know if it possible and what is the simplest way to unpartition drives C and D in Windows XP Home.

Family member has reinstalled XP but ballsed up the installation and has got XP on the 5 gig C Partition and a D Partition of 75 gig.

I am reluctant to let him on the WEB to download partition magic etc as he has not got enough space on the drive to install any Windows Updates or firewalls and have advised to stop unconnected.

Any ideas on how to repair this and ultimately get it back to drive letter even if it means reloading XP.

Is there an option in the XP disk to do this or some other way to do it via the BIOS or booting with or without disk support etc.

Cheers

Xaccers · 11-02-2004, 18:31

If you want to keep the data, partition magic is the way
If it doesn't matter that you will lose everything, reinstall XP and when you select where to install it, delete the two current partitions and create a single 80GB one.

Partitioning made sense when using FAT16/32, but with XP using NTFS it is only useful if you have only one hard drive and want to keep important data off of C: should you ever need to format and reinstall the OS

Unfortunately tradition is a hard thing to get rid of. Most windows 2000/2003 servers these days are still built with a 4GB C: (a legacy of previous versions of NT which could only use VFAT during the text part of the install program, and VFAT can only see 4GB)

paulyoung666 · 11-02-2004, 18:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by Xaccers

If you want to keep the data, partition magic is the way
If it doesn't matter that you will lose everything, reinstall XP and when you select where to install it, delete the two current partitions and create a single 80GB one.

Partitioning made sense when using FAT16/32, but with XP using NTFS it is only useful if you have only one hard drive and want to keep important data off of C: should you ever need to format and reinstall the OS

yep i would go along with that

Sociable · 11-02-2004, 18:35

As before use a Win98 or ME bootfloppy and use Fdisk to reset the partitions which will also cause a full format to be needed.

If you cant see the partitions just delete the unknown partition which is actually NTFS but cant be seen by Win 98.

When setting up the new partitions one option would be to use a small C: drive to carry Win 98 and then install XP to the D: partition thus setting up Dual boot which has the advantage of enabling speedy access should XP ever go down and also allow older programs to be installed to run under Win 98.

To do this just choose the non upgrade option in the XP install from Win 98 and also select to nominate which partition to use. This gives a completely clean install of XP too so that is another advantage of doing it that way.

If you want the 98 partition to be able to see the XP partition just select to leave the current file system intact when it asks so it doesnt convert the Fat32 to NTFS as part of the install.

carlingman · 11-02-2004, 18:35

Sorted thanks,

Managed to delete the partition and rename the drive.

He has lost 5 gig but it works and is now downloading the windows updates as we speak.

aliferste · 11-02-2004, 20:33

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

yep i would go along with that

THATS why you have over 2000 psts and i only have 500

paulyoung666 · 11-02-2004, 20:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by aliferste

THATS why you have over 2000 psts and i only have 500

tee ****ing hee , quick fetch me a doctor my sides are splitting

aliferste · 11-02-2004, 20:36

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

tee ****ing hee , quick fetch me a doctor my sides are splitting

touchy tonight are we ?

paulyoung666 · 11-02-2004, 20:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by aliferste

touchy tonight are we ?

not really , i was just not sure how to take your reply that was all

aliferste · 11-02-2004, 20:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

not really , i was just not sure how to take your reply that was all

NEXT you will be accusing ME of posting THIS just to get my post count up

paulyoung666 · 11-02-2004, 21:10

Quote:

Originally Posted by aliferste

NEXT you will be accusing ME of posting THIS just to get my post count up

would i do such a thing , apologies my mate , the penguin didnt hurt btw

aliferste · 11-02-2004, 21:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulyoung666

would i do such a thing , apologies my mate , the penguin didnt hurt btw

No problem

Bifta · 11-02-2004, 21:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by carlingman

Does anyone know if it possible and what is the simplest way to unpartition drives C and D in Windows XP Home.

Family member has reinstalled XP but ballsed up the installation and has got XP on the 5 gig C Partition and a D Partition of 75 gig.

I am reluctant to let him on the WEB to download partition magic etc as he has not got enough space on the drive to install any Windows Updates or firewalls and have advised to stop unconnected.

Any ideas on how to repair this and ultimately get it back to drive letter even if it means reloading XP.

Is there an option in the XP disk to do this or some other way to do it via the BIOS or booting with or without disk support etc.

Cheers

(for future reference you could probably have used partition magic to sort it aht)

ZrByte · 11-02-2004, 21:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by carlingman

Sorted thanks,

Managed to delete the partition and rename the drive.

He has lost 5 gig but it works and is now downloading the windows updates as we speak.

What do you mean he has lost 5gig? you can merge those 5gigs into the 75gb partition if thats what you mean, you dont even need a third party proggy like PArtition magic, this can be done from computer management in administrative tools, Im pretty sure this bit is still available in XP home, though why anybody would use such a horrible OS is beyond me (Use XP pro or win 2k, much better IMO)

Stuart · 11-02-2004, 21:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZrByte

What do you mean he has lost 5gig? you can merge those 5gigs into the 75gb partition if thats what you mean, you dont even need a third party proggy like PArtition magic, this can be done from computer management in administrative tools, Im pretty sure this bit is still available in XP home, though why anybody would use such a horrible OS is beyond me (Use XP pro or win 2k, much better IMO)

This only applies if Disk Managment lists the type as "Dynamic".