PC Buyer Beware! - Computer information website - Don't get ripped off - Forewarned is forearmed

Forewarned is forearmed...

Custom Search

My HP desktop PC's hard disk drive has a C: boot partition and a D: Recovery partition. How can I delete the D: drive and make the C: drive fill the unallocated disk space?

CLICK HERE! TO RETURN TO THE HARD DISK DRIVE PROBLEMS PAGES

Problem

My HP desktop PC, running Windows XP Professional, has two primary partitions on one hard disk drive. Partition C: (NTFS), taking up most of the disk space, holds the system and all the programs. Partition D: (FAT32) is the HP Recovery partition. Since I got the PC, I have never had to use the Recovery partition. I also have a set of Recovery CDs if I need them. I want to delete the D: partition, and expand the C: partition to occupy the entire drive. I know that this can be done with a third-party program, such as Partition Magic, but can the Disk Management utility in Windows XP be used? If not, is there any reliable freeware that would do the job? I don't want to purchase expensive software just to do that job.

Answer

Disk Management in Windows Vista and Windows 7 can do what you want - delete the D: drive and then expand the C: drive so that it uses the unallocated disk space - but not the version in Windows XP.

Here is what I did myself to solve your problem on a desktop PC that I have.

I used the free Partition Wizard Home Edition boot disk that I burned from the free ISO file that I downloaded from its website - http://www.partitionwizard.com/.

To burn an ISO file to a recordable CD or DVD so that it can be used as a boot disc, you use the burn-as-an-image option that most disc-burning software provides.

I used the Windows Disk Management utility to delete the D: partition. You just have to right-click on the partition's represented area, select Delete and it instantly turns into unallocated free space. Then just use the disc you have burned from an ISO file to boot into Partition Wizard. Note that the BIOS setup program must have the CD/DVD drive set as the first boot device in order to boot from a boot disc. The first boot screen usually tells you which key to press in order to enter Setup. It's usually the Del or F1 key.

The analysis showed unallocated space in front of the C: partition - the space freed up when I deleted the D: drive - and a small amount of unallocated space after the C: partition. I decided to move the entire C: partition forward, starting from where the D: partition used to be. That is, to expand the C: drive to fill all of the unallocated space. This was all done graphically in Partition Wizard by dragging the entire C: partition to the left, and then dragging the right edge of the partition all the way to the right, followed by clicking on the Apply button.

Note that you can only expand a drive into unallocated space on either side of it as represented in Disk Management. If there is another partition/drive between one drive and any unallocated space, there is no way to get around the drive that is in the way in any partitioning software. If you had a C: drive, a D: drive and some unallocated space showing on the right hand side of the D: drive, you cannot expand the C: drive into it, you would have to remove the D: drive, take as much of the unallocated space that doing so creates and then recreate the D:drive. All of the data on the D: drive will be lost, so you would have to have a backup of it.

The whole process only took about 15 minutes. I felt apprehensive when all disk activity stopped for a couple of minutes during the process, but it eventually completed successfully and booted back into Windows. After a bit of activity, a Windows message said that it had identified and installed new hardware and asked to reboot. After that reboot, everything was as I wanted it.

Partition Wizard Home Edition is a very good free program, requiring no installation, doing all of its work outside Windows.

Computer diagnostics: How to solve or fix common desktop and laptop PC problems

Click a link below to visit the described category of computer problems and solutions addressed on this website:

1. - Recovering and repairing Windows XP when a computer crashes or fails to boot

2. - Recovering and repairing Windows Vista when a computer crashes or fails to boot

3. - Windows Vista problems: How to fix problems with Windows Vista

4. - Recover, restore and repair Windows 7 (Win7) when a computer crashes or fails to boot

5. - Windows 7 problems: How to diagnose and fix problems with Windows 7

6. - Windows XP: How to troubleshoot and fix shutdown, restart (reboot), and startup problems

7. - Typical DLL (Dynamic Link Library) device driver problems

8. - Software problems: How to fix problems with Windows, programs, and utilities

Also visit the Software pages on this site for more information on specific software-related information and problems.

9. - Motherboard and power supply problems: How to fix common problems with faulty motherboards (mainboards) and power supplies (PSUs)

10. - RAM memory problems: How to fix problems with the Random Access Memory

11. - Hard disk drive problems: How to fix computer hard disk drive (HDD) problems

12. - CD/DVD drive problems: How to fix problems with CD and DVD drives and discs

13. - Processor problems: How fix common processor (CPU) problems

14. - Video/graphics card problems: How fix common computer video and graphics problems

15. - USB and FireWire problems: - How to fix common USB and FireWire problems

16. - Network problems: How to fix common wired and wireless networking and internet problems

17. - Laptop/notebook problems: How to address or fix the most common laptop/notebook problems

Contact me

Click here! to contact me concerning the problem addressed on this page or the PC Buyer Beware! website.

CLICK HERE! TO RETURN TO THE HARD DISK DRIVE PROBLEMS PAGES