Can I consolidate my partitioned hard drive? (1 Viewer)

[Brian Perry]

My three-yr-old Dell Dimension PC came with an 8 GB hard drive, but for some reason it was split into drives C, D, E and F, each with 2 GB. I am almost out of room on C, where most of the programs are, and it seems like a hassle to move things between four different locations. Is there a way to combine everything into one and have a C drive with 8 GB?

 

[Mike LS]

You can delete the partitions, but I don't believe you can do it without doing a complete reformat.

If your system is 3 years old and has never been cleaned off, it's probably about time to do it.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

To merge them you'd need to an app called Partition Magic. However it's not particularly cheap, especially since this is a one-off change.

I would make a copy of your data somewhere, wipe the drive and reconfigure it to one partition, then reinstall.

 

[Steven K]

To merge them you'd need to an app called Partition Magic. However it's not particularly cheap, especially since this is a one-off change

Bah! Stay Away from Partition Magic! Either stay away, or back up ALL of your prized data before you use it.

 

[Brian Perry]

I would make a copy of your data somewhere, wipe the drive and reconfigure it to one partition, then reinstall.

If I go this route, do I need a special software program or does it get done via the Windows 98 start-disc?

 

[John_Berger]

I would actually recommend acquiring a new hard drive and reinstalling Windows. Even with older equipment, new hard drives can actually make a difference in speed because of more efficient design and faster transfer rates even over older IDE controllers. You can easily get a 20 MB or 40 MB for less than $100 nowadays. Then you can connect your old drive as a slave drive (after chaning the necessary jumper) and just copy your old data over to the new drive, which you partition the way that you want it to be.

Once you're done, you can do what you want with your current drive. I use my old drives as hardware backup in the event that the newer hardware fails.

I have no idea why Dell would have partitioned your hard drive like that. Even three years ago we were well beyond the old, OLD DOS restriction of 2 GB per partition.

 

[John_Berger]

If I go this route, do I need a special software program or does it get done via the Windows 98 start-disc?

FDISK is the utility that you need to repartition the hard drive. That should be in C:WindowsCommand, and you'll need to access it from a bootable floppy disk.

The whole procedure is a bit complicated, unfortunately, because you'll need a boot floppy with FDISK, EDIT, and most importantly the CD-ROM drivers installed so that you can reinstall Windows 98.

The other alternative is that you re-partition the hard drive and format it so that the hard drive is at least bootable (format c: /s) and install the CD-ROM drivers from diskette.

As long as you can get the CD-ROM drivers installed before you start installing Windows, you'll be fine.

I'm over-simplifying the process, unfortunately, particularly if you've never done it before. (I've done this hundreds of times in the past few years, so I take most of it for granted.)

 

[Ken Chan]

I would consider Partition Magic. You can easily get it for $60 (if you look around, probably less) -- how much is your time worth?

Yes, you should have a backup of your important stuff, but you should have that anyway.

//Ken

 

[Brian Perry]

Thanks guys -- I'll probably buy a new HD, it seems the easiest route.

 

[John Thomas]

but for some reason it was split into drives C, D, E and F, each with 2 GB.

You started out on Win95?

 

[Brian Perry]

You started out on Win95?

Yes, and then Win 98 was installed with something called FAT32.

 

[Joel Mack]

Bah! Stay Away from Partition Magic! Either stay away, or back up ALL of your prized data before you use it.

I've been using PM since version 1.0, and never had a problem with it, or lost any data...FWIW.

 

[Michael*K]

You can easily get a 20 MB or 40 MB for less than $100 nowadays.

Can probably get them for less than $10. The 40 or 60GB models can now be had for less than $100.

 

[Brian Perry]

Okay, I need some help -- my desktop is not working (I am writing this from my laptop).

I purchased a 60-GB Seagate HD for $79. Seemed like a good deal, around $1 per GB. Following instructions from their website, I did the following:

Installed the new HD as a slave.
Copied files from the old C: drive to the new HD.

The new drive worked fine and the system showed it was now the new C: drive with 60 GB. However, I noticed that many of my peripherals were not working (such as printer, CD-writer, etc.). I then did the last step recommended by Seagate (via their DiscWizard program), which was changing the old HD to slave and making the new HD the master.

I followed their directions for the jumpers, but something must have gone wrong because my computer now does not recognize either HD. When it boots, it goes through the initial startup but I can see that the HDs are not identified as they were before -- and then I get the message "Operating system not found." I tried changing the configuration of the jumpers (on each HD), and even removing each one from the PC, but I always get the same message. When I went into Setup, I see that the computer shows both primary IDE controllers as "None." Why is it not recognizing them? Is it the jumpers or something in software that was changed by the DiscWizard program?

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Rob Gillespie]

Brian,
You really would be better off wiping the new drive, installing Windows from scratch and then copying any of your own data back from the old hard drive.

 

[Brian Perry]

Rob,

I will probably do that but right now I can't even get the computer past the setup screen because it is not recognizing either hard drive.

 

[Brian Perry]

Whoops--nevermind, with all the pushing and pulling, the IDE connector had come loose from the motherboard.

So I'm back in business (somewhat), trying to get these peripherals to work. Reinstalling Windows 98 right now...

 

[VinhT]

Make sure the drivers or software for your peripheral devices weren't installed on the other partitions. If so, then they don't exist on the new hard drive and therefore don't work.

 

[John Thomas]

Go with Rob's suggestion. Installing an OS over another OS is a big no-no as far as I'm concerned. If you're going to install Win98 just fdisk and format, then install Win98.

 

[Brian Perry]

Well, I'm 99% there -- the only thing I haven't been able to recover is the HP CD-burner. The weird thing is that although it comes up on the startup screen as an identified device (as well as in Device Manager), the HP software doesn't recognize it. I uninstalled the software and then tried to re-install it, but the setup program from the CD will not run (either via autorun or by manually using Run from the Start Menu). Both my original CD-ROM and the HP CD burner play CDs fine; it is just the HP burner software that is giving me problems now.

Again, thanks for all the help.