Partition problems

[Dutch Guy]

I have a SSD with Windows 7 64 bit on it and a 1TB storage drive with 3 partitions.
I had installed XP on partiton D with games on E and files on F.
I formatted the D partition and wanted to add that space to partition E or F but when I try to delete partition D I get a message that this partition is active and deleting it causes all partitions to become unreadable (E and F are not active)

What does an active partition mean and what program (free?) can I use to merge D with E or F without losing all the data?

 

[DragonQ]

Active means it's being booted from. Presumably you left your 1 TB drive attached when installing Windows 7 to your SSD? This is a bad idea, since now your boot files are on that 1 TB drive (despite your OS being on the SSD). I'd do this:

1) Use EasyBCD (free) to move your boot files to your SSD.
2) Use Partition Wizard Home Edition (free) to merge D:, E: and F:.

 

[Dutch Guy]

Active means it's being booted from. Presumably you left your 1 TB drive attached when installing Windows 7 to your SSD? This is a bad idea, since now your boot files are on that 1 TB drive (despite your OS being on the SSD). I'd do this:

1) Use EasyBCD (free) to move your boot files to your SSD.
2) Use Partition Wizard Home Edition (free) to merge D:, E: and F:.

I indeed had to move my boot partition to the drive Windows 7 is on with EasyBCD which went fine.

I tried Partition Wizard Home Edition last night and merging isn't available on that version, only on the Pro version that isn't free

 

[DragonQ]

Hmm, never noticed that. Use the free version of EASEUS Partition Master instead, that supports partition merging.

 

[Dutch Guy]

Hmm, never noticed that. Use the free version of EASEUS Partition Master instead, that supports partition merging.

That worked, it didn't have an option of merging but I deleted the D partition and then added the unallocated space to the F partition.