Changing partition size in windows

[Wossi]

How safe is it to change the size of a partition in windows? In all I have 4 partitions on 1 drive and I want to combine 2 of them but not sure if it will fudge up. I will be transferring the data from the partition I don't need onto the other partition first so it just a case of using something like partition magic to delete the empty partition and extend the other one?

 

[MarcLister]

It's pretty safe I'd say. I've done this kind of thing lots of times without any problems.

Using Partition Magic you can move the data from the partition you will delete into a folder on the other partition. So say the partition you will delete is F: and you will move the data to E: Partition Magic normally suggests something like using a folder called "F" on E. You can then delete the partition and extend the other partition by the same amount that the old partition was. You then press the button to do this and the PC should reset and run the whole process in DOS. You don't actually do the repartitioning in Windows just the organising of it.

 

[hp7909]

With Acronis Disk Director I've found its better to make any partition changes in Windows rather than from the bootable CD. It will restart accordingly because some changes obviously can not be done in Windows, but it feels like Windows takes note of the changes faster & effectively. I say this because, when I use the bootable CD (which is faster cos doesn't need to keep restarting) Windows on several occassions has frozen up on me

 

[marc2003]

i DO NOT trust parition magic to merge partitions. i'm speaking from experience here.....

it's fine for resizing paritions though. so if you can temporarily get the data off the partition you want to remove then do that and then resize the other partition to take up the remaining free space.

and remember to backup anything that's important first....