How do I combine two partitions?

Rikki · 29 Jun 2006 at 08:01

Hi folks,

Just got a new laptop (Acer 5612) and for some unknown reason the hard drive has been split down the middle into two 35gb partitions (both of which are Fat32). The second one is completely blank so I was wondering how to join the two together then set them as NTFS so I can do video capture of more than 20 minutes (4gb file limit).

Many thanks,

Rikki

rpstewart · 29 Jun 2006 at 09:17

FAT32 to NTFS conversion is easy, the convert.exe utility within Windows is designed to do exactly that.

Combining partitions however needs a third party tool, I've used Partition Magic in the past to do this. There are risks however as PM has been known to screw up and render both partitions inaccessible.

Rikki · 29 Jun 2006 at 13:35

Thanks for the reply. I'll have a hunt around and see what I can find.

PS: Love your website, what gear you using (got an S3 Pro myself with Nikon/Sigma glass)

rpstewart · 29 Jun 2006 at 13:48

Rikki said:
PS: Love your website, what gear you using (got an S3 Pro myself with Nikon/Sigma glass)

I'm a Canon man myself, 1DMkII, a couple of nice Ls and a sore shoulder from carrying it all around

ByteJuggler · 29 Jun 2006 at 14:54

If the other partition is empty, then delete and then resize the original one to use the free space. As with all potentially destructive operations, make sure you have satisfactory fall-back plans in place before you start (e.g. backups or whatever, and verify they're sound.) Resizing the partition can be done with PartitionMagic but note that many/most Linux rescue cd's now come with a partitoin resizing tool as well (so you don't have to go buy PartitionMagic if you don't want to.)