Removing a partition from a drive to make one larger drive??

[Chris [BEANS]]

Hi,

I have XP installed on my C: drive. This is a fresh install on a new system.
The HDD was previously partitioned on the system it came from.

I formatted the drive prior to re-installing XP.

Once everything was up and running I discovered that the drive appeared much smaller than it should...

It seems that the partition remained and so XP was now installed on what used to be C: and what used to be the D: partition on the drive is now shown as 'unallocated space'.

I have found this via Google:-

How to use Disk Management
To start Disk Management:

1. Log on as administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
2. Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.
3. In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk Management window appears. Your disks and volumes appear in a graphical view and list view. To customize how you view your disks and volumes in the upper and lower panes of the window, point to Top or Bottom on the View menu, and then click the view that you want to use.

which is great, and by right clicking the 'unallocated space' I have been able to allocate it a drive letter and make it usable space.....


This is fine, and by no means the end of the world if this is all I can do, but ideally, I'd like to remove the partition altogether and have my new XP drive take up the entirety of the space on the HDD.

Is this possible without a reinstall of XP and if so how.





Cheers, and apologies of the poor explanation, I'm a stone cold noob
If (because I'm bound to have) I've missed any important information, just ask and I'll answer.

 

[SourChipmunk]

There are partioning programmes designed for it (Partition Magic comes to mind), but they are pricey and from what I understand are not 100% reliable.

If you have a fairly fresh install then you would probably be better off wiping it and re-doing it.

 

[jbloggs]

gParted (live CD) or EASEUS Patrition Manager will do this for you...

 

[Tripnologist]

gparted is great... and free.

 

[uv]

another vote for gparted