Merging partitions..when one is a system partition

SiR_dude

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As the title says...server at work - whatever dumbass set it up made the system partition a 10GB partition, and a 24GB data partition. Data partition, E:, is now mostly empty, but has some critical shared folders and programs installed on it, and C:, the system partition, has about 100MB free.

Is there any way to merge the partitions into one drive, call it C:, get rid of E:, without having to uninstall the programs and move the shares around? I have about 1 month to get this in order, and I'm running out of HDD space fast.:cry:
 
Yes it's possible but not without risks. Last time I did it I used Partition Magic which worked flawlessly.

There's a chance though that you might end up destroying both partitions. Although I don't know how much of a risk that is. I did it a few years back and I found countless threads from people who managed to fuck the process up.
 
I see two ways you could do this:

First way:

1.Backup both partitions structurally (either make an exact duplicate to another hard drive or make backup images using BootIt NG [there's a free trial])

2. Then use PartitionMagic to merge the partitions.


Second way: (cheap/free way)

1. Note all of the software installed on the logical/data partition as well as the shares.

2. Backup both partitions in the same way as above

3. Copy the data (file-by-file, not structurally) to an external hard drive, CD-R, or DVD-/+R (make sure the burn is good if do this)

4. Delete the logical and extended partitions (the logical partition will be "inside" the extended one)

5. Resize the system partition to fill the newly-created empty space in the drive

6. Copy the data from your backup back your hard drive


Either which way, you'll need to re-install the programs that were installed on the logical/data partition
as well as recreate the shares to point to where the data now exists on the system partition, because Windows won't be aware of the changes, other than that E: no longer exists.
 
Well, my first step will need to be changing the E: from being compressed to uncompressed. Is this just a matter of clearing the check in E: property page? If I do that, are there any repurcussions? Server is our one and only, and if I down it, I'm dead. That's why I need to get this thing running the way I want, so I know what I'm doing.

Who compresses a data drive on a server anyway? Doesn't that just make data access way slower?
 
GParted is a good partition software by the way...it's a linux boot cd (really easy to use, it saved me with a server at work once)...

All at your own risk of course :) Good backups are the key.

Isn't it QParted? I've heard about it. Our server runs Windows Server 2003, so I'm guessing that won't work for me.
 
Isn't it QParted? I've heard about it. Our server runs Windows Server 2003, so I'm guessing that won't work for me.
Wrong on both counts (well, OK, I see that QParted exists, but GParted is what we're talking about).

GParted runs independently on a bootable CD. Just download the ISO, burn it to a disc (let your burning app extract the ISO, of course), leave it in the drive and reboot. Make sure your optical drive is before your hard drive in your BIOS' boot order, of course.
 
Well, my first step will need to be changing the E: from being compressed to uncompressed. Is this just a matter of clearing the check in E: property page? If I do that, are there any repurcussions? Server is our one and only, and if I down it, I'm dead. That's why I need to get this thing running the way I want, so I know what I'm doing.

Who compresses a data drive on a server anyway? Doesn't that just make data access way slower?

Yes, compression makes data access slower. It's generally used for data that is accessed less-frequently (like archives) and where speed isn't important. Beware when decompressing that it could take a long time and obviously ensure that you have plenty of free space on that volume.
 
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