a quick, very important question about partitioning

iamzim · 09-01-2006, 04:34 AM

ok, i have two windows partitions, and i want to make it one, so i can utilize the space fully. if i delete the second partition using suse live, and then resize the first one over where the second one used to be, will it delete my data that was on my second (or first) partition? if so, what could i do to remedy this problem?

titopoquito · 09-01-2006, 05:11 AM

There's no way to expand the partition AND save your data. You will have to back it up somewhere and afterwards copy it to the expanded partition IMHO.

sn68 · 09-01-2006, 05:11 AM

Hi
If you delete the partition and resize then the data will be lost. You can merge the partions with software like Partion Magic (commercial) or Gparted (& some other software). Gparted also comes with a live CD (about 30 mb iso which one can freely download). I am not sure if you can do this with Suse live CD. In any case read the software documentation carefully before attempting anything.

studio512 · 09-01-2006, 05:24 AM

use partitionmagic, very user friendly.

just merge the two parts, n it will ask to name a folder in the new partition, where it will save the contents of ur old -second partition.

cheers

iamzim · 09-01-2006, 05:44 AM

i tried that, but when it began to do its thing, it was almost done merging and it gave me an "Error 4", and then proceeded to undo whatever it had done, and rebooted windows, so no change. should i try again? or is error "4" something bad i shouldnt mess around with again? im not very experienced with the whole partition thing.
BTW this was in partition magic

studio512 · 09-01-2006, 05:53 AM

no idea about error 4. try it again.

only this time, see to tht all other prgrms r closed n only pmagic is running. even better, if u can defragment both the partitions.

edit: btw, why do u wanna make it one. its always better to have two. of ur data n one for ur apps. any specific reason?

iamzim · 09-01-2006, 08:37 AM

well, i only have about a total of 7GB out of 100 free, and one has 4 and one has 2, and there is nothing else i can move to make enough space. also, when you run partition magic to do things with partitons, it restarts the computer and dos the partition at a dos-like environment before windows runs.

monsm · 09-01-2006, 09:00 AM

I would uninstall and delete everything that isn't stricktly needed first. Run checkdisk and fix any file system errors on both partitions. If you plan to shrink the merged partitions to make room for linux you should also run defragment (you might have to run it 2 or 3 times to get full efect of it).
Then you can run partition magic and merge. Hopefully that should sort it and hopefully avoid the error.
Might be an idea to create the Partition magic dos diskettes and boot with them when you get to the merging.