How to merge two hard disk drive partitions?

Question

Hello, I have recently upgraded my laptop memory to 4GB but my OS was 32bit, so it only supported up to 3GB, so I made a new hard drive 'Simple Volume' partition and installed the 64bit Windows 7 (So it was much easier to copy programs and drivers). I copied over my programs and drivers, and want to merge the original partition and the new partition so I can use all the space on the hard drive.

How would I do this?

The original partition has Windows 7 32bit installed, but If formatting that partition is need, that is okay, but is not okay if I need to format both partitions. (I don't have any external HDD or large USB to backup.)

Answer 1

You should be able to do this via Disk Management. You'll need to delete the partition you want to merge with the new one, so it's unallocated space (will require formatting), once that's complete you'll need to right click on the primary OS partition and choose "Extend Volume" and the choose the size you want to extend it to.

To get to Disk Management you'll need to right click on my computer/computer and choose manage and it will be in the list on the left hand side.

Answer 2

Hello,

The TechNet Wiki Discussion Forum is a place for the TechNet Wiki Community to engage, question, organize, debate, help, influence and foster the TechNet Wiki content, platform and Community.

Please note that this forum exists to discuss TechNet Wiki as a technology/application.

As it's off-topic here, I am moving the question to the Where is the forum for... forum.

Karl

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Answer 3

Hello,

I'd ask in the Windows 7 forum on Microsoft Community.

As the Microsoft Community is on a different platform, we cannot move the question for you.

Once there, click on Participate near the top of the screen, and select 'Ask a Question' or 'Start a Discussion':

Karl

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When you see answers and helpful posts, please click Vote As Helpful, Propose As Answer, and/or Mark As Answer.
My Blog: Unlock PowerShell
My Book: Windows PowerShell 2.0 Bible
My E-mail: -join('6D73646E5F6B61726C406F75746C6F6F6B2E636F6D'-split'(?<=\G.{2})'|%{if($_){[char][int]"0x$_"}})