Hard-drive split?

And if you only have a recovery cd / partion then likely your PC would be
restored to the same state

Partition Magic or Acronis Disk Director can combine partitions on the fly -
I've used both

"Bill R" wrote in message

> "Brian V" wrote in message
>
>> Inside my computer tower is one hard-drive. But I have two in my
>> computer. It
>> is like the drive is seperated into a C: and D: drive. Why is this? Can I
>> rejoin them? If they were split, does it take away from the amount of
>> space
>> there is there (say it's 400gB would this situation make it 350Gb one has
>> access to. The other 50Gb being a buffer of some kind?)?
>
> Your hard disk has been partioned. That is it has been formatted into two
> parts which are seen as separate drives. It is possible to re-format into
> one partition. Either copy off ALL your data and reformat and re-install
> Windows and all your software - you would, then have to reconfigure your
> software. It is also possible to re-partition using software like
> Partition Magic which claims to re-partition without the need to
> reformat - but I can't comment on its success..
>
> Overall the best advice is to do nothing - unless it is actually causing a
> problem!
>
> Regards.
>
> Bill Ridgeway
>
 >> Stay informed about: Hard-drive split? 

Brian V wrote:
> Inside my computer tower is one hard-drive. But I have two in my computer. It
> is like the drive is seperated into a C: and D: drive. Why is this? Can I
> rejoin them? If they were split, does it take away from the amount of space
> there is there (say it's 400gB would this situation make it 350Gb one has
> access to. The other 50Gb being a buffer of some kind?)?

If this is a pre-built computer, with a recovery partition on it, don't
touch it until you understand a little more about the setup. Some people
get all excited by the opportunity to expand C: and wipe out the only
copy of Windows provided with their computer. There may be a hidden
partition, with your recovery software in it. Check the computer instruction
manual, for the procedure that covers burning a "recovery CD" or
"recovery DVD". If you prepare your recovery media in advance, you'll
be prepared for the day that the hard drive dies on you.

This tool will display the four primary partition entries on a hard drive.
A hard drive can have more than four partitions. One of the partition
entries can have a special entry that indicates more logical partitions
exist. This tool doesn't show any logical partitions. I use only
primary ones on my machine (more convenient).

PTEDIT32 for Windows
[URL="ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip"]ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip[/URL]

PTEDIT32 screenshot
[URL="http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/vista-installation-setup/7308d1224108918-hidden-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif"]http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/vista-installation-setup/7308d1224108918-hidden-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif[/URL]

You can see in the sample screen shot, there are three partitions on the hard
drive being displayed. Type "07" or "0C" might be considered "normal"
partitions. The ones marked "DE" and "DB" are different. "DE" is something
that Dell invented. Each manufacturer can hide different things in the partition
table, so it is a good idea to do your research first, so you don't erase something
you'll want later. At least one computer manufacturer uses an HPA (Host
Protected Area), which you can't even see in that display.

If you were building your own computer, you wouldn't do anything nearly
so complicated.

There is a table of partition types here, to help you decode them. Using
a single byte would seem to have been a mistake.

[URL="http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html"]http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html[/URL]

Paul
 >> Stay informed about: Hard-drive split? 

Brian V wrote:
> Inside my computer tower is one hard-drive. But I have two in my
> computer. It is like the drive is seperated into a C: and D: drive.
> Why is this? Can I rejoin them? If they were split, does it take away
> from the amount of space there is there (say it's 400gB would this
> situation make it 350Gb one has access to. The other 50Gb being a
> buffer of some kind?)?

I will assume a few things, so please correct me if I'm wrong.

1. You have a PC that contains one hard drive and when you open My
Computer, you see two "drives" (these are actually partitions) listed,
namely C: and D:.

Some PC manufacturers (Sony, for instance) pre-configure the hard drives
so there are two partitions. C: is meant for the operating system and
all it settings and updates and also for all your installed programs,
including all their settings. D: is meant for all your data: your word
processing doucments, spreadsheets, music files like mp3s, videos, etc.
The PC manufacturer could have just as easily included only one giant
partition, which would contain *everything*.

Why do certain manufacturers do this? Perhaps there is a restore program
that will work quicker if the system partition isn't too large.

You can only rejoin them by using a third-party disk partitioning
program like EASEUS or Partition Magic. But you might decide you like
the default layout; there's nothing wrong with it and there is some
logic behind it. That is, you might be satisfied leaving well enough
alone.

In addition to these two visible partitions, it's possible you have
other *hidden* partitions. They can be seen by using the built-in
Windows program Disk Management. Some hidden partitions are relatively
small and contain diagnostics. Others are fairly large and contain an
image that cean be used to restore the PC to its original condition.
 >> Stay informed about: Hard-drive split? 

Thank you.

Yes they are paritions. I have looked at what you're talking about and seen
some of this on my computer, but never understood it.

I have even seen a smaller parition file. I assume they are for the recovery
disk. How can I check it out and look at it's contents or what it does?

Would rejoining them make more available space? Or is paritioning irrelevant?
 >> Stay informed about: Hard-drive split? 

Brian V wrote:
> Inside my computer tower is one hard-drive. But I have two in my
> computer. It is like the drive is seperated into a C: and D: drive.
> Why is this? Can I rejoin them? If they were split, does it take
> away from the amount of space there is there (say it's 400gB would
> this situation make it 350Gb one has access to. The other 50Gb
> being a buffer of some kind?)?

One at a time.

"Why is this?"
Whomever setup your computer decided that is how they wanted to do it. It
could be that one partition contains the 'recovery' or 'restoration'
information - if you have to rebuild your computer from scratch for some
reason, this is the method the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has
chosen to give you. It could be that the original installer intended for
you to use one partition for Windows and your files and one for installing
programs. Could be they intended you to use one partition for Windows and
installed programs and the other for your data. Could be they heard it was
better to split a large drive into parts. COuld be they were bored and
wanted to see what partitioning did.

"Can I rejoin them?"
Yes - but not with native tools on your Windows XP system (assuming you
posted in the correct group.) You could use a third party utility (there
are a few out there) to take all the space from one partition and give it to
the other - expanding its size. However - depending on why it was initially
done this way - this may/may not break *many* things.

"If they were split, does it take away from the amount of space there is
there (say it's 400gB would this situation make it 350Gb one has access to.
The other 50Gb being a buffer of some kind?)?"
It's just a partitioning scheme. It does not make the total space of the
physical drive any less - but it can mean you might not have enough space on
a given partition to do something you might want to do. For example - if
you had a 10GB drive and had it partitioned into a 6GB partition and a 4GB
partition (you wouldn't really have 10GB thanks to marketing - but let's
just pretend for now) and you wanted to save 5GB of files to the second
partition - well - you cannot. If you had access to the entire drive - it
only had one partition (yes - even if you have only one usable section of
the physical hard drive - it is still known as partitioned - just into one
piece) of 10GB - and you only had 4.5GB of it used - you could easily copy
the 5GB you wanted to that.

So - without knowing more about what type of computer you have or how it was
initially setup - the true reason of "why" is unknown - but is likely one of
the ones given or some derivative. You can rejoin them - but it's not
recommended and if you have used som much space that is necessary - better
you archive/cleanup or look into just getting a new hard disk drive to store
stuff than attempt anything like rejoining the space without knowing exactly
what you are doing and having a good fallback plan.
 >> Stay informed about: Hard-drive split? 

Brian V wrote:
> Thank you.
>
> Yes they are paritions. I have looked at what you're talking about
> and seen some of this on my computer, but never understood it.
>
> I have even seen a smaller parition file. I assume they are for the
> recovery disk. How can I check it out and look at it's contents or
> what it does?
>
> Would rejoining them make more available space? Or is paritioning
> irrelevant?

First, I would like to correct a mistake from my previous post:

>> You can only rejoin them by using a third-party disk partitioning
>> program like EASEUS or Partition Magic.

(Please don't snip the relevant parts of the post you are replying to.
By keeping them in your post, others can follow the thread better and
perhaps be more likely to offer helpful suggestions.)

Although the above programs can *resize* partitions, they cannot merge
them. Other programs (that aren't free can perform the merge function,
however. If you were interested in using one of the above freeware
programs to effectively (that is, not actually, but still accomplishing
the same end) merge C: and D:, it could be done if you're careful. If
your C: drive is large enough, you could copy all the data from D: to
C:. (If it's not large enough, you would have to use an external hard
drive for temporary storage.) Then you could delete the D: partition
completely. Since you already copied all the data off of it, you
wouldn't have lost anything. Once D: is deleted, you would have
something called Unallaocated Space on your hard drive where D: once
existed. At this point you could use one of the third-party disk
partitioning tools to expand C: so that it takes up the entire hard
drive (meaning you would no longer have any Unallocated Space).

I am not recommending you do this. I think it's nice to have a partition
only for data. I am just mentioning it to explain partitions and
resizing.

If there is a small hidden partition on your hard drive, it could be for
any number of things, including diagnostics. Dell PCs have these
diagnostic partitions. You would be able to boot directly to the
diagnostic partition (entirely bypassing Windows XP) and determine the
health of your hardware components.

Sometimes there are larger hidden partitions that contain an image of
the entire hard drive the day it was that it left the factory. This way,
the PC user can return the PC to its original pristine condition if
there is a reason to do so (for instance, the hard drive is riddled with
malware or you are selling/giving this PC to someone else).

Just check your documentation; it will explain what your hidden
partition is for. If you can't find it and are still curious, tell us
the make and model and model number of your PC and we can show you where
on the Web to find out this information.

Merging or resizing the partitons won't make more space. I would leave
well enough alone if I were you. An exception would be if your C:
partition (presumably this would contain your Windows XP operating
system and all its service packs and updates as well as all your
installed programs) is too cramped. But you would need to be extremely
careful.

If your C: drive is 50GB (I believe that's what you stated earlier),
that is plenty large. Just leave it alone.

On another but somewhat related topic, I highly recommend you have a
backup strategy. Since you have the two partitions, you could regularly
copy your data (which should be on D to an external hard drive (you
could even use Windows Explorer or a free program like Karen's
Replicator that only copies recently added or created data). Then you
could use a program like Acronis True Image (not free) or DriveImageXML
(free) to regularly create an image of C:. This way, if a disaster
strikes, you can easily and quickly restore the most recent image of C:,
thereby preserving the most recent configuration of your system, that
is, OS plus programs.

Partitioning is optional. Many people just have one giant partition that
contains everything. Personal choice.

But partitioning is hardly irrelevant and has its benefits. HTH.
 >> Stay informed about: Hard-drive split? 

MiniTool Partition Wizard is a Windows based server partition manager software. Our server partition software supports both MBR and GUID partition table (GPT) on 32/64 bits Operating System including Windows XP, Vista, Windows Server 2000/2003/2008, Windows SBS and Windows 7. Our magic partition software supports all hard disks including IDE, SATA, SCSI, USB external disks, Fire wire disks and all level RAID configurations.

> On Tuesday, December 29, 2009 3:15 AM Brian V wrote:

> Inside my computer tower is one hard-drive. But I have two in my computer. It
> is like the drive is seperated into a C: and D: drive. Why is this? Can I
> rejoin them? If they were split, does it take away from the amount of space
> there is there (say it is 400gB would this situation make it 350Gb one has
> access to. The other 50Gb being a buffer of some kind?)?


>> On Tuesday, December 29, 2009 7:21 AM Bill R wrote:

>> Your hard disk has been partioned. That is it has been formatted into two
>> parts which are seen as separate drives. It is possible to re-format into
>> one partition. Either copy off ALL your data and reformat and re-install
>> Windows and all your software - you would, then have to reconfigure your
>> software. It is also possible to re-partition using software like Partition
>> Magic which claims to re-partition without the need to reformat - but I
>> cannot comment on its success..
>>
>> Overall the best advice is to do nothing - unless it is actually causing a
>> problem!
>>
>> Regards.
>>
>> Bill Ridgeway


>>> On Tuesday, December 29, 2009 7:46 AM DL wrote:

>>> And if you only have a recovery cd / partion then likely your PC would be
>>> restored to the same state
>>>
>>> Partition Magic or Acronis Disk Director can combine partitions on the fly -
>>> I have used both


>>>> On Tuesday, December 29, 2009 10:32 AM Paul wrote:

>>>> Brian V wrote:
>>>>
>>>> If this is a pre-built computer, with a recovery partition on it, do not
>>>> touch it until you understand a little more about the setup. Some people
>>>> get all excited by the opportunity to expand C: and wipe out the only
>>>> copy of Windows provided with their computer. There may be a hidden
>>>> partition, with your recovery software in it. Check the computer instruction
>>>> manual, for the procedure that covers burning a "recovery CD" or
>>>> "recovery DVD". If you prepare your recovery media in advance, you will
>>>> be prepared for the day that the hard drive dies on you.
>>>>
>>>> This tool will display the four primary partition entries on a hard drive.
>>>> A hard drive can have more than four partitions. One of the partition
>>>> entries can have a special entry that indicates more logical partitions
>>>> exist. This tool does not show any logical partitions. I use only
>>>> primary ones on my machine (more convenient).
>>>>
>>>> PTEDIT32 for Windows
>>>> [URL="ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip"]ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PTEDIT32.zip[/URL]
>>>>
>>>> PTEDIT32 screenshot
>>>> [URL="http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/vista-installation-setup/7308d1224108918-hidden-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif"]http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/vista-installation-setup/7308d1224108918-hidden-partiton-recovery-dell-xps-420-dell-tbl.gif[/URL]
>>>>
>>>> You can see in the sample screen shot, there are three partitions on the hard
>>>> drive being displayed. Type "07" or "0C" might be considered "normal"
>>>> partitions. The ones marked "DE" and "DB" are different. "DE" is something
>>>> that Dell invented. Each manufacturer can hide different things in the partition
>>>> table, so it is a good idea to do your research first, so you do not erase something
>>>> you will want later. At least one computer manufacturer uses an HPA (Host
>>>> Protected Area), which you cannot even see in that display.
>>>>
>>>> If you were building your own computer, you would not do anything nearly
>>>> so complicated.
>>>>
>>>> There is a table of partition types here, to help you decode them. Using
>>>> a single byte would seem to have been a mistake.
>>>>
>>>> [URL="http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html"]http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html[/URL]
>>>>
>>>> Paul


>>>>> On Tuesday, December 29, 2009 1:59 PM Daave wrote:

>>>>> Brian V wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> I will assume a few things, so please correct me if I am wrong.
>>>>>
>>>>> 1. You have a PC that contains one hard drive and when you open My
>>>>> Computer, you see two "drives" (these are actually partitions) listed,
>>>>> namely C: and D:.
>>>>>
>>>>> Some PC manufacturers (Sony, for instance) pre-configure the hard drives
>>>>> so there are two partitions. C: is meant for the operating system and
>>>>> all it settings and updates and also for all your installed programs,
>>>>> including all their settings. D: is meant for all your data: your word
>>>>> processing doucments, spreadsheets, music files like mp3s, videos, etc.
>>>>> The PC manufacturer could have just as easily included only one giant
>>>>> partition, which would contain *everything*.
>>>>>
>>>>> Why do certain manufacturers do this? Perhaps there is a restore program
>>>>> that will work quicker if the system partition is not too large.
>>>>>
>>>>> You can only rejoin them by using a third-party disk partitioning
>>>>> program like EASEUS or Partition Magic. But you might decide you like
>>>>> the default layout; there is nothing wrong with it and there is some
>>>>> logic behind it. That is, you might be satisfied leaving well enough
>>>>> alone.
>>>>>
>>>>> In addition to these two visible partitions, it is possible you have
>>>>> other *hidden* partitions. They can be seen by using the built-in
>>>>> Windows program Disk Management. Some hidden partitions are relatively
>>>>> small and contain diagnostics. Others are fairly large and contain an
>>>>> image that cean be used to restore the PC to its original condition.


>>>>>> On Saturday, January 02, 2010 6:51 PM Brian V wrote:

>>>>>> Thank you.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Yes they are paritions. I have looked at what you are talking about and seen
>>>>>> some of this on my computer, but never understood it.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I have even seen a smaller parition file. I assume they are for the recovery
>>>>>> disk. How can I check it out and look at it is contents or what it does?
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Would rejoining them make more available space? Or is paritioning irrelevant?


>>>>>>> On Saturday, January 02, 2010 7:17 PM Shenan Stanley wrote:

>>>>>>> Brian V wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> One at a time.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "Why is this?"
>>>>>>> Whomever setup your computer decided that is how they wanted to do it. It
>>>>>>> could be that one partition contains the 'recovery' or 'restoration'
>>>>>>> information - if you have to rebuild your computer from scratch for some
>>>>>>> reason, this is the method the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has
>>>>>>> chosen to give you. It could be that the original installer intended for
>>>>>>> you to use one partition for Windows and your files and one for installing
>>>>>>> programs. Could be they intended you to use one partition for Windows and
>>>>>>> installed programs and the other for your data. Could be they heard it was
>>>>>>> better to split a large drive into parts. COuld be they were bored and
>>>>>>> wanted to see what partitioning did.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "Can I rejoin them?"
>>>>>>> Yes - but not with native tools on your Windows XP system (assuming you
>>>>>>> posted in the correct group.) You could use a third party utility (there
>>>>>>> are a few out there) to take all the space from one partition and give it to
>>>>>>> the other - expanding its size. However - depending on why it was initially
>>>>>>> done this way - this may/may not break *many* things.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> "If they were split, does it take away from the amount of space there is
>>>>>>> there (say it is 400gB would this situation make it 350Gb one has access to.
>>>>>>> The other 50Gb being a buffer of some kind?)?"
>>>>>>> it is just a partitioning scheme. It does not make the total space of the
>>>>>>> physical drive any less - but it can mean you might not have enough space on
>>>>>>> a given partition to do something you might want to do. For example - if
>>>>>>> you had a 10GB drive and had it partitioned into a 6GB partition and a 4GB
>>>>>>> partition (you would not really have 10GB thanks to marketing - but let us
>>>>>>> just pretend for now) and you wanted to save 5GB of files to the second
>>>>>>> partition - well - you cannot. If you had access to the entire drive - it
>>>>>>> only had one partition (yes - even if you have only one usable section of
>>>>>>> the physical hard drive - it is still known as partitioned - just into one
>>>>>>> piece) of 10GB - and you only had 4.5GB of it used - you could easily copy
>>>>>>> the 5GB you wanted to that.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> So - without knowing more about what type of computer you have or how it was
>>>>>>> initially setup - the true reason of "why" is unknown - but is likely one of
>>>>>>> the ones given or some derivative. You can rejoin them - but it is not
>>>>>>> recommended and if you have used som much space that is necessary - better
>>>>>>> you archive/cleanup or look into just getting a new hard disk drive to store
>>>>>>> stuff than attempt anything like rejoining the space without knowing exactly
>>>>>>> what you are doing and having a good fallback plan.
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> Shenan Stanley
>>>>>>> MS-MVP
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
>>>>>>> [URL="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"]http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html[/URL]


>>>>>>>> On Saturday, January 02, 2010 10:39 PM Daave wrote:

>>>>>>>> Brian V wrote:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> First, I would like to correct a mistake from my previous post:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> (Please do not snip the relevant parts of the post you are replying to.
>>>>>>>> By keeping them in your post, others can follow the thread better and
>>>>>>>> perhaps be more likely to offer helpful suggestions.)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Although the above programs can *resize* partitions, they cannot merge
>>>>>>>> them. Other programs (that are not free can perform the merge function,
>>>>>>>> however. If you were interested in using one of the above freeware
>>>>>>>> programs to effectively (that is, not actually, but still accomplishing
>>>>>>>> the same end) merge C: and D:, it could be done if you are careful. If
>>>>>>>> your C: drive is large enough, you could copy all the data from D: to
>>>>>>>> C:. (If it is not large enough, you would have to use an external hard
>>>>>>>> drive for temporary storage.) Then you could delete the D: partition
>>>>>>>> completely. Since you already copied all the data off of it, you
>>>>>>>> would not have lost anything. Once D: is deleted, you would have
>>>>>>>> something called Unallaocated Space on your hard drive where D: once
>>>>>>>> existed. At this point you could use one of the third-party disk
>>>>>>>> partitioning tools to expand C: so that it takes up the entire hard
>>>>>>>> drive (meaning you would no longer have any Unallocated Space).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> I am not recommending you do this. I think it is nice to have a partition
>>>>>>>> only for data. I am just mentioning it to explain partitions and
>>>>>>>> resizing.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> If there is a small hidden partition on your hard drive, it could be for
>>>>>>>> any number of things, including diagnostics. Dell PCs have these
>>>>>>>> diagnostic partitions. You would be able to boot directly to the
>>>>>>>> diagnostic partition (entirely bypassing Windows XP) and determine the
>>>>>>>> health of your hardware components.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Sometimes there are larger hidden partitions that contain an image of
>>>>>>>> the entire hard drive the day it was that it left the factory. This way,
>>>>>>>> the PC user can return the PC to its original pristine condition if
>>>>>>>> there is a reason to do so (for instance, the hard drive is riddled with
>>>>>>>> malware or you are selling/giving this PC to someone else).
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Just check your documentation; it will explain what your hidden
>>>>>>>> partition is for. If you cannot find it and are still curious, tell us
>>>>>>>> the make and model and model number of your PC and we can show you where
>>>>>>>> on the Web to find out this information.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Merging or resizing the partitons will not make more space. I would leave
>>>>>>>> well enough alone if I were you. An exception would be if your C:
>>>>>>>> partition (presumably this would contain your Windows XP operating
>>>>>>>> system and all its service packs and updates as well as all your
>>>>>>>> installed programs) is too cramped. But you would need to be extremely
>>>>>>>> careful.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> If your C: drive is 50GB (I believe that is what you stated earlier),
>>>>>>>> that is plenty large. Just leave it alone.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> On another but somewhat related topic, I highly recommend you have a
>>>>>>>> backup strategy. Since you have the two partitions, you could regularly
>>>>>>>> copy your data (which should be on D to an external hard drive (you
>>>>>>>> could even use Windows Explorer or a free program like Karen's
>>>>>>>> Replicator that only copies recently added or created data). Then you
>>>>>>>> could use a program like Acronis True Image (not free) or DriveImageXML
>>>>>>>> (free) to regularly create an image of C:. This way, if a disaster
>>>>>>>> strikes, you can easily and quickly restore the most recent image of C:,
>>>>>>>> thereby preserving the most recent configuration of your system, that
>>>>>>>> is, OS plus programs.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Partitioning is optional. Many people just have one giant partition that
>>>>>>>> contains everything. Personal choice.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> But partitioning is hardly irrelevant and has its benefits. HTH.


>>>>>>>> Submitted via EggHeadCafe - Software Developer Portal of Choice
>>>>>>>> ASP.NET 4.0 browser capabilities
>>>>>>>> [URL="http://www.eggheadcafe.com/tutorials/aspnet/668c15e2-9fe5-4a7a-94ac-001af0bf4d1b/aspnet-40-browser-capabilities.aspx"]http://www.eggheadcafe.com/tutorials/aspnet/668c15e2-9fe5-4a7a-94ac-001af0bf4d1b/aspnet-40-browser-capabilities.aspx[/URL]
 >> Stay informed about: Hard-drive split? 

On Oct 26, 8:51 am, Dragon wrote:
> MiniTool Partition Wizard is a Windows based server partition manager software. Our server partition software supports both MBR and GUID partition table (GPT) on 32/64 bits Operating System including Windows XP, Vista, Windows Server 2000/2003/2008, Windows SBS and Windows 7. Our magic partition software supports all hard disks including IDE, SATA, SCSI, USB external disks, Fire wire disks and all level RAID configurations.
>
> > On Tuesday, December 29, 2009 3:15 AM Brian V wrote:
> > Inside my computer tower is one hard-drive. But I have two in my computer. It
> > is like the drive is seperated into a C: and D: drive. Why is this? Can I
> > rejoin them? If they were split, does it take away from the amount of space
> > there is there (say it is 400gB would this situation make it 350Gb one has
> > access to. The other 50Gb being a buffer of some kind?)?
> >> On Tuesday, December 29, 2009 7:21 AM Bill R wrote:
> >> Your hard disk has been partioned.  That is it has been formatted into two
> >> parts which are seen as separate drives.  It is possible to re-format into
> >> one partition.  Either copy off ALL your data and reformat and re-install
> >> Windows and all your software - you would, then have to reconfigure your
> >> software.  It is also possible to re-partition using software like Partition
> >> Magic which claims to re-partition without the need to reformat - but I
> >> cannot comment on its success..
>
> >> Overall the best advice is to do nothing - unless it is actually causing a
> >> problem!
>
> >> Regards.
>
> >> Bill Ridgeway
> >>> On Tuesday, December 29, 2009 7:46 AM DL wrote:
> >>> And if you only have a recovery cd / partion then likely your PC would be
> >>> restored to the same state
>
> >>> Partition Magic or Acronis Disk Director can combine partitions on the fly -
> >>> I have used both
> >>>> On Tuesday, December 29, 2009 10:32 AM Paul wrote:
> >>>> Brian V wrote:
>
> >>>> If this is a pre-built computer, with a recovery partition on it, do not
> >>>> touch it until you understand a little more about the setup. Some people
> >>>> get all excited by the opportunity to expand C: and wipe out the only
> >>>> copy of Windows provided with their computer. There may be a hidden
> >>>> partition, with your recovery software in it. Check the computer instruction
> >>>> manual, for the procedure that covers burning a "recovery CD" or
> >>>> "recovery DVD". If you prepare your recovery media in advance, you will
> >>>> be prepared for the day that the hard drive dies on you.
>
> >>>> This tool will display the four primary partition entries on a hard drive.
> >>>> A hard drive can have more than four partitions. One of the partition
> >>>> entries can have a special entry that indicates more logical partitions
> >>>> exist. This tool does not show any logical partitions. I use only
> >>>> primary ones on my machine (more convenient).
>
> >>>> PTEDIT32 for Windows
> >>>>[URL="ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PT...."]ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/tools/pq/utilities/PT....[/URL]
>
> >>>> PTEDIT32 screenshot
> >>>>[URL="http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/vista-installation-setup/7308d122...."]http://www.vistax64.com/attachments/vista-installation-setup/7308d122....[/URL]
>
> >>>> You can see in the sample screen shot, there are three partitions on the hard
> >>>> drive being displayed. Type "07" or "0C" might be considered "normal"
> >>>> partitions. The ones marked "DE" and "DB" are different. "DE" is something
> >>>> that Dell invented. Each manufacturer can hide different things in the partition
> >>>> table, so it is a good idea to do your research first, so you do not erase something
> >>>> you will want later. At least one computer manufacturer uses an HPA (Host
> >>>> Protected Area), which you cannot even see in that display.
>
> >>>> If you were building your own computer, you would not do anything nearly
> >>>> so complicated.
>
> >>>> There is a table of partition types here, to help you decode them. Using
> >>>> a single byte would seem to have been a mistake.
>
> >>>>[URL="http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html"]http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partitions/partition_types-1.html[/URL]
>
> >>>> Paul
> >>>>> On Tuesday, December 29, 2009 1:59 PM Daave wrote:
> >>>>> Brian V wrote:
>
> >>>>> I will assume a few things, so please correct me if I am wrong.
>
> >>>>> 1. You have a PC that contains one hard drive and when you open My
> >>>>> Computer, you see two "drives" (these are actually partitions) listed,
> >>>>> namely C: and D:.
>
> >>>>> Some PC manufacturers (Sony, for instance) pre-configure the hard drives
> >>>>> so there are two partitions. C: is meant for the operating system and
> >>>>> all it settings and updates and also for all your installed programs,
> >>>>> including all their settings. D: is meant for all your data: your word
> >>>>> processing doucments, spreadsheets, music files like mp3s, videos, etc.
> >>>>> The PC manufacturer could have just as easily included only one giant
> >>>>> partition, which would contain *everything*.
>
> >>>>> Why do certain manufacturers do this? Perhaps there is a restore program
> >>>>> that will work quicker if the system partition is not too large.
>
> >>>>> You can only rejoin them by using a third-party disk partitioning
> >>>>> program like EASEUS or Partition Magic. But you might decide you like
> >>>>> the default layout; there is nothing wrong with it and there is some
> >>>>> logic behind it. That is, you might be satisfied leaving well enough
> >>>>> alone.
>
> >>>>> In addition to these two visible partitions, it is possible you have
> >>>>> other *hidden* partitions. They can be seen by using the built-in
> >>>>> Windows program Disk Management. Some hidden partitions are relatively
> >>>>> small and contain diagnostics. Others are fairly large and contain an
> >>>>> image that cean be used to restore the PC to its original condition..
> >>>>>> On Saturday, January 02, 2010 6:51 PM Brian V wrote:
> >>>>>> Thank you.
>
> >>>>>> Yes they are paritions. I have looked at what you are talking about and seen
> >>>>>> some of this on my computer, but never understood it.
>
> >>>>>> I have even seen a smaller parition file. I assume they are for the recovery
> >>>>>> disk. How can I check it out and look at it is contents or what it does?
>
> >>>>>> Would rejoining them make more available space? Or is paritioning irrelevant?
> >>>>>>> On Saturday, January 02, 2010 7:17 PM Shenan Stanley wrote:
> >>>>>>> Brian V wrote:
>
> >>>>>>> One at a time.
>
> >>>>>>> "Why is this?"
> >>>>>>> Whomever setup your computer decided that is how they wanted to do it.  It
> >>>>>>> could be that one partition contains the 'recovery' or 'restoration'
> >>>>>>> information - if you have to rebuild your computer from scratch for some
> >>>>>>> reason, this is the method the OEM (original equipment manufacturer) has
> >>>>>>> chosen to give you.  It could be that the original installer intended for
> >>>>>>> you to use one partition for Windows and your files and one for installing
> >>>>>>> programs.  Could be they intended you to use one partition for Windows and
> >>>>>>> installed programs and the other for your data.  Could be they heard it was
> >>>>>>> better to split a large drive into parts.  COuld be they were bored and
> >>>>>>> wanted to see what partitioning did.
>
> >>>>>>> "Can I rejoin them?"
> >>>>>>> Yes - but not with native tools on your Windows XP system (assuming you
> >>>>>>> posted in the correct group.)  You could use a third party utility (there
> >>>>>>> are a few out there) to take all the space from one partition and give it to
> >>>>>>> the other - expanding its size.  However - depending on why it was initially
> >>>>>>> done this way - this may/may not break *many* things.
>
> >>>>>>> "If they were split, does it take away from the amount of space there is
> >>>>>>> there (say it is 400gB would this situation make it 350Gb one has access to.
> >>>>>>> The other 50Gb being a buffer of some kind?)?"
> >>>>>>> it is just a partitioning scheme.  It does not make the total space of the
> >>>>>>> physical drive any less - but it can mean you might not have enough space on
> >>>>>>> a given partition to do something you might want to do.  For example - if
> >>>>>>> you had a 10GB drive and had it partitioned into a 6GB partition and a 4GB
> >>>>>>> partition (you would not really have 10GB thanks to marketing - but let us
> >>>>>>> just pretend for now) and you wanted to save 5GB of files to the second
> >>>>>>> partition - well - you cannot.  If you had access to the entire drive - it
> >>>>>>> only had one partition (yes - even if you have only one usable section of
> >>>>>>> the physical hard drive - it is still known as partitioned - just into one
> >>>>>>> piece) of 10GB - and you only had 4.5GB of it used - you could easily copy
> >>>>>>> the 5GB you wanted to that.
>
> >>>>>>> So - without knowing more about what type of computer you have or how it was
> >>>>>>> initially setup - the true reason of "why" is unknown - but is likely one of
> >>>>>>> the ones given or some derivative.  You can rejoin them - but it is not
> >>>>>>> recommended and if you have used som much space that is necessary - better
> >>>>>>> you archive/cleanup or look into just getting a new hard disk drive to store
> >>>>>>> stuff than attempt anything like rejoining the space without knowing exactly
> >>>>>>> what you are doing and having a good fallback plan.
>
> >>>>>>> --
> >>>>>>> Shenan Stanley
> >>>>>>> MS-MVP
> >>>>>>> --
> >>>>>>> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> >>>>>>>[URL="http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html"]http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html[/URL]
> >>>>>>>> On Saturday, January 02, 2010 10:39 PM Daave wrote:
> >>>>>>>> Brian V wrote:
>
> >>>>>>>> First, I would like to correct a mistake from my previous post:
>
> >>>>>>>> (Please do not snip the relevant parts of the post you are replying to.
> >>>>>>>> By keeping them in your post, others can follow the thread better and
> >>>>>>>> perhaps be more likely to offer helpful suggestions.)
>
> >>>>>>>> Although the above programs  can *resize* partitions, they cannot merge
> >>>>>>>> them. Other programs (that are not
>
> ...
>
> read more »

Why on "earth" do you reactivate an "long dead post!" The last reply
was Jan 3. 2010 and you post on Oct 26, 2010. The original post was
Dec 29, 2009 so I "suspect" the question was answered before waiting 9
months!
 >> Stay informed about: Hard-drive split?