xp pro

i have a 40 gig hd that is partioned into 2 parts. one having 10gb and the other having about 30gb. is there an easy (free) way to merge them into one disk again?

i have a 37gb 10,000rpm drive with windows installed on it in here, i just want to use this 40 as extra space.

Are we talking about two separate disks?
Cheers,
John

yeah, serebraldamage there is. Mount your 40GB drive into the computer, plug it in, using the existing drive's cable. (Unplug your 37GB drive). Make the jumper "master". Power on to BIOS screen. Confirm it reads a single HD (which is now your 40GB HD. optional, really) Insert windows CD. Choose to re-format the drive prior to installation of Windows. Choose NTFS, single partition... heck, load the OS if you want. When done with re-formatting (or the whole works) unplug it, change jumper to "slave". Use a cable that will plud two HD's in to the same mobo connection. They are a standard type and available from (?) whereever parts are sold/available. The 37GB HD as "master" will continue to be the OS drive, anything on the slave drive will be data.

BTW, I too enjoy nocharge. A Sgt. in the crapwareWar Corp can't admit to being nervous in the service, though.

thank you pawgg. i couldnt figure out fdisk and i wasnt about to spend money on partition magic, when i had the windows install disk right here.

sorry jgweed that i couldnt be more accurate in my questioning.

btw installing windows is fun!!!

If you dont feel like deleting the partitions and starting over, you can copy all the data from the 10 gb partition to the 30gb partition. Once the data is copied over to the 30 gb drive, you would delete the 10gb partition and resize it using this tool which has great reviews, and is free:

Partition Resizer

You're welcome, serebraldamage, it was a case of "been there, done that" for me. I also like to avoid extra programs... but thank you Grinler, that link is to a handy light-weight utility that belongs in the toolbox. Partitions are a nice fact of big space & fast drives... even those non-SATA... and something to preview action considered before taking it is useful.