How to combine 3 partitions into 1 or 2 in the same Hard Drive, HP Pavilion a6400z

[sonic38]

1. HP Pavilion a6400z CTO Desktop PC

2. Windows Vista 32-bit Home Basic

3. The computer came with system recovery discs.

4. Problem:

I have 1 hard drive in the PC. The hard drive has 3 partitions. I want to combine all 3 into 1 or 2 partitions, but preferably 1, I only say 2 because the computer came with 2.

     (A) Partitions:

         (1) Local Disk (E: ) - 8.47 GB free of 9.76 GB - it seems that this is the recovery image

               (a) What’s inside this partition:

                    1. BOOT                       2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                    2. BP_TO_DASH        2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                    3. CPC_DASH             2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                    4. Hp                             7/08/2012 - 10:40 PM File Folder

                    5. Maestro                    7/08/2012 - 10:53 PM File Folder

                    6. SOURCES               2/05/2008 - 06:35 AM File Folder

                    7. System Recovery   1/28/2008 - 06:21 AM File Folder

                    8. Tools                        2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                    9. BOOTMGR              1/18/2008 - 03:45 PM File 326 KB

                  10. FlexBuild                 3/18/2008 - 12:31 PM Text Document 8 KB

          (2) HP (C: ) - 15.4 GB free of 48.8 GB - this partition is being use by the PC to operate.

               (a) What’s inside this partition:

                    1. FB_OS                       7/08/2012 - 10:57 PM File Folder

                    2. i386                            7/08/2012 - 10:08 PM File Folder

                    3. PerfLogs                   1/20/2008 - 07:43 PM File Folder

                    4. Program Files          7/10/2012 - 02:54 PM File Folder

                    5. Temp                         7/08/2012 - 11:46 PM File Folder

                    6. Users                        7/10/2012 - 02:52 PM File Folder

                    7. Windows                  7/10/2012 - 02:54 PM File Folder

                    8. BOOTSECT.BAK     7/08/2012 - 10:57 PM BAK File 8 KB

          (3) Local Disk (D: ) 229 GB free of 238 GB

               (a) There is nothing inside this partition.

5. Concern:

     (A) If I was to fill the HP (C) partition I don’t know if the local disk (D) partition will automatically kick in as back up.

6. How did come to have 3 partitions in one hard drive:

     (A) When I first got the PC, it came with two partitions, the regular partition with the most GB’s and the recovery image partition that was about 10 GB’s.

     (B) I wanted to do a system recovery but this time before I did one I formatted the recovery image partition. I did this because it was getting full, it only had one more 1 GB left to go before it reached its 10GB capacity.

     (C) So I did the system recovery using the discs but it did not work because the system recovery would cycle once to the point where it would get stuck in the transferring of the files. The image that I would see in the window is 2 folders transferring data from one to the other.

     (D) I did the system recovery using the discs about 3 more times to see if it worked but it did not. So I decide to disconnect the two wires that are connect to the drive and then plug them back to see if that would fix the problem but it did not. I did the system recovery one more time and still it did not work.

     (E) Finally I thought that I will shutdown the computer before it cycle to the point where it would get stuck. I then used the system recovery disc 1 to use the recovery manager so that it checked the drive or files to see if they were good. I don’t remember what the status box said but once I exited the recovery manager my PC began to work properly, except for the 3 partitions and the concern I mentioned above.

7. Questions:

     (A) How do I combine the 3 partitions into 1 or 2?

     (B) If I don’t combine the 3 partitions into 1 or 2 and then later I fill the HP C partition that the PC is using to operate will the local disk D partition kick in as back up?

[CherylG]

Not sure how the 3 partitions came about, should not have_Probably the best way would be to use Mini-Tool  Partition Wizard to >>delete the largest partition and then >> move/resize your C partition to take the unallocated space.

[lasvegaswireman]

Please follow the instructions HERE

[CherylG]

Frank's suggestion of the already available Disk Management may very well work fine for you.I was trying to do the exact same thing on a friend's new Dell laptop that came from the factory with partitions set up as you accidentally ended up with.Can't imagine what Dell was thinking setting up C as 50gb and over 200gb in a backup partition since she soon ran into low disk space. Anyway, Windows Disk Management was less than optimal in her case and I resorted to Partition Wizard.

You might want to try Disk Management first and if it doesn't get the job done effectively try PW.

[sonic38]

PRESENT SETUP:

CheryIG - I’m one step closer to my goal(to have one partition). I deleted the local partition (D: ) and used the unallocated space to extend local partition (E: ) but I did it with the windows disk manager as Frank recommended not using the mini tool partition wizard but your link for the mini tool partition wizard was helpful because it gave me more understanding on what I had to do when using the windows disk manager.

The graphic picture on the windows disk manager looks like this:

First Disk: HP (C: ) 13.2 GB free of 48.8 GB NTFS - Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)

Second Disk: Local Disk (E: ) - 247 GB free of 249 GB NTFS - Healthy (Primary Partition)

Questions:

I want to delete local partition (E: ) and use the unallocated space to extend HP (C: ) partition.

Will this work or not, because partition E has files?

What should I do with the files in partition E, can I copy the files to partition C by creating a folder and

just putting the files inside that folder within partition C without it becoming a problem for my PC?

What are my options?

PREVIOUS SETUP:

(A) Partitions:

     (1) Local Disk (E: ) - 8.47 GB free of 9.76 GB - it seems that this is the recovery image

          (a) What’s inside this partition:

                   1. BOOT 2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                   2. BP_TO_DASH 2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                   3. CPC_DASH 2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                   4. Hp 7/08/2012 - 10:40 PM File Folder

                   5. Maestro 7/08/2012 - 10:53 PM File Folder

                   6. SOURCES 2/05/2008 - 06:35 AM File Folder

                   7. System Recovery 1/28/2008 - 06:21 AM File Folder

                   8. Tools 2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                   9. BOOTMGR 1/18/2008 - 03:45 PM File 326 KB

                 10. FlexBuild 3/18/2008 - 12:31 PM Text Document 8 KB

     (2) HP (C: ) - 15.4 GB free of 48.8 GB - this partition is being use by the PC to operate.

          (a) What’s inside this partition:

                    1. FB_OS 7/08/2012 - 10:57 PM File Folder

                    2. i386 7/08/2012 - 10:08 PM File Folder

                    3. PerfLogs 1/20/2008 - 07:43 PM File Folder

                    4. Program Files 7/10/2012 - 02:54 PM File Folder

                    5. Temp 7/08/2012 - 11:46 PM File Folder

                    6. Users 7/10/2012 - 02:52 PM File Folder

                    7. Windows 7/10/2012 - 02:54 PM File Folder

                    8. BOOTSECT.BAK 7/08/2012 - 10:57 PM BAK File 8 KB

     (3) Local Disk (D: ) 229 GB free of 238 GB

          (a) There is nothing inside this partition.

[sonic38]

PRESENT SETUP:

Frank - I’m one step closer to my goal(to have one partition). I deleted the local partition (D: ) and used the unallocated space to extend local partition (E: ) but I did it with the windows disk manager as you recommended though the link of CheryIG for the mini tool partition wizard was helpful because it gave me more understanding on what I had to do when using the windows disk manager.

The graphic picture on the windows disk manager looks like this:

First Disk: HP (C: ) 13.2 GB free of 48.8 GB NTFS - Healthy (System, Boot, Page File, Active, Crash

Dump, Primary Partition)

Second Disk: Local Disk (E: ) - 247 GB free of 249 GB NTFS - Healthy (Primary Partition)

Questions:

I want to delete local partition (E: ) and use the unallocated space to extend HP (C: ) partition.

Will this work or not, because partition E has files?

What should I do with the files in partition E, can I copy the files to partition C by creating a folder and

just putting the files inside that folder within partition C without it becoming a problem for my PC?

What are my options?

PREVIOUS SETUP:

(A) Partitions:

     (1) Local Disk (E: ) - 8.47 GB free of 9.76 GB - it seems that this is the recovery image

          (a) What’s inside this partition:

                    1. BOOT 2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                    2. BP_TO_DASH 2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                    3. CPC_DASH 2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                    4. Hp 7/08/2012 - 10:40 PM File Folder

                    5. Maestro 7/08/2012 - 10:53 PM File Folder

                    6. SOURCES 2/05/2008 - 06:35 AM File Folder

                    7. System Recovery 1/28/2008 - 06:21 AM File Folder

                    8. Tools 2/18/2008 - 11:33 AM File Folder

                   9. BOOTMGR 1/18/2008 - 03:45 PM File 326 KB

                 10. FlexBuild 3/18/2008 - 12:31 PM Text Document 8 KB

     (2) HP (C: ) - 15.4 GB free of 48.8 GB - this partition is being use by the PC to operate.

          (a) What’s inside this partition:

                  1. FB_OS 7/08/2012 - 10:57 PM File Folder

                  2. i386 7/08/2012 - 10:08 PM File Folder

                  3. PerfLogs 1/20/2008 - 07:43 PM File Folder

                  4. Program Files 7/10/2012 - 02:54 PM File Folder

                  5. Temp 7/08/2012 - 11:46 PM File Folder

                  6. Users 7/10/2012 - 02:52 PM File Folder

                  7. Windows 7/10/2012 - 02:54 PM File Folder

                  8. BOOTSECT.BAK 7/08/2012 - 10:57 PM BAK File 8 KB

    (3) Local Disk (D: ) 229 GB free of 238 GB

          (a) There is nothing inside this partition.

[CherylG]

Disk Management will delete the partition regardless of it having files.Whether they are important and need to be saved to C is another question.What are the files?

Delete the partition and extend the C partition to use the space.

[lasvegaswireman]

Ideally, I would have extended the "C:\" partition with the unallocated space created when "D:\" was deleted. It is possible the system wouldn't let you do that and you did what you had to.

As far as the "E:\" partition goes...most of it looks like it is the recovery partition but "Hp" and "Maestro" appear to be dated much later. Did you already create your HP Recovery Disc??? If you did, you may be able to copy/delete everything and recover if need... If not, deleting may cause your system to not function.

 If possible, try to shrink the E partition and add that space to the c partition.