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I have an XP Home laptop that has 2 NTFS partitions on it that I want to convert to a single NTFS partition. I haven't done this for a while but from what I recall this is as simple as running something like FDISK and deleting the 2 partitions and creating a new single partition. The obvious problem is that you have to reinstall the OS and all applications again - a real painful and time consuming exercise.

So, to the question: I have Windows Home Server backing everything up. I have never tried to do a restore from WHS so don't know how easy or hard it is.

Is it possible to restore the C: drive to the newly partitioned C: drive and then also restore the D: drive to the new partition? Are there any gotchas that I should consider before attempting this?

Guy
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3 Answers3

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The best solution would be, if WHS supports it, to restore the C: partition to your new single partition, then extract just the files from the D: partition and place them where you want on the new, restored system.

Tim
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The quickest way would be to delete the second partition then use something like GParted (Boot CD) to resize the first partition to occupy all the free space.

Alternatively delete both partitions (using GParted, WinPE, XP Setup Disk) then boot from the WHS restore disk and restore your most recent backup.

Andrew Grant
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I know Symantec's Partition Magic is supposed to be able to do this. Maybe you can grab a free trial and give it a go.

Edit: In case its unclear, I've never tried this myself and therefore cannot vouch for that software.

Zenshai
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