help with PARTIONING!!!!

[rwhiteside]

I have a customers computer that is partitioned into two drives, a C drive that is 2 gb and a E that is 25gb (the D drive is designated as the Zip Drive). The C drive is in FAT format, the E in NTFS. Windows is on the C. How can I merge these two drives together? Could I move Windows to the E drive and then switch the drive letters around? Where can I get more information on this?

Also, how may I obtain the serivce packs for Win NT (and 2000) on CD? Can I download the updates from Windows Update and then save the updates as files to put on a disc?

Thankyou for your help!!!

[Sterling_Aug]

Pick up Partition Magic.

[PuterTutor]

Yep, Partition Magic will do all that for you.

[kazuza]

Yes, you can download service packs directly from M$ support site.
There are two options:

1-Let the Application scanyour computer for the recommended updates, or download the full updates for network IT's (as they say!).
Be aware that the full SPs are ~80MB for SP1 and 100MB for SP2!

[smily_03]

man, you are SO lucky, I just dealt with that EXACT SAME problem this afternoon! you'll need to convert the C partition to NTFS first because otherwise it won't scale to over 4 GB in size (it will be in a special WIndows NT Fat 16 filesystem). To do this, go to the command window (type cmd in the run box), and type

CONVERT C: /FS:NTFS

you'll need to reboot then and let it convert, then it will automatically restart. then go back into windows to make sure the conversion worked fine, and reboot again, then use PartitionMagic to merge the partitions (actually you'll end up deleting the E: partition and enlarging the C: partition, so back up E: first!) I actually just made the E: partition (in my case the D partition) 10 GB and the C: partition 18 GB so they wouldn't lose their data or programs. you will HAVE TO convert the FAT partition to NTFS or else it WILL NOT WORK!!!!

good luck! :t (oh, and it'll take a while to redo the partitions, it took 2 hours + for everything because partition magic was so thorough in its checking for bad sectors, etc.)

[rwhiteside]

New question: if my system crashes, or something goes wrong with the OS and
its on the C, and I have the HD partioned into two drives, would everything
on D be unaffected? Is it beneficial to have the HD partioned so your data
on the second drive would not be affected in the event of a crash?

I hate how everything in Windows is stactic .. once you have installed it,
forget moving it because you got all kinds of headaches to worry about,
mostly concerning your shortcuts and your registry file. If I were to move
data from one drive to the next, there is no guarantee the program would
even work since its registry settings were set for the old drive, correct?

[Midknyte]

I split my drive just for that reason. Keep your data on the second partition and then you can blow out your system partition if needed.

You can use partition magic to move programs also. :D