question about harddrive

[disasterpieces71]

i bought a laptop with windows xp already installed. it
has a 15 gig hard drive on it, that has been partitioned
into two drives. drive c and d....my question is, is
thier a way to combine the 2 drives into one using
windows without having to reinstall xp?? i don't have
anyway to back up the files that are on thier and the
laptop didn't come with the winxp cd either...didn't come
with any software cd roms as a matter of fact...if anyone
can help i sure would appreciate it

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP-Windows Shell/User\)]

"Is
thier a way to combine the 2 drives into one using
windows without having to reinstall xp?"

This requires third party software such as Partition Magic,
www.powerquest.com, it cannot be done natively in XP.

As to your backup, before you do anything, even with third party software as
mentioned above, nothing is foolproof, everything, especially this type of
operation is fraught with danger so I suggest your first order of business
is to come up with a backup solution, either by adding a CD burner or some
other type of drive to the laptop assuming the laptop has expansion
capabilities.

Ordinarily, I'd suggest you make an image of the current setup, that way you
could always get back to where you are but an image file will likely be huge
and you need a place off the laptop hard drive to store it.

Failing that, I don't know if you bought this new or used but you need to
make some hard decisions about the software and whether or not to buy retail
versions of the software or come up with some other solution that will allow
you to reinstall. If you bought this new, you might want to check with the
laptop manufacturer to see if you can get some disks. Most important is an
XP CD as there are a lot of tools and options the CD has for fixing the
setup that require the CD.

If you purchased this used, at the very least, purchase a retail version of
XP because at some point, you're going to need that CD. Just go up and down
a few of these boards and check to see how often fixes require the CD.
Personally, I would never run without a CD of the operating system and
master disks for all my software. For me, it's a deal breaker in terms of
purchasing a PC though mine are shop built and I rarely buy their software
bundle preferring my own software for which I already have disks and
updating what's necessary for new operating system.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend

"disasterpieces71" > wrote in message
...
> i bought a laptop with windows xp already installed. it
> has a 15 gig hard drive on it, that has been partitioned
> into two drives. drive c and d....my question is, is
> thier a way to combine the 2 drives into one using
> windows without having to reinstall xp?? i don't have
> anyway to back up the files that are on thier and the
> laptop didn't come with the winxp cd either...didn't come
> with any software cd roms as a matter of fact...if anyone
> can help i sure would appreciate it

[Peter T]

On the grounds that anything is possible, I would think carefully before
doing this!

It sounds very much like my HP desktop and the D:\ drive does the work of
the Windows CD.

In other words, if Windows goes belly up, your have a 'clean' version on D:
to rescue it. It works - I've needed to use it! Combine the 2 and you
could be in for a whole lot of difficulty and the expense of buying Windows
on a CD.

Probably not what you wanted to hear but HTH

Peter


"disasterpieces71" > wrote in message
...
> i bought a laptop with windows xp already installed. it
> has a 15 gig hard drive on it, that has been partitioned
> into two drives. drive c and d....my question is, is
> thier a way to combine the 2 drives into one using
> windows without having to reinstall xp?? i don't have
> anyway to back up the files that are on thier and the
> laptop didn't come with the winxp cd either...didn't come
> with any software cd roms as a matter of fact...if anyone
> can help i sure would appreciate it

[Michael Solomon \(MS-MVP-Windows Shell/User\)]

The only trouble with that is what happens if your hard drive dies and you
are out of warranty. Even if you are in warranty, if your hard drive dies,
you still need a good backup or you lose everything.

--
Michael Solomon MS-MVP
Windows Shell/User
Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/
"Peter T" > wrote in message
...
> On the grounds that anything is possible, I would think carefully before
> doing this!
>
> It sounds very much like my HP desktop and the D:\ drive does the work of
> the Windows CD.
>
> In other words, if Windows goes belly up, your have a 'clean' version on
D:
> to rescue it. It works - I've needed to use it! Combine the 2 and you
> could be in for a whole lot of difficulty and the expense of buying
Windows
> on a CD.
>
> Probably not what you wanted to hear but HTH
>
> Peter
>
>
> "disasterpieces71" > wrote in message
> ...
> > i bought a laptop with windows xp already installed. it
> > has a 15 gig hard drive on it, that has been partitioned
> > into two drives. drive c and d....my question is, is
> > thier a way to combine the 2 drives into one using
> > windows without having to reinstall xp?? i don't have
> > anyway to back up the files that are on thier and the
> > laptop didn't come with the winxp cd either...didn't come
> > with any software cd roms as a matter of fact...if anyone
> > can help i sure would appreciate it
>
>

[Peter T]

That's true Michael - and I'm not happy about it!

My point was that I fear that what disasterpieces was proposing would land
him deeper in the mire.

My back-ups are good enough to recover data but, in the event of a HD
failure out of warranty, I can't see a realistic alternative to having to
buy myself having to buy a CD copy of Windows>

Peter
"Michael Solomon (MS-MVP-Windows Shell/User)" > wrote in
message ...
> The only trouble with that is what happens if your hard drive dies and you
> are out of warranty. Even if you are in warranty, if your hard drive
dies,
> you still need a good backup or you lose everything.
>
> --
> Michael Solomon MS-MVP
> Windows Shell/User
> Backup is a PC User's Best Friend
> DTS-L.Org: http://www.dts-l.org/
> "Peter T" > wrote in message
> ...
> > On the grounds that anything is possible, I would think carefully before
> > doing this!
> >
> > It sounds very much like my HP desktop and the D:\ drive does the work
of
> > the Windows CD.
> >
> > In other words, if Windows goes belly up, your have a 'clean' version on
> D:
> > to rescue it. It works - I've needed to use it! Combine the 2 and you
> > could be in for a whole lot of difficulty and the expense of buying
> Windows
> > on a CD.
> >
> > Probably not what you wanted to hear but HTH
> >
> > Peter
> >
> >
> > "disasterpieces71" > wrote in message
> > ...
> > > i bought a laptop with windows xp already installed. it
> > > has a 15 gig hard drive on it, that has been partitioned
> > > into two drives. drive c and d....my question is, is
> > > thier a way to combine the 2 drives into one using
> > > windows without having to reinstall xp?? i don't have
> > > anyway to back up the files that are on thier and the
> > > laptop didn't come with the winxp cd either...didn't come
> > > with any software cd roms as a matter of fact...if anyone
> > > can help i sure would appreciate it
> >
> >
>
>