Sorry, this is a hugely boring question but I'm not sure where best to find this sort of info.

I have a dual-boot windows system with 2 HDs.

First boot (physically) on the first HD is my recording boot (super-clean, no net etc) and second boot is the general work/crap/net boot.

Since I have recording software on both bootable partitions, I tend to end-up using the 'general' boot for music recording more than the recording boot. I could use the extra space that extending the second bootable partition over the first (ditching the clean, recording boot) would give me.

The specific question then is this:

If I extend the second partition (the 'general' bootable partition) forwards (to the edge of the HD, entirely over the first partition) will the (now extended) 'general' partition still boot-up?

The start of the bootable partition will have moved (physically) and I'm worried that it's physical position on the HD is referenced in the bios.

Any ideas?

Thanks for reading at least, given the super-dull subject...

Adam

ok, let me figure it out..
- you have 2 partitions, one "for recording" and the "normal" one.
- you are using only the normal one and want them to merge them
- but are afraid that the order will change or something, because the "for recording" is the one that first booth.

but you have two hds right? how the hell do you want to extend the partition of a disc into another?
i would say just make your general disc bootable, then erase the other one. simple.
also, i suggest the Partition Magic software. very good program... a month ago did some VERY tricky stuff with my harddrives (copied 2 partitions to a new hard drive, but also added two partitions for linux, tried to do everything so windows will keep working.. a nightmare). went pretty well

God knows if this is any help but if I were to do what you want I'd do this:

make an image of the partition you want to extend using Acronis True Image or a boot disk containing True Image (or norton ghost - they're both decent)

then restore the image over the entire hard drive in question, again using True Image (or ghost).

Partition magic is a good suggestion too but definitely back things up/create an image of your useful partition before using it.

Of course this probably means I'm complicating things massively - new software, a seperate location to save the image to before restoring it - but if you'd like a copy of the bootable cd with that program on or you'd like to have a redundant 80gb hard drive (IDE) I have here gathering dust, you are most welcome. Free of charge, gratis etc

If your normal partition has all of the applications you need. Just move any files you need on the recording partition over to the normal partition (both should be visible as usable space while working in either partition I think) and delete the recording partition while working in the normal partition. You can do this with the standard Windows disk management utility. The old partition goes away and is reformatted as empty space on the partition.

Wow.

That went badly.

Jesus Adam, why do you change your account every couple of months these days?!

simmo wrote:Jesus Adam, why do you change your account every couple of months these days?!

I always use the 'auto remember password' thingy and thus can never remember the password if anything goes wrong with the password remembering thingy.

I was about to write something very stupid about how I remember passwords.

So anyway, what happened? I'm thinking of partitioning my HD and I want to hear scare stories first so I know what not to do...

Rimbaud III wrote:So anyway, what happened? I'm thinking of partitioning my HD and I want to hear scare stories first so I know what not to do...

Partitioning is easy, but it seems that moving/extending a bootable partition is risky. I've extended the 'back' of a bootable partition a few times with no trouble, but after extending the 'front' of one this time the bootable partition was no longer bootable.

Balls.

Ah well.

There's a really good, free linux-based partioner call 'parted magic' that runs from a live CD. Very simple and works well.

Having multiple bootable partitions on the same disk using windows is always a bitch to deal with... or on two disks for that matter. The bootable partition in windows is seen by most Bios managers as partition "0" Thus having two bootable partitions is like having to tell apart two identical twins.... Using a boot loader will keep things from getting nasty.

As far as extending a partition over a boot region of windows... your fucked. Windows does not like this at all.

What I suggest in a scenario like this, is to use another drive to copy your second partition to. Then go and erase you second partition.. resize it, recopy files to it, then extend your first partition in the unused unpartitioned space with software such as partition magic....

maybe this will or will not help....