Dual Boot xp and kubuntu

[klakka]

Hi recently i installed kubuntu onto the hard drive of my xp machine, kubuntu made two new partitions one about 4 Gb and the other 45Gb i now have uninstall kubuntu and installed onto a brand new drive.

My question is how can i combine the two partitions with the xp one to make it one again.


Thanks In Advance.

Ian

[HarsH]

Re: Dual Boot xp and kubuntu

Delete those partition and you would have free space again and you can re partition it

Do you want to install XP on it, if yes then just boot from XP cd and rest will be simple...

[klakka]

Re: Dual Boot xp and kubuntu

i can delete the partition but it stays as un allocated space so im losing out on nearly 50 gig. The other 150gb has xp and films etc on it so i dont want to format nor reinstall xp again.
Cheers


Ian

[sky]

Re: Dual Boot xp and kubuntu

Hi,

Partition magic is able to merge this two partitions in one... but it's not free

[mchuskie]

Re: Dual Boot xp and kubuntu

It all depends on what order the partitions are in... because it's easy for software to extend a partition by moving the end, and really difficult for it to do by moving the head.

I shall attempt a graphical explanation. This is "easy":

|----NTFS (XP)-------------------------||-----OTHER PARTITION---|
You delete the other partition:
|----NTFS (XP)-------------------------|| |
Then extend the NTFS one:
|----NTFS (XP)---------------------------------------------------------|

Not possible (or as difficult as to be nearly impossible) is

|-----OTHER PARTITION---||----NTFS (XP)-------------------------|
You delete the other partition:
| ||----NTFS (XP)-------------------------|

But, in order to enlarge the NTFS partition, the whole thing would need to be shifted up the drive (or something equally nasty). Most partitioners I've tried give up and go home at this point.

The trick is, assuming you have the first setup, to resize the NTFS partition once you've deleted the other one. Maybe a Live CD with QTParted would be a possibility (not sure though, as NTFS is generally tricky).

No need to reinstall XP (for once!) - no need to reformat - all data on the NTFS partition should be preserved. (Disclaimer: I said "should"!)

[Open Source]

Re: Dual Boot xp and kubuntu

Partition Magic will let you redo anything without data loss. So no matter the configuration, Partition Magic can edit, fix, enlarge, shrink, divide, merge, etc. But, its not free.