Problem: Merged Partition disappears after re-booting

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I have a SONY VAIO desktop with one hard disk partitioned into C: (14 GB) and D: (86GB).

Last night I downloaded the Trial version of Disk Director Suite 10.0 and installed it on C. When I directed it to merge C and D, it looked like it did so (D disappeared and I had C at 100GB) but it said it had to re-boot. When I clicked "reboot" it told me that there were "committed operations" that should complete. After waiting an eternity (maybe an hour?) and not noticing any progress at all, I authorized the re-boot. When the system came back up, I still had my C and D partitions that had kept their original sizes... I did not work.

I understand now that maybe "Merge" is not a function that can be performed by the Trial version. How do I activate my Trial version and switch it to a fully functional version?

Almost more importantly, will what I am attempting to do be successful (I have mostly software on C and 60 MB free; mostly documents and pictures on D with 60GB free)? I had created an empty directory on C where I was going to move all of my D partition, but I have also read somewhere that maybe I should make a partition E with most of the empty space in D, then change the letters so my old D becomes E and my newly created E becomes D, and then merge C, D, E so that C expands contiguously. Thoughts?

Sorry if it's a bit wordy...

Thank you!

Mon, 10/19/2009 - 22:00
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truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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The trial version of DD is extremely limited.

I strongly recommend against using the Merge feature of DD (same goes for the Split feature). It can cause all sorts of major problems if it fails.

Do you have enough space somewhere to copy the contents of the D: partition? An external drive, for example?

Do you have a current Entire Disk Image backup of the drive? If not, I would recommend creating one before you make any changes.

If you can't copy off the data from D:, you would need to resize and move data as required until everything was located on the C: drive. For example: Resize D: smaller from the left edge to allow space for C: to expand. Then resize C: larger. Next, copy data from D: to C:. Repeat until all the data has been moved. Then remove the D: partition and resize C: to use all the space. Note that each resize should be applied separately (don't combine resizes into one "commit" operation).

Mon, 10/19/2009 - 23:29
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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Yes, I can copy the content of D: to an external drive. I have a few programs there and I am not sure if they would still work after copying the stuff onto something external and then copying it back onto C:

By the way, what do you recommend I do once I have nothing left on D:? Resize D: down to almost nothing, or even delete it? And then resize C: to use all the space?

I don't have a current Entire Disk Image backup of the drive and I am not sure how to do this...

Can my Trial version handle "resizing"?

Thks...

Tue, 10/20/2009 - 03:30
truwrikodrorowrelupicugojestutroclulachosaswunuhospikigawakijosaswenomaruclojeueclikaspedrubewidebrisubrohutrurifruuagothunugekedrumucisiuobrobrecrupeslapuswosluprothethibakaslechurathikucli
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According to this KB article, the trial version of DD is limited to the following:

Acronis Disk Director Suite 10.0 Trial limitations:

  • Only partitions of the minimum size (1 cylinder ~ 7,8 MBytes) can be created (both in Windows and from Acronis Bootable Media);
  • Acronis OS Selector trial period expires after 15 days, and then starts with a 15 seconds delay;
  • No other operations can be committed.

From this, it looks like resizing isn't supported in the trial version.

---

Once nothing is left on the D: partition, you would delete it and resize C: to use the remaining space.

You would need to use TI or another disk imaging program to create the Entire Disk Image backup. Even though the partitioning software is designed to be safe, things do sometimes go wrong. If you have a backup image, it allows you to restore and try again.

Tue, 10/20/2009 - 04:39