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ASUS Laptop - Want to reformat HDD from 3 partitions to 2 with out loosing Op System and Recovery Partition

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Sorry about posting twice, didn't thik it took the first time.
I presently have an ASUS laptop with the 500 GB primary HDD set up from the factory with 3 partitions. One has the operating system. The 2nd is for any use and the 3rd has the ASUS restoration data in case the computer has to be put back to factory.
Here is my dilemma. I don't have enough room on the partition with the operating system to put "My Music" , "My Pictures" and "My Videos" on it. I would like to use Acronis True Image Home 2011 to re-image the primary HDD with only 2 partitions. One large one for the operating system (Win 7 Professional) and the other partition to contain the ASUS recovery partition. I don't want to lose anything and don't want to have to reinstall the operating system. I have and external large USB HDD that could be utilized if necessary in the interim to store an image. Is there a way under manual setup to fillow the procedure for installing a new HDD or is a image creation the better way to go?
Can I do this with my Acronis software?
Thanks, Don

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IF your prob is you are runing out on romo on the C: drive because My docs (including y music and my pics) is very large, you can move those directories, then using windows explorer just, drag My Docs from C: to the other partition and select move (rather than copy). That would be easier than dong a restore changing the partitions.

If you want to change from three to two parttions to two, you need to first backup with ati the partition that you will be losing-- a file backup works fine for this. Then use gparted or other free partitoning software to delete the partition (make sure you get the right one) and allocate the space to the C: partition. Then, with ati restore or copy the files from the backup to the bigger C: partition. You won't want to do a partition or disk mode restore, you jsut want to resotre files. If you did a didk mode backup and can't do a file mode resotre, then open/mount the backup and copy the files over the newly enlarged C: drive.

Thanks for the info.
My ASUS G73-A1 laptop came strangley configured. It has two 500 GB HDD's, with 3 partitions on the primary and 2 on the secondary. I at present have done exactly what you mentioned regarding the music. photo's and Vid's but would like to keep them in the came location as I am networking 3 Win 7 machines. Alsoit is easier to keep track of only 2 partitions on the primary drive. I didn't realize that I could reclaim a partition. I thought once it was written to even if the data gets removed that I couldn't reclaim that space and make a bigger "C" partition. I guess I'm going to have to do a little more research on your suggestion. That would sure make it easier than imaging parts of the priomary drive.

Not all partitioning programs will do it, but it's not a rare feature to be able to remove a partition and allocate the then unallcoated space to an existing partition. Just to be safe, you probably want to backup your entire disk. And don't monkey with the system reserved partiton or the oem's hidden partition.

PC sellers are putting in bigger and bigger drives because drive size is cheap. But the sizes get to be rediculous after a while except for storing pics, vids, and music.

Not all partitioning programs will do it, but it's not a rare feature to be able to remove a partition and allocate the then unallcoated space to an existing partition. Just to be safe, you probably want to backup your entire disk. And don't monkey with the system reserved partiton or the oem's hidden partition.

PC sellers are putting in bigger and bigger drives because drive size is cheap. But the sizes get to be rediculous after a while except for storing pics, vids, and music.