Combine two partitions separated by other (important) partitions?

[jtpetch]

Hi, my friend and I have a bit of a problem. He upgraded his HDD to a faster, larger one (he had a 5400 rpm, new one is 7200), and he wanted to keep some installed things (GTA V, and others) so that he didn't have to download them again. So, we installed the new HDD, created a 150 gb partition, moved the stuff to keep onto that partition, installed Windows 8 to the other partition of the new HDD, wiped the old HDD, and moved the kept files onto the main partition of the new HDD. (Yes, very convoluted and probably unnecessary)
Then we were left with this (left to right in partition manager)
150 gb empty partition
some-odd gb win. recovery
some-odd gb Windows partition
MAIN ~800 gb partition

So, what we want to do is combine the 150 gb partition with the 800 gb main partition.
Buuut, we can't seem to do that. Seeing as the two windows partitions are in-between them.
We've already tried a few partition managers, and none of them seem able to move the partitions together.
We'd rather not have to re-install Windows again (just takes a while), but we will if we have to.
I'm just wondering if there's an easier way.
Thanks for the help!

 

[i7Baby]

So - all you want is the data in the 150gb partition?

Format the other partitions that aren't empty - to wipe them. Then delete them.

 

[bigpinkdragon286]

Yes, convoluted and unnecessary. If you have immovable partitions in between the free space, you're out of luck with a simple solution.

Probably the easiest thing to do is to not make partitions you don't plan on keeping in the first place. I would take what you want to keep, put it back on the old drive again, wipe the new drive, and just reinstall Windows to the new drive, letting it create it's own partitions as needed during that step of the installation process. The partitions will be made correctly and you'll end up with one large unified drive.

 

[jtpetch]

Yes, convoluted and unnecessary. If you have immovable partitions in between the free space, you're out of luck with a simple solution.

Probably the easiest thing to do is to not make partitions you don't plan on keeping in the first place. I would take what you want to keep, put it back on the old drive again, wipe the new drive, and just reinstall Windows to the new drive, letting it create it's own partitions as needed during that step of the installation process. The partitions will be made correctly and you'll end up with one large unified drive.

Ok, thanks. Yeah, now that I think about it, there's other ways we could've done this as well. Ah, well, lesson learned xD