Windows 98 - Merging HDD Partition

[Xmsteel]

I acquired a custom built machine a while ago with Windows 98 on it.
Hard drives are fully loaded with personals and what not.

The computer has two phyiscal HDD, a Quantum Fireball and a WD Caviar. When going to my computer, I have three shown drives. C, D, and E.

C is the main drive with Windows files.
D is the other physical hard drive.
E is assuming a partition. I successfully formatted it.

So the question, how do I merge C with E? Both show total space of 2GB. Will it require a total format?

 

[Eximo]

That would be the simplest. Not sure I know of any Win98 tools that can merge two volumes.

 

[Wolfshadw]

[strike]Not possible. Larger that 2GB partitions were not possible until Windows XP (SP2 I believe).[/strike]

-Wolf sends

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Not possible. Larger that 2GB partitions were not possible until Windows XP (SP2 I believe).

-Wolf sends

Larger than 2GB volumes (NT and NTFS not withstanding) came with FAT32 (theoretically 8TB), which Windows 98 fully supports. Though NT4 could use 64KB clusters and take a FAT partition to 4GB.

To answer that original question, back up both partitions, delete both partitions and create a single partition formatted FAT32, then restore the backed up data to the new, single partition. Now, if there are any programs involved here they will most likely have to be reinstalled as drive letters will change, or cease to exist.

 

[Wolfshadw]

Huh... I guess I didn't learn enough back in the day. My old Win 2K system had 5 partitions (1x4GB and 1x6GB drives). Thanks, Ex!

-Wolf sends

 

[Xmsteel]

I'm wondering, is it picky about the size and splitting into two parts?
I don't happen to have a Win98 disk either so I might have to deal with it 🙁