Its according to the operating system I done it two nights ago with xp-pro, I deleted several partitions, using a cd called "Ulimate Boot Disk" http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ for a small charge it can be downloaded. I used the ranish partition manager to delete the unwanted  partitions and then saved the changes, then with the mbr tool I installed a generic mbr code, and when I rebooted the drive was back to 200gb and xp didn't wimper abit.
Be warned anything can go wrong be prepared if it does !  

I habe always used Partition Magic in the past. 

I recently purchased a copy on line, needed immediately, on site at client's site.  Could not download it, got horrible support,4 hours on the phone, canceled the order.  I then purchased Partition Commander from VCom, used it effectively, no issues.  Almost identical to Partitiion Magic, cheaper, and no support problems.

XP-PRO does have partitioning tool in OS, but it needs some unallocated space or you cannot use it.  If you get new drives in the future, make sure that some free space is made available at the beginning so that you can use the built in Disk Partitioning tools.

Is it necessary to make one large partition?  Keep the 2Gb partition and use for the swap files for increased performance.  That will also free up space on the primary that is being used by swap file now.  So you get the space on the primary, get better performance, and don't need to merge partitions. 

Hi Carl.

No, just a joking reference to my general avoidance on Microsoft's "came with Windows" utilities.  Unless one is using Linux or a Mac and depends on Windows, there is a certain amount of "industry standard" choices we all have to accept will be in use by a majority of users (and clients).  However, I have been the victim of Microsoft poor design and support too many times and therefore always have and probably always will research heavily alternatives that are more reliable, better supported, and less cryptic than what Microsoft "allows" us in their offerings.  Having just experienced several weeks of major issues on my laptop including the STILL useless information provided in events like the "blue screen of death", I am painfully reminded that there is a high emphasis on income and dominance and little concern for providing useful, reliable tools and products from a company which seems to embody the motto "We don't care, we don't have to--we're Microsoft."  Hard to reconcile when you contrast it with the kind of concern, involvement, clarityand support provided by companies like Lantica.

A side note--I have several VCom products and it would have been my second choice for repartitioning also.  They do produce a variety of low-cost products.  They are more limited in scope usually and are not perfect, but worth a look for sure.

johnbits wrote on Mar 4^th, 2007 at 4:12pm:

Duh!
I should have realized that "Unka Bill" meant Bill Gates.

Bob_Hansen wrote on Mar 4^th, 2007 at 9:24pm:

Oh, now I understand you. Thanks, that sounds like the simplest (and cheapest) solution.