Is it possible to merge non-adjacent hard disk partitions on my HP PC?

Q  I have an HP Pavilion Slimline s5650uk PC with Windows 7 Home Premium installed – the computer came with the operating system preinstalled. The hard disk is partitioned as follows: a 100MB ‘System’ partition, a 107GB drive ‘C’, a 12GB drive ‘D’ and the remaining 345GB as drive ‘H’.

I would like to merge partitions ‘C’ and ‘H’ but they are separated by ‘D’, which is labelled as the ‘HP Recovery’ partition. I haven’t found an application that will merge non-adjacent partitions and I have tried System Recovery but that made no difference to the partition setup.

Would it be possible to make a backup of the ‘D’ partition, delete this partition, merge ‘C’ and ‘H’, make a new ‘D’ partition and restore the backup or is there another shorter method of achieving the merge?
John Craig

A  Merging non-adjacent partitions isn’t possible. However, it is possible to move existing partitions into non-allocated space and then use the space left ‘behind’ them to expand another partition. The partitioning tool built into Windows 7 is unable to handle moving operations but there are free alternatives that can – such as Easeus Partition Manager.

We can’t give detailed instructions on using that program but it is pretty straightforward and you are obviously confident with the concept of partitioning. Besides, what really matters is the logical process for your particular circumstances – so here goes.

In the first instance, back up partition H – then delete it, leaving 345GB of unallocated space on the drive. Now use Easeus’ Resize/Move option to move partition D to the far right of this unallocated space (it’s literally a drag and drop). At this point you should have a 107GB drive C, followed by 345GB of unallocated space and then the 12GB drive D.

Finally, use the Resize/Move option once more to extend the 107GB drive C into the unallocated space to the right – and that should be that.

Obviously, this method entails backing up the 345GB drive H. If that’s neither desirable nor possible, then another option is to create a separate recovery disc from the D partition: HP explains the process on its website.

Then the D partition could be deleted using Windows 7’s built-in partitioning tool, allowing the unallocated space between C and H to be merged with either partition (and then the two partitions can themselves be merged). Obviously, this involves destroying the recovery partition on the hard disk – so proceed at your own risk.