How do I turn a partitioned hard drive whole again, without losing any data?

Question

I own an ASUS X53E, which came with a hard drive partitioned into two: the main drive (:C) where I store everything on my computer, and the backup drive (:D) that everything gets backed up to.
I want to either:
a) Recombine the two partitions into one, therefore increasing the amount of space I can use; or
b) Format the backup drive (:D) and use it as extra memory or to speed up my computer, or even as another operating system.
Anyone know if there is anything I can do?

Answer 1

DO NOT REMOVE OR DELETE THE D DIVE



The D: drive is your recovery drive and if you delete it you will never be able to recover your computer to manufacture settings.



Depending on the size of your hard drive your D: drive very small in size compared to your C; drive

The D: drive should only have one file. This file is usually named RECOVERY.

No other files should be there.

The D: drive has some extra free space that is reserved for the recovery program to run when needed.

If you store your files on this drive you are taking away the free space needed for the recovery program to work.



NEVER NEVER NEVER store files on the D: drive or you will not be able to recover your computer when needed.



Leave the D: drive alone or you will have more problems that you ever imagined when your computer fails

Answer 2

If you change or remove the recovery drive D partition you will not ever be able to put your laptop back to factory and the recovery partition can never be reinstalled or used again. If you do change or remove the recovery drive D partition be sure and create the operating system recovery disc set for the laptop, this you should do any way in case the recovery partition can not be accessed or a hard drive fails. Drive D is very small in size and will not store a lot of files if you did remove the partition just buy a external hard drive to use to back up your files and to store files too to keep the laptops internal HDD free. You should always back up to external media any time you make system changes including partitioning a hard drive in case of a problem so not to lose any files.



How To Delete a Hard Drive Partition In Windows 7 http://www.ehow.com/how_8163740_delete-drive-partition-windows-7.html



How to Remove Active Partitions in Windows 7

Read more: http://www.ehow.com/how_8330993_remove-active-partitions-windows-7.html#ixzz2X6RS0d8H



Delete a hard disk partition http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/Delete-a-hard-disk-partition

Answer 3

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Answer 4

"...my recovery drive is actually a separate partition from either (C:) or (D:), called (*:)"



You can go ahead and format D, the recovery partition will be unharmed☺

Answer 5

Sound arguments.