Combine Drives/Partitions/Volumes in Windows | Without Third-party Software (Easy Guide)

When a hard disk drive needs an extra space to increase its size then it should be extended. The words Combine partitions means to extend a drive. This action will merge partitions and thus it will create a single drive. Windows 8/7/Vista has its built-in Disk management utility to resize partition safely and properly.  So you don't need to download any paid or free software to do this task.
You can also split a partition with the help of  the Disk Management.

If you are using Windows 7/vista or any beta version of Windows 8 you can follow the steps below. This tutorial will show how to extend a disk partition on a logical drive.

Combine Two Partitions:
Before starting the step-by-step process, suppose we are going to combine D: and E: partitions whose are not the system drive. And the size of the D: drive will be increased. These lines will help you for better understanding.

1. Open Control Panel and go to System and Security > Administrative Tools > Computer management. Or you can right-click on Computer and select Manage to get the Computer Management.

Computer Management

2. In the the Computer Management window, Expand the Storage from the left-pane and click on the Disk Management. Within a moment it will load all your drives.

Disk Management

3. Now you need a partition which will be added to the targeted one (E: drive will be added to D:). The drive which will be added to another, should be back-up before this major change on  disk partitions.

4. So back up, delete the partition (deleting the E: drive ).

Delete Partition

5. After getting a Free space partition, move to the partition (D: drive) which will be extended and right-click on it. Select the Extend Volume and go Next. It may look like following screenshot.

Deleted partition | Free space 

6. Here the selected drive and its size are given. Select next from the bottom right.

Select the Free disk space

7. This may take a moment to combine two partitions into a single drive.

Combined partition

That's all. The size is increased and is able to manage your data like before.
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Change folder background in Windows 7/vista/xp [without software] hidden secrets

We like to customize folder and drive’s icon, color, view to give it a unique look. What about changing folder background? Usually we use software to do that. But here we’ll change the folder’s background without any software. To do so firstly we should know, what is the “desktop.ini” and how it works?

Folder Background

Desktop.ini is the file where system assigns the values of icon, info, background image source etc. The folder will gives info about itself or a thumbnail view which has the proper desktop.ini file. It is a hidden system file and it's possible to show by CASE: 2 step: 2 in this article. Nothing to worry about it because the system can automatically create a new one if the file is being damaged or absent. It just needs a reboot of the system.

Don’t like to read? Watch this video to change folder background.

Didn’t get a clear idea? Read the tutorial.

The following tutorial will show how to set an image as the background in a folder. This tutorial is divided into two CASEs according two different conditions.

CASE 1: Creating a desktop.ini file:

1. Go to the folder which background image will be changed.

2. Create a new text file and open to edit it.

3. Copy following two lines and paste them to the text file.

[AveFolder] 

IconArea_Image="C:\Users\user_name\my pictures\image.jpg" 

4. If you want a shadow effect for text give ShadowedText=1 and for applying same image to all sub directories give Recursive=1 like this.

[AveFolder]

IconArea_Image="C:\Users\user_name\my pictures\image.jpg"

ShadowedText=1

Recursive=1

ShadowText & Recursive

5. After creating, save the text file then rename it to desktop.ini and restart your PC.

The “IconArea_Image=” (CASE: 1 step 3) describes the source path of the background-Image. You should not select an image source path from removal disk. If you are setting up the image of your removal drive then your background-image source should describe a path of that drive.

Sometimes a message could come showing replacement of desktop.ini file. That means your working folder already has same file. It is better to cancel the replacement of this file and follow the CASE: 2.

CASE 2: Editing desktop.ini: 1. Go to Folder Option from Control panel or from explorer’s menu bar>folder option.

Folder Option from Control Panel

Folder option from Explorer menu bar

2. Select view tab and scroll down to find out hide protected operating system file and uncheck it. It is important to mark Show hidden files, folders and drives first from this view tab.

Folder Option>View tab

3. Find out the desktop.ini in the current directory and open it with a text editor, like: notepad.

Hidden desktop.ini

4. Paste the lines described in CASE: 1 step: 3, just after the [.ShellClassInfo]’s description lines.

[.ShellClassInfo] & [AveFolder]

5. Save and exit from desktop.ini
6. Restart your PC to take an effect on OS

Hide or Unhide Hard Disk Partition in Windows 7/Vista/xp with simple steps

Hiding a partition or volume from my computer or explorer is preventing that partition from displaying, but it doesn't mean erasing any data or deleting the volume. Windows OS Disk management system allows hiding drives except the System drive where the OS is installed and the System reserved volume. So, anyone who has administrative privilege or the administrator of the Windows machine can do this task. And the basic trick is, without any drive letter (Ex: C:, D:, E: etc.) Windows OS doesn't recognize any drive or partition and here we are going to remove that letter temporally.


To do this task you need administrator privilege. So, why don't you activate the administrator account and use it.

How to hide a drive: 
     1. Click right mouse on the computer and select Manage. Select the disk management under storage from the left pane. Or, you can also get the Disk management typing diskmgmt.msc in the run and pressing enter.

Disk Management

     2. From there click right-mouse on which drive you want to hide and select Change DriveLetters and Paths.

Change Drive Letter or Path

     3. Now select remove. Don’t worry! This action just removes the drive letter.

Remove drive

     4. Pressing on the Remove a warning message will be shown and accept it by clicking on yes. It’s just telling you that all programs installed on that drive won’t work or this drive is opened by another program.

Warning Message 

It’s done! Your selected drive is hidden now.

The hidden drive won’t be appearing to the administrator of the OS unless it is unbidden.

How to unhide the drive: 
    1. Open the Disk Management as shown above.

    2. Right mouse click on the drive which is hidden/removed. Tips: the hidden drive doesn’t contain any drive letter.

    3. Choose the Change Drive Letters and Paths and select Add to add drive letter or path to the hidden drive.

Add hidden drive

Assign drive letter

     4. At last choose a drive letter to assign the drive/partition and press on OK. Wow! The hidden partition is displayed in an explorer or my computer.

That's it! No data is lost or damage. Even the installed files are working again without any errors. From now you shouldn't need any extra software to hide or unhide your PC's drives. And if it helps you, why don't you share or rate this?

Recovering Folders Showing as Shortcuts, Hidden in USB/Memory-Card/HDD,

By connecting flash drives to the affected computer, often it shows flash drive containing just some folder's shortcuts. Sometimes it shows nothing though drive's properties show it has files in it. Even we get some inaccessible folder or file. This type of problem may also seen in our local drives (HDD partitions). Even paid anti-virus is unable to resolve those folders, they just scan and detect The AUTORUN worm which one will execute all programs. Then our important files remain hidden.

Hidden folders and Shortcuts by the Autorun Worm

Here we will see how can we solve this problem by using command line and batch file. Though the batch file is nothing but the executable file contains command lines. So solving the hidden and shortcut problem of USB or drives, we must have the administrator privilege as we will execute something.

Using Command line:

To solve/fix the folder's hidden or system file, the easiest way is to run a command line. You canapply this command to USB and local drive as well, need to change the drive_letter.

Go to Run, type cmd and hit enter. In command prompt just type:

attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d drive_letter:\*.* 

And hit enter. Be sure you've typed the drive letter (e.g. j:,h: or D:) instead of "drive_letter" in the command line. My USB drive letter is J: and my command should looks like:

Command for unhide system-hidden files on a drive

All files and folders will be normal and you should be able to delete the shortcuts, created by the virus.

Command line details: Here atrib=attribute, "-"=remove attribute/permits, h=hidden s=system, r=read-only, a=archive, /s=sub directory, /d=directory, drive_letter=the letter of the drive shown in windows explorer (e.g. j:,h: or D:) and *.* is called the wild card for all files.

If you don't like to be a "command Ninja" then see below.

USB, MicroSD, MiniSD or other Mmory Cards issue:

     1. Connect your USB or memory card to the PC or laptop.

     2. Copy these lines and paste it into a "new text file"

@echo off

attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d drive_letter:\*.*

3. In the 3rd line give the drive letter name (Example: J or K or L etc.) instead of "drive_name"

4. Save the text file as any_name.bat

5. Double click on the any_name.bat file and it will run in the command prompt and see the hidden files/folders come back.

6. Delete the shortcuts and unnecessary files and folders from USB drive.

Local drive issue:

1. Copy these lines and paste it into a "new text file"

@echo off 

attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d D:\*.*

attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d E:\*.*

attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d F:\*.*

attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d G:\*.*

attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d H:\*.*

attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d I:\*.*

attrib -h -s -r -a /s /d J:\*.*

@echo complete.

2. Save the text file as a bat file (example: any_name.bat)

3. Run this bat file by double-clicking on it.

Thus you can solve this kind of problems with a *.bat file. You can save the *.bat file for solving this hidden problem.

Important: These tutorials are applied for Windows 7/Vista/xp. You must have the administrative privilege to run the command or execute the .bat file. Put the " : " after the j, k, or D (drive letters). These commands are not case sensitive.

Easy to Apply Same Folder View to All Folders in Windows

In Windows, you can choose the behavior of folders how they will look and work to suit your needs. Different user likes different folder views or layout and for this reason Windows has eight different views or layout for folders. The available views are Extra large icon, Large icon, Medium icon,Small icon , Lists , Details, tiles or a Content found in the layout. You can choose one and want to apply it to ll over the directories or sub-directories. If you set the folder view settings manually, It'll be very hard and time wasting task to go each folder and apply the changes. Yes, Windows OS has  option to get the same view to all folders. So user can choose a view and able to apply it to all others folders and sub-folders as well.

• Want to change the folder's icon or background? Read: How to Change Folder Icon and Background in Windows. 

These simple steps will show you how to apply the same folder settings all over the system except some 'special folder' in Libraries and Favorites.

Apply Same Folder View to All Drives and Folders:


     1. Open the Explorer or Computer and open  a drive.

     2. Make the changes for the folder from the top right corner or Layout pane. Which is located in the top right corner in the Windows 7/Vista and View section in Windows 8

Layout section under View

Layout section  Windows 7

     3. After making changes
          a. Windows 8: Click on View from the explorer ribbon and click on the Options. The Folder Options will pop-up.

View tab and Options Windows 8

          b. Windows 7/Vista/XP: Go to the Tools (using ) from the menu bar > Folder option and select the View tab. The Folder Option will pop-up.

Tools and Folder Options Windows 7

If your menu bar is not visible then click on Organize from the toolbar and select the Layout and tick on the Menu bar.

     4. From the View tab click on the Apply to Folders and all directories or sub-directories of all drives or folders will get the same view as the current one.

Apply to Folders

     5. If you want to apply some changes to the sub-directories just open any folder after entering a drive. Now follow the step 3 and 4.

Back To Default: Use the Reset Folders tab, available on Folder Option window, to revert at the default settings of the OS.

That's all! Apply it and make your working ground more comfortable with a easy look