anyone know any good free software for this?

anyone know free software i can get that will put these 3 partitions i have back into one? i tried using gparted but i can't figure out how that one works..

 

I don't think you can combine the three partitions into one.

What you can do is copy the information from the 2nd and 3rd partition to the first one. Then delete them. Then you can merge the free space with the first partition.

 

acronis disk director trail can do that for you,,,back up al your data and delete 3 partitions and then create a new one..

 

how do i do that?

 

acronis isn't free though..i need something free

 

if i put ubuntu onto this laptop would i be able to partition the drives (and make sure i just have one)using gparted..and once that is done format the hard drive and then reinstall vista using my hp recovery disc?

 

yes acronis disc director will do that fine as i recently did just that,altough i dont think the trial will work !

 

i mean using gparted..not acronis

 

also if i download ubuntu and burn the iso file to a disk i can easily delete it without anything taking up space right?

 

Delete it from the disk?'
Yes, if its a CD-RW.

 

Not sure if you solved your issue yet so here goes.
1. Back up all data.
2. Use GParted to delete all partitions (that you created, you will likely want to keep partitions that came "pre-installed" from the factory).
3. """"""""""""""""""" join all empty space into one partition (if not automatically done).
4. """"""""""""""""""" create a new (NTFS or FAT32 partition, depending on your needs) in the free space.
5. Install X version of Windows.

Post back if this doesn't do it for you.

 

well i ended up reformating the disk..and i now have 2 partitions(nevermind about the 3 anymore)..i am reformating them again with Killdisk..
i still have the same problem with the Primary Unknown being 20.4GB and the Unallocated being 87.78 after trying to reinstall again from that stupid hp recovery disk.
my problem was is that after i was done reinstalling from the hp recovery disc and the installation finished i went into My Computer and it only showed 20.4GB space and not the rest of it ..so thats why i have 2(though the second didn't even show up on My Computer..i mean the rest of the 87.78GB..and i didn't even partition anything...(lol) so anyways i am trying to get the 2 back together..nevermind about the preinstalled one..i have recovery discs for that..i just want to get those 2 partitions together into one for the 111. whatever space i had before..
i'll be surpised if my computer runs the same after all of this...lol