Powerquest Corporation

Golden E Murray

Robert S Raymond

Russell J Marsh

Troy Millett

Paul E Madden

Adam L Bringhurst

Theron M Stoddard

David I Marsh

Damon Janis

The present invention provides tools and techniques for manipulating virtual partitions in a virtual engine environment without necessarily committing each partition manipulation by actually modifying on-disk system structures. A virtual engine, virtual partitions, virtual drives, and other structures in the virtual engine environment permit users to experiment with different partition manipulations in a safe and efficient manner. A batch manager manages a resulting list of partition manipulation operations, which may be optimized. The batch list may also be executed automatically by a conventional partition manipulation engine without requiring additional user input at the end of each list entry. The present invention also provides the ability to manipulate extended partitions automatically and provides support for remote partition manipulation through a two-part user interface architecture.

Manipulation of virtual and live computer storage device partitions

Methods and systems are provided for merging computer disk partitions to reduce the number of partitions. Unlike conventional approaches that rely on FDISK, the invention does not destroy user data on the disk during or after the two or more partitions are merged. Two or more adjoining partitions may be combined. During a merging operation, partitions may have their clusters aligned or resized. The merging partitions may also have their partition type changed. During the merge at least one copy of all system and user data of all partitions is kept on a disk at all times, reducing the risk of data loss.

Merging computer partitions

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Mapleton, UT, United States of America

Golden E Murray