my laptop hard drive is 60gb but i only have 30gb available to use in drive C, the other 30gb is said to be in some unknown format on drive D. So is it safe to safe to format this drive so i can use it or is there some information on there that needs keeping? thanks.
If you are using an HP, Sony or Acer laptop many manufacturers partition the hard drive and place the restore image on that other partition consult tech support through online chat for your particular brand of laptop do not delete this partition unless you are able to create restore discs that can be used at a later date should you need to use them.
usually the recovery partitions are alot smaller and hidden (in the neighborhood of 5gb to 10gb in eisa or fat format) Check under my computer/control panel/administrative tools/computer management/disk management That will show you all your partitions including the hidden ones.
Yes usually partitions are smaller but not always by default Sony makes them big and puts the swap file on them as well as the restore area. I would not remove this partition if this is the original configuration when you purchased the laptop. However you could put this partition to work for you create a folder in it called back up and move any files you want to protect/save to it and clean up you c drive this will give you more space while protecting the other valuable information and utilizing the partition.
