Hi, I just recently recieved my laptop back from HP. The HDD on this laptop is 250GB but when i open My Computer it shows only 27.4GB. Is there anyways to make it fully 250GB or close to it? Here's a Pic. incase that don't show, here's the link. http://img264.imageshack.us/my.php?image=hddmh6.jpg Thnx Also I've tried system recovery already. still the same.
Do you only see 1 hdd in my computer or are there several hdds also what version of windows are you using. If you only see one you should go into the bios and see how big it says the hdd is there. Also you might need to update your bios for it to see a drive that big. If you see several it may be partioned thru windows.
Also from what i can see from your picture u have a recovery drive how big is that one looks to me like they may have messed up and made the recovery drive the large one and your main drive the small one.
The Recovery Drive D) is 9.85GB So what do you suggest i should do? About updating BIOS, I'm not relly confident in that and I don't want to mess around with the BIOS. Maybe you can help me with that? I'd really appreciate it
Try this right click my computer and select manage under storage select disk management if you could make a snap shot of the whole page for me to see this would be helpful
I see what the problem is if you look at disk 0 you have your c drive recovery drive and about 196gigs of unalocated space give me a sec and i will figuer out how to fix it.
Create a partition out of the unallocated space, then use a program such as Partition magic to merge it into the main partition *the one thats 27 gb*. If you don't know who to do all that I can explain in more detail.
Sorry I'm really new to the Partition Magic and these kind of stuff. If it's not too much, it will be really helpful if you can help guide me through it. thank you. I will download the program and have it install. By the way, the program is not free, is it ok to use the free trial? Also, wait for Darkmat's reply also so i can perform all the steps at once.
Well to create the partition right click on the unallocated space and select "create partition". (You may or may not have to format it first. If you do need to format it make sure its in "NTFS" format.) When selecting the name and driver letter it doesn't matter what you put. Once you've done all that get back to me.
Yes you can do that but won't that make another drive you can download acronis and i believe make it one big c drive here is a link that might help out. http://www.theeldergeek.com/hard_drives_05.htm
What a load of crap.. download puppy linux which comes with qparted.. a nice gui partition manager and formatting tool, and gparted for those who like things a little more command line.. bundled up with a nice full 88mb OS.. It always makes me smile when so called "experts".. self appointed as it happens make such glaringly stupid comments as "Well to create the partition right click on the unallocated space and select "create partition". (You may or may not have to format it first. If you do need to format it make sure its in "NTFS" format.)".. just how the hell do you propose formatting "unallocated space"???
That is what we want to do. Creating the drive would allow you to merge the two drives *the C and new formed one* into one large drive using Partition Magic. It's my personal favorite as the gui is simple to use. Although according to that site you don't need to create a partition, which I didn't know. So yes, use that site and partition magic. I'm not going to write out steps when they are right there. I don't suggest acronis as I found it a bit troublesum to use. I also never called myself an expert -___- I just wasn't sure. So w/e we each have own prefered methods. No need to be rude about it.
First of all i have a few questions. - When creting new partition it should be "Primary" not "Extended" right? And after i create a new partition and merge into one, will this stays even after i done a system recovery? And Darkmat, So what you're saying is to create a new partition with the unallocated space right? Because there's only a guide to resize a partitionk, i can't find one about expanding or anything similar. btw, i don't think Partition magic works with vista. I am going to use Acronis, unless u suggest something else.
Yes set it as Primary. And no it won't revert back to any previous configuration. And partition magic, at least 8. something, is compatible with vista.
OK Thank You, Well i tried Partition magic 8 demo, and it says something about error not finding any Default driver. Im going to give it another try. I'll update my result soon.
You won't be able to do anything with the demo. Either pay for it or use some other means. How ever you obtain the full version you need that one so that the steps will actually take effect.
before you go any further download the free "macrium reflect" and make an image backup of your c: partition (and also one of your recovery partition) and save it on an external drive, make sure you make a "bootcd". Now you can do the needed repairs. If you suffer a worst case scenario you can at least restore your drive back to it original configuration. The most dangerous thing you can do is try to merge a partition with windows on it and another partition. If you loose power or the computer hangs during the merge, the computer will no longer bootup. How your hard drive is setup with a "recovery partition" in between your "windows" partition and "unallocated" partition might give you problems. Usually to merge you have to have the 2 partitions you want to merge right next to each other. You can always just make your unallocated partition into a "data" partition. 27gb is a decent size for a windows partition, mine is only 20gb. http://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.asp
Thanks for all your supports guys. I was able to merge the unallocated with my 27.4gb and now its looks good. My recovery drive still looks intact and my laptop running fine so far. again thanks for your time and support, I really appreciate it.
