I recently bought a Dell E310. I re-installed Windows XP Home because I HATE all the crap they put on. Now, I was in the set-up menu and there were 2 partitions! I choose the one with the biggest storage (56 Gb) and installed. Problem was that the computer wouldn't boot the operating system! Then I installed it on the other that only had 18 Gb. It finally booted, but now I have 2 local disks! One has Windows installed the other is just free space! Why did it split up like that? It is a Serial ATA drive if that helps. I just want to combine the two or use the bigger storage space and have only ONE local disk.
2006-08-30 17:01:43 · 12 answers · asked by Pattay 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
There is a software called Partition Magic, You can use this software to add or remove the partitions, but before you start playing around with this software, I would suggest that you take a data backup as playing with partitions can be very risky.
2006-08-30 17:06:16 · answer #1 · answered by Tech_Geek 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dell puts a "Ghost" partition on their hard drives. Normally this is hidden. This is basically a full backup image of what they factory install on your hard drive so if anything happens you can simply restore it to be just like when you first bought it by using their recovery option.
If you already installed over this partition (the 18GB one), then you've overwritten the data so the backup is obviously no longer there.
If you want to install with only one partition then reinstall Windows again and delete the existing partition before installing Windows. After the partition is deleted it should show the full drive capacity as "unpartitioned space" and from here you can format it as NTFS (full). Once Windows is installed you will have one volume using the full drive.
Partition Magic is not required to do this, but I agree it's a great utility for resizing partitions and creating partitions if do this regularly and are willing to pay for software to do it. However, the above suggestion should be fine if you are willing to reinstall to get it right.
2006-08-30 17:11:05 · answer #2 · answered by anonfuture 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
This is intentional... cause the smaller partition is for the OS and application installation.
And the other partition is for storing your files and data.
So, in the case of the Windows corrupted, or any situation, resulted you need to format the hard disk, then you can just format the OS and application partition without affected or losing your data in another partition.
However, if you prefer to have all in 1 partition, then so be it, just remember to make a backup of the important files/your work regularly.
2006-08-30 17:12:13 · answer #3 · answered by shin 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Do not mess with it. Dell computers now come with two hidden partitions: a Utility partition and a Restore partition. DSR (Dell System Restore) is a feature that returns a computer to its "as-shipped" state, through the use of these two specialized partitions.
Reggie
http://www.diycomputertips.com
2006-08-30 17:12:31 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Dell did this for you
i think you should install all your programs and os to c: drive and save all your data to d:drive
to save data all you need do is select d:drive and sve it
if you then have a problem with c:drive just reinstall and no need to worry about your data as it safe on d:drive
or
you could reinstall and at the prompt fdisk and the format followed by reinstall off windows xp
2006-09-03 04:01:35 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
here's a quick guide to do it, reinstall your system, and when you reach the option where you are to choose from 2 partions delete both partion, make sure you delete both, there should only be 1 partition for you to use. now if you don't want to reinstall your system there is a tool called partition magic that could resize, merge, delete or make a new partion out of your free hard drive space.
2006-08-30 17:18:59 · answer #6 · answered by Tr3k 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are two partitions, if you would like to combine then you need to get a program like partition magic or wipe clean the HDD and then also change your partition table, WinXP has the ability to do that as well as FDISK for win98/ME
2006-08-30 17:05:53 · answer #7 · answered by Kevin S 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Sounds like your physical hard drive has been partitioned into
two logical drives.
Have fun but be safe.
2006-08-30 17:08:24 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
easy
boot using the OS cd, delete both the partition instead of choosing any partition
u will end up with one unpartitioned space
go ahead and install it there
done
2006-08-30 17:07:37 · answer #9 · answered by mail2ganji 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
you'll have to boot from a floppy, type fdisk.. make the other partition to become active.
2006-08-30 19:21:22 · answer #10 · answered by kurapiket 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋