Drive D is the Hewlett Packard Recovery Drive. It's a FAT32 system with a capacity of 4.07GB of space but it only has 84.1 MB of free space. I have deleted programs and files to free up space but it only frees it up on the C drive but doesn't effect Drive d at all. My pc is slow and just isn't acting right, plus I can't download SP2 because I get the message that there isn't enough space on the hard drive. I don't know what to do. I've got no good help from Microsoft and No one even bothered to email me back from HP. I tried to just reformat and start over but when I type fdisk/mbr according to the HP website my pc doesn't recognize the command. Can someone please give me some advice.
2007-05-25 05:53:57 · 16 answers · asked by Beth 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Other - Computers
The D drive on your PC is designed to hold a backup file for restoring your computer should you have problems. Usually there is little free space on a restore drive, and you can not delete anything off it. You also are normally set up so that you are not using that drive.
Unless you specially tell the computer to put something on to the D drive, it will not even know it is there.
Odds are that your "space" problem is with the C drive, not the D drive. You need to clean enough stuff off your computer to have at least 1 GIG (or 10% - whichever is larger) of your C drive free. WIndows needs that for its swap file and will crawl without it.
The command "fdisk/mbr" simply clear the "master boot record" storage cache. If run, you would not normally see anything change on the computer. If you were to run just the command "fdsik" (with the /mbr) it would wipe everything off you hard drive and make it unbootable until it has been reformated and had Windows reinstalled. You probably do not want to do that.
No insult intended, but it sounds like you need more help then we can give on a forum like this. Ask around and see if you can find a friend who is a "geek" (computer sauvy). Going rate for a computer "wipe and reinstall" today is a pizza, soda pop, and a couple movie rentals. Not that expensive.
Good luck....
2007-05-25 06:05:00 · answer #1 · answered by dewcoons 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
You don't tell us how large your C: drive is, as the D: drive is just a partition on the same drive. Like everyone else has said, D: is the recovery partition (restore to factory defaults), when you first booted up your PC when you first got it, you were probably prompted with a message about creating a set of recovery disks. If you did not do this, do so now, as you will need them if you decide to replace your hard drive, as the Windows OS installer, your drivers and other apps that came with your computer reside on the D: drive in a compressed format. Do not format this drive or replace it until you have made a complete recovery set.
2007-05-25 06:58:23 · answer #2 · answered by villanim 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My guess is that the space issue on Drive D is not causing your speed problem. You indicate that it is listed as the HP Recovery Drive. Chances are all that space on Drive D is taken up with Recovery Images of the data on Drive C.
If you want to free up space on Drive D the first order of business would be to disable the HP Recovery Software that is saving data on that drive. However, I don't know if that will fix your real complaint about system speed and free space.
When XP SP2 tells you there is not enough space it is only looking at the available space on your System drive (that is the harddrive on which WinXP is installed and that the computer boots up from). In your case that appears to be Drive C. So Drive C should be the focus of your cleaning activities.
Windows can help you in this endeavor. Open your My Computer window. Right-click on the icon for Drive C and choose Properties from the pop-up menu. In the properties dialog under the General tab you should see a button for Disk Clean-up this program will delete a number of temporary files that could be taking up a lot of space on your harddrive. After you run Disk Clean up, go back to the Drive Properties dialog and under the Tools tab run Disk Defragmentation, this will help with speed issue associated with disk access.
Hope this helps.
2007-05-25 06:09:28 · answer #3 · answered by pdq 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Click on control panel then click on system icon. A box with the system properties will open. Click advance tab. Now click on the performance setting button. Now check the adjust for best performance under the visual tab. The computer will change to operate a bit faster by shutting down some background programs not in use. The next thing you want to do is click on the advance tab in the performance options box. Click on the button that says change. A new box will open that says virtual memory. Highlight the recovery D line then check off the "no paging file". Now go and highlight the C drive and go down to the section where it tells you how much memory. Click custom size and increase the memory to use. The system has a default amount in place. Remember it. Increase the memery to the max the system will allow. Also keep your system clean by going to programs then accessories then system tools and then disk clean up.
2007-05-25 06:07:43 · answer #4 · answered by mjorod 4 · 0⤊ 1⤋
if you have a drive with only 4gb maximum space, then it's REALLY time to get a new computer. I got a beast of a machine with 512gb of space on just one hard drive, and that only set me back 500-600 bucks at best buy. 4gb is less than one standard DVD disk! That may have been ok back then, but these days, programs are so huge, that you need at minimum a good 100gb of breathing room to be comfortable computing.
If this is in fact a newer computer, than drive D: is probably a partition. Most likely it would be the windows install DVD copy permanently etched onto you harddrive. I still have 6.8gb partition on my drive for windows vista that I never touch, just in case I need to do a reinstall from it.
2007-05-25 05:58:56 · answer #5 · answered by Pledge_or_Die 1 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The D drive is most likely locked by HP for emergency recovery of the system if it crashes.
You should start to burn data to cdr or dvd and get it off thge pc completely. The D drive should also be ignored as it is for recovery.
Don't format whatever you do!
when you start the computer, immediately after you see the HP logo, look for sonething called recovery, or repair, or setup.
It will prompt you to press F2, or F6, or F10, F12 etc (one of those keys)
you should then see a HP recovery menu to restore your computer to factory. It will warn you about losing your data etc.
That is why you have the D drive; to recovery your system to factory.
2007-05-25 05:59:26 · answer #6 · answered by basscleff 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Time for a new PC. I wouldn't spend any more time on this one. There are games and programs out there now that are 5+ GB themselves. I would go get a new one. Prefereably something with 120+ GB. You sound pretty computer savvy, but if you need help finding the right PC, I would be glad to help, just send me an e-mail.
2007-05-25 05:59:41 · answer #7 · answered by Stev 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
D: drive does not store any of your programs. It is set up by HP to do the recovery of the computer to its original state. Add a larger drive in place of C: and move all contents from original C: drive (ghost or some other bit by bit copy program)
2007-05-25 05:58:49 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
4Gb is so pathetic it wouldn't make a difference if you did have this space. If you're computer is running slow, you need to up your RAM (random access memory)... which i don't suggest you do if your not sure on how to do it, or you can free up space by defragging your HDD's. Defragging will not free up alot of space, it just closes the gaps of deleted memory. The best way to make your system run faster is to format it, reload windows & change your display settings so your CPU isn't using 80% of it's capability on your fancy display.
I recommend you just format it, & start over.
2007-05-25 06:01:38 · answer #9 · answered by BIG-Mike-Photography 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
d drive is probably just a partition of your main drive. it has no effect on the speed of your computer. it's in replace of the boot discs they used to give people to reformat their pcs. your d drive isn't anything to do with your problems. it should be a read only drive (means you can't add or delete anything from it). you need to look up how to reformat on windows xp....it's different than how you used to have to do things because there is no boot disc. it comes right from the d "drive" partitioned area.
2007-05-25 05:59:17 · answer #10 · answered by princess_dnb 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋