hard drive memory

[marty]

hi i have just bought my son a acer laptop it has vista hp 1gb ram 120gb hd i
noticed that the hard drive is split into 2 drives each with 60gb one called
data 'd'and the other called 'c' i have a compaq laptop 80gb hd split into 2
drives c and d d drive is 5.11gb this is my partion for recovery, simple
and straight forward, my sons however does not appear to have a partion set
aside for recovery unless it is hidden on one of the drives but which one, c
drive shows 51.1gb d drive shows 50.8gb total of 101.9gb leaving 18.1gb for
recovery but which drive will it be on and can i reconfigure the drives so i
have one drive for programs and files and one for recovery. 'd' drive
appears to have the full space available for storage but 'c' drive has
'missing' space that i presume holds the os and recovery can someone shed
some light on this type of hd config and is it the best way to do it

 

[Paul Montgomery]

hi i have just bought my son a acer laptop it has vista hp 1gb ram 120gb hd i
noticed that the hard drive is split into 2 drives each with 60gb one called
data 'd'and the other called 'c' i have a compaq laptop 80gb hd split into 2
drives c and d d drive is 5.11gb this is my partion for recovery, simple
and straight forward, my sons however does not appear to have a partion set
aside for recovery unless it is hidden on one of the drives but which one, c
drive shows 51.1gb d drive shows 50.8gb total of 101.9gb leaving 18.1gb for
recovery but which drive will it be on and can i reconfigure the drives so i
have one drive for programs and files and one for recovery. 'd' drive
appears to have the full space available for storage but 'c' drive has
'missing' space that i presume holds the os and recovery can someone shed
some light on this type of hd config and is it the best way to do it

The recovery partition appears to be hidden. You should check the
discs that came with the new system. Do any of them say "recovery" or
something similar? If not, you should MAKE a recovery DVD using the
method prescribed by Acer.

You are free to use "D" for whatever you wish. Personally, I would
delete that partition and give the space to "C".

 

[ray]

hi i have just bought my son a acer laptop it has vista hp 1gb ram 120gb
hd i noticed that the hard drive is split into 2 drives each with 60gb
one called data 'd'and the other called 'c' i have a compaq laptop 80gb
hd split into 2 drives c and d d drive is 5.11gb this is my partion
for recovery, simple and straight forward, my sons however does not
appear to have a partion set aside for recovery unless it is hidden on
one of the drives but which one, c drive shows 51.1gb d drive shows
50.8gb total of 101.9gb leaving 18.1gb for recovery but which drive
will it be on and can i reconfigure the drives so i have one drive for
programs and files and one for recovery. 'd' drive appears to have the
full space available for storage but 'c' drive has 'missing' space that
i presume holds the os and recovery can someone shed some light on this
type of hd config and is it the best way to do it

I would suggest you boot a Linux Live CD and start gparted - it will show
you all the partitions on the drive and their sizes.

 

[marty]

thanks for the response as ray suggested i might delete 'd' partion (i have
used partition magic before)as i cant see any benefit having the drive split
in this way my only concern is i didnt get any instalation discs so have to
rely on the recovery partion i have a copy of norton ghost which i have never
used so i might practice with that first making a copy of the hard drive (i
have a old clunker that my son was using so i can try to copy the os incase i
lose the recovery partion (i doubt that could happen but you never know) i
hate not having the disc to reinstall but that seems to be the way machines
are sold to the generel public now so i will get on this as soon as i have
finished taking the crapware of the new one (been on it 2hours now never seen
so much useless software and blatant advertising of companies in my life this
laptop has 24 desktop icons pre loaded to take you to web pages
.....ridiculous anyway thanks for the advice

 

[AJR]

marty - if you have a recovery partition most likely you see a note
something like "Hit F11 to restore..." during boot. Deletion via normal
means does not remove the MBD (Master boot record) modification that sets
the message.

Check your Acer documentation - usually provided is an utility for copying
the partition to removeable media (DVD/CD) and removing the MBR
modification.

 

[marty]

AJR thanks for replying yes that is a option but at the moment i am just
trying to reconfigure the partitions so they are easily identified and there
is only 2 partions 'c'and 'd'(recovery) i am just a bit worried that i will
delete the recovery part of 'c' when i merge the 2 existing partions i will
of course make a full copy first as you suggested .do you know if there is a
specific reason why the hd is split like this as there is no info relating to
this in the book that came with the machine it seems unescesary to me i think
the intention of the manufacturer is to have software installed on 'c' and
files on 'd data' just seems to be a awkward way of doing things