Please Help! Hard Drive Shrunk After 2 Reinstalls Of Windows Xp

[Guest]

Hi,

I'm having problems with my computer. I have Windows XP home edition
installed on a Compaq Presario... it has a 40 GB hard drive, Celeron 2.70 GHz
processor, and 248 MB RAM. Here's what happened that led up to my problem:

My pc crashed, and I was unable to restore it using Compaq Recovery, or by
using the set of Compaq Recovery cd's I had made. (My CD-Rom wouldn't
recognize disk 3 of 7... so I was left with an incomplete recovery.) I
borrowed my neighbor's copy of XP and installed it without activating it, and
used it until I was able to buy my own copy of Windows XP.

After buying and installing my own copy of XP, I ended up having two
versions of it on my pc. One on C drive (non-activated copy) and one on D
drive (my copy). I removed my copy by formatting D drive, and then
re-installed it on C drive (overwriting the unactivated copy).

XP is working fine, but now my hard drive shows as much smaller when I
check it.... C drive has a total space of 13.6 GB, and D drive (recovery
partition) has a total space of 4.88 GB. It's less than half the size it
should be overall, and I can't figure out how to fix it.

I thought that completely wiping the hard drive might be what is needed, but
I don't know how to do that, or if it's even the proper thing to do. Does
anyone here have any suggestions on what I need to do to fix this? I'd
prefer to fix it myself (if possible) rather than send it off for repair.

Thanks!

 

[peter]

My first thought is to check under Control Panel/administrative tools/computer
management/disk management
and see exactly what is listed there.If you installed a version of XP onto the
recovery Partition (D) and then formatted that partition the recovery files
would have been deleted as well.Since you say they still show...I am wondering
if you dont have a 3rd partition that is not showing up.
post back with what you find
peter

 

[Guest]

When I checked disk management, it listed C, D, and E (cd-rom) drives. D
drive is listed as "Presario_RP (D"... so I assumed the RP stood for
Recovery Partition. When I originally got the computer, it did have recovery
files on D:, but they were lost after the crash and subsequent re-installs.

In a row of four squares, the following information is given:

___________
Disk 0
Basic
38.28 GB
Online
____________

Presario_RP (D
4.88 GB NTFS
Healthy
_____________

C:
13.68 GB NTFS
Healthy (System)
______________

19.73 GB
Unallocated
_______________

It recognizes that the "missing" space is really there... why won't it let
me use it?

And thanks for responding!

Betty

 

[Guest]

I forgot to add that D: is completely empty... just in case it helps to know
that.

Betty