Sandra said:
Can some one please tell me what the E drive is for and how it works?
Mine is very full and is also known as 'Recover'. But why is it so
very nearly full?
Let me first explain that the drive letters your machine uses is not the
same as those used on on my machine. Some people may have the same drive
letter schem as you have, but not everyone does, by far.
*Most* people have their hard drive (or the main part of their hard drive)
on C:, but not everyone does. Mine, for example, is on F:, for reasons I
won't bore you with.
Some of those people with their hard drive assigned the letter C: may have a
CD drive that takes the letter D: others may have a second part (called a
partition) of their hard drive (or even a second hard drive) on D: and their
CD drive on E.
Some people may have two or more hard drives, each divided into multiple
partitions, and two or more CD/DVD drives. Other people have camera media
card readers that take drive letters. So the point is that there is nothing
standard here. For example, my computer has drives A:, C:, D:, E:, F:, G:,
H:, and sometimes I: (when I plug in a thumb drive or my camera.
To make things even more complicated, realize that, except for the drive
Windows is installed on, any of these drives can have their letters changed
very easily.
So all of the above is a long-winded way of explaining that there are no
standards, and nobody here can tell you what *your* E: drive is.
However, since you say the drive is called "Recover," it isn't too difficult
to make a reasonable guess. E: is *probably* a partition of your hard drive,
not an actual physical drive, and *probably* contains an image of your C:
drive at the time Windows was first installed. Am I right that your computer
came with no Windows CD? If so, that recover partition is there to let you
rebuild the C: drive if you (or some outside event) ever screw it up.
I think my guess is very likely correct, but realize that it's no more than
an informed guess. There's no way I can be sure.
By the way, of all the ways your vendor could have given you to restore C:
if necessary, this is far and away the worst. A hard drive crash can leave
you with nothing. I would never choose to buy a computer that came with an
operating system unless I got a complete generic installation CD for that
operating system.
Why is the E: partition full? Assuming that I'm right about what it is, it's
because it's a static image of the C: drive at time of installation. It
doesn't get changed.
