Windows 7: Lost partitions after recovery

Hello everybody,

Please be patient, I’m not too confident with computers!
I have a Samsung net book NP-145-JP03UK with 250 GB HDD, 2 GB RAM and Windows 7 starter OS, manufactured in August 2011.

I have been using this for about six months, with no problem. Recently I had to do a restore with Samsung Recovery System 5, which was built in to the net book. Before the restore I did not “back up” as such, but copied and pasted folders to an external HDD, if that is significant.

After the restore, I seem to have lost some internal HDD capacity.



Before the restore the HDD was configured as:

Local disc C: 181 GB, Recovery partition D: 34.2 GB, giving approx 215 GB total.
This is visible in “My Computer”.

After the restore I have, C: 185 GB only, and this is after deleting a lot of the Samsung games etc.

1) Looking around the web, partition deletion is a common occurrence after restoring the OS, so it looks like that’s what has happened here, am I correct?

2) In “Disk management” I can see three partitions, the C: with 185 GB, andtwo recovery partitions of 30 GB and 17 GB respectively. The two recovery partitions are not assigned a letter, which I think is the cause of the problem. Both are showing as 100% free space, and I would like to keep the 17 as a recovery and merge the 30 with the existing C drive.

I have seen instructions on the net for renaming partitions, is this possible with the Windows 7 starter OS?

3) How else can I easily recover this lost capacity?

Thanks for any help.

DW

Welcome to Windows Seven Forums.

It will help us to help you if you upload a screenshot of your fully-expanded disk management layout.

Screenshots and Files - Upload and Post in Seven Forums

Once we've seen this we can give you the best advice.

DW,

HOW TO POST A SNAPSHOT OF DISK MANAGEMENT DISPLAY
Run disk management:
WIN | type DISKMGMT.MSC | ENTER
WIN=key with Microsoft logo on top.


Maximize the output of Disk Management:
ALT-Spacebar key combo | X key (selects Maximize) |
Drag the field separators (such as between Status and Capacity) to show entire field.


Make a snapshot:
WIN | type SNIPPING | ENTER | New
Drag the cursor around the area you want to snip.
File | Save as | select save location and name | Save


Post the snapshot:
Post a File or Screenshot in Seven Forums

Thank you for your replies, screen shots to come. In the meantime, a right click on either of the two recovery partitions gives me one option only - "help".

You can also help us to help you by filling out your system specs.

Update your SevenForums System Specs
User CP (located on the top menu bar) |
Your Profile | Edit System Spec (left-hand column)

To gather info, use Speccy (my favorite) or SIW or System Info

Add the word laptop or desktop or netbook to the
“system manufacturer” block, for example,
Toshiba Satellite L305D notebook.

Provide full windows version info, for example:
MS Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 64-bit

Use the “Other Info” block for Optical Reader,
Mouse, touchpad, wifi adapter, speakers, monitor, etc

Scroll down and click on SAVE CHANGES.
==========================================

Thanks for help everyone, now fixed!

Using EaseUS partition manager I re allocated the drive letters, keeping "D" as the samsung recovery, then I could see them all in "my computer"

Then using EaseUS again, I merged the "C" partition with the "new recovery" partition.

This gives me 215GB on "C" drive, with 20GB on "D" partition with the recover info.

Thank you again.

DW

That's great to hear.

Thanks for the update. It's always nice to know when a cry for help is successfully dealt with.