Hard disk drive recovery c full - help!

niccih · 03 Mar 2011

I had to re-install my 'operating system' windows 7 dvd today and as my laptop was completely cleaned up presumed I also had to reinstall my 'drivers and utilities' disc which also came with my laptop. When I inserted the drivers disc there was no instant start up asking me to download to my laptop as there had been with my operating system disc and as there were so many files I had no idea which if any i had to download. So, I went onto the Dell support website and downloaded all drivers recommended for my inspiron 1545 laptop (14 downloads in total). Anyway, as you have probably guessed I have no idea about these things, so do not understand why i was even doing this, i am clueless. So now, (presuming this is the cause), my c recovery hard disk drive is full (3.80MB full of 14.6GB) and i am unable to download anything. Problem is i have no idea what I can keep or delete and i was unable to compress the files or create more c drive disc space through system restore - configure (as advised by another user).

Can anyone please help??? Remember I am a dummy so please explain in plain english!! Thanks in advance

marsmimar · 03 Mar 2011

Hello niccih and welcome to Seven Forums. First, I'd like for you to double check some info. You state, "...my c recovery hard disk drive is full (3.80MB full of 14.6GB)..." On most Dell computers the internal hard drive is divided into 3 partitions. One is the recovery partition. This is around 12 - 15GB and contains the exact image of how your computer left the factory. Another partition is usually called Healthy (or perhaps something else that makes no sense) and is 100MB. This is the boot loader partition that lets you start (boot) the computer whenever you hit the power button. And the last partition is called C: NTFS which contains everything else you've put on the hard drive like photos, files, programs, etc.

Did you mean to say your recovery partition is using 3.8GB out of an available 14.6GB? It takes (approximately) 1000MB to equal 1GB. If you only have 3.80MB being used out of 14.6GB there's no way your partition can be full, let alone the entire hard drive. Can you post a snip or screen shot of your disk information? From the start menu type in "disk management" (without the quotes) and then click on create and format hard disk partitions.

You also said you used your 7 dvd to reinstall your operating system and your laptop was completely cleaned. That sounds like you might have erased everything on the hard drive (including the recovery partition.) If that's the case then you should have only 2 partitions: the 100MB boot loader and the C: NTFS. If you wiped the entire hard drive clean then you probably wouldn't have any system restore points left either.

whs · 03 Mar 2011

Yeah, as marsmimar says, there is little we can advise without a picture of your Disk Management.

To take a snip, go to Start > All Programs > you find the snipping tool. Right click on that and Pin to taskbar. Then you can start it from the taskbar once you have your Disk Management page. Once the snipping tool is started, put the cursor on the left top corner, hold the left clicker down and drag the cursor to the right bottom corner, there you release it. Then go to File (top left) and Save as... Make sure you select a folder where you can find it again.

From there click on the paper clip in the Reply window here to attach it to your post. Once you selected the snip, make sure you click on Upload - wait for a few seconds for the upload to complete. You have to post a few words first (ar least 3) before clicking on the paper clip - somehow posting only a picture does not function.

niccih · 04 Mar 2011

Hi, Firstly thank you so much for replying to me and trying to help. I have attached a snip of my computer showing space available. Just to let you know I also keep getting a message saying i am low on disc space. Any picture I try to save off the internet or anything i try to download is not possible, again due to insufficient space. Could you please advise further??

marsmimar · 04 Mar 2011

The immediate problem that I see is somehow your recovery partition is named (C: ) while the OS partition is named (D: ). By design, whenever you try to add a program, download a file, photo, etc it looks for the C: partition. I suspect the Recovery (C: ) partition now contains more than just the recovery data. If you try to do a simple renaming of the partitions your computer might not even boot. Hopefully WHS or one of our equally skilled members will respond on how best to proceed without losing valuable data from the recovery partition. Sorry for not being more helpful.

whs · 04 Mar 2011

This is indeed a very unusual setup. I wonder how it got there. The main problem is that D ended up to be the active partition (as you can see by the little flag in front of the disk icon).

I wish you had given us a snip of Disk Management (and not Computer) as we requested. That would tell us more things.

This is going to be a difficult and very involved repair job and I hate to proceed without also looking into your Disk Management. Please post that too.

The steps involved will most likely be:

1. To download and burn a bootable CD of Partition Wizard (PW) - for that you need to use another computer
2. To inactivate your D partition with PW and activate C
3. To rename C and D with PW
4. To repair the bootmgr on on your new C (which is now D) with your installation disk
4a. If you have no installation disk, we have to first get you a repair disk
5. To analyse the data which is on your current C (recovery partition) and move everything that does not belong there off.

niccih · 04 Mar 2011

Thanks again for your help everyone. Apologies I did not upload the right info, I'm trying to watch my baby at the same time and keep getting interrupted.

I have now uploaded the correct info (I hope), and hopefully someone can perhaps advise further. Please let me know if you require any further information of course.I will not proceed with anything else at this stage until I have feedback from my disk management. Thanks again:)

myzr7 · 04 Mar 2011

niccih said:

I had to re-install my 'operating system' windows 7 dvd today and as my laptop was completely cleaned up presumed I also had to reinstall my 'drivers and utilities' disc which also came with my laptop. When I inserted the drivers disc there was no instant start up asking me to download to my laptop as there had been with my operating system disc and as there were so many files I had no idea which if any i had to download. So, I went onto the Dell support website and downloaded all drivers recommended for my inspiron 1545 laptop (14 downloads in total). Anyway, as you have probably guessed I have no idea about these things, so do not understand why i was even doing this, i am clueless. So now, (presuming this is the cause), my c recovery hard disk drive is full (3.80MB full of 14.6GB) and i am unable to download anything. Problem is i have no idea what I can keep or delete and i was unable to compress the files or create more c drive disc space through system restore - configure (as advised by another user).

Can anyone please help??? Remember I am a dummy so please explain in plain english!! Thanks in advance

Welcome to SevenForums, Looks like when you reinstalled you installed in the wrong partition. Might be wise to try another reinstall. Have a look at this tutorial for some help doing that. Good luck to you.

Clean Install Windows 7

Orbital Shark · 04 Mar 2011

Another possible reason for the huge drain on C: would be shadow copies & system restore points.

Try the following...

1, Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools and right-click Disk Cleanup and select Run as Administrator
2, Select C: drive for clean
3, In the More Options tab click Clean Up in the System Restore and Shadow Copies section

This should now free up a considerable amount of space on C:

Also, check to see if you have a Program Files folder on C:. As you've installed the OS on D: it should be prompting to install apps to D: by default.

OS

niccih · 04 Mar 2011

Hi, I tried a system restore for drive c as suggested by user OS but unfortunately it did not do anything. I have looked and noticed there are 2 program files in drive c and another 2 program files in drive d, is this normal? Both have a 'program files' & 'program files(x86)'. For some reason i am unable to attach any thing to this thread or i'd attach snips of the contents of drives c & d as i thought it might shed some light.Any thoughts?Many thanks