Windows 7 - D Drive missing after Recovering Computer

I had to recover my laptop to try and fix a problem I had with my graphic card (still don't know if it helped, but not the point). After recovering and starting my laptop again I noticed the D Drive did not show up in the my computer window.

I can't seem to find it anywhere on my laptop. I have opened up disk management but am not really sure what I am looking for when I am there.

Recovering is the only thing I have done to my laptop, and it is a problem because the D Drive seemed to have the most space on my laptop; my C Drive had about a fifth of the free space, if that.

The D Drive is internal and I have read about people opening up their laptop, but my computer is under warranty and I don't want to void that if this problem with my graphic card wasn't fixed.

I am not computer literate, so help for dummies. I have an ASUS laptop K50IJ (never again), Windows 7 PRO OA x64. Beyond that I really don't know any specifics.

I have all my files back-up on an external drive so recovering my computer is not a problem.

Thank you for any help.

Can you post a screenshot of your full disk management window , as well as the explorer computer window ?

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If I right click the "disk" without a letter, the only option I have is to delete it.



Before I recovered my laptop, the D Drive appeared right next to the C Drive

You dont have the system reserved partition .... that means you said that you are not computer literate .. doesn't stand . It's difficult to avoid that partition.

If you right click on the other partition, you should get an option "Change Drive letter and paths" ; but you are saying that you are not getting it ?

You try to use partition wizard bootable cd to apply a drive letter there.

you can easus partititon tool to make it as suggested by Arc

Hi megbooks. Welcome to the forum.

When you say 'recover' do you mean that you used the Asus Recovery tool, or do you mean you used Windows System Restore? Big difference.
The Asus Recovery will (is supposed to) reset the hard drive to the exact state it was in when you first got the laptop.
Windows System Restore will restore the system to the state it was in on the date you chose.
What is going on with your system and how to fix it depends on what you mean by "Restore".

When you look at Disk Management you see two actual, physical drives. A hard disk drive (Disk 0) and a CD/DVD drive (CD-ROM 0). The hard disk is divided into two 'partitions'. One of the partitions (Labeled C) is 213.35GB and contains Windows. The other partition is not labeled and contains 19.53 GB.


No, don't do that. There is only one hard drive in the laptop. The "Drives" you see in Windows are just the partitions that were created.

This is where your problem gets weird. Because the screenshot shows the C drive with Windows taking up most of the space on the drive. The unnamed partition with only 19GB is about the size a typical computer manufacturer's Recovery Partition would be, and it's location on the drive is also typical of that Recovery Partition.

This might start to make sense if you, or someone else, changed the hard drive partitions at some point in the past. As Arc points out, it is also unusual for a new laptop's hard drive with Windows 7 installed on it from the manufacturer to not have another much smaller "System Reserved" partition.

One possibility is that the original laptop (new) had Vista on it and someone installed Windows 7 afterward. If this is the case just let us know. We can't help if we are in the dark. Give as much information as you can.

I used the Asus Recovery to try and fix my computer.

This is the screen shot from the Partition Wizard Mini Tool. I can relabel the smaller partition, but it is labeled recovery, which, from what you guys said, is an appropriate name.

I wondering -- if it's even possible -- did my D Drive combine with my C Drive?

Yes, that is quite possibly what has happened.

You have restored the computer back to the way it was when you first got it. One Asus recovery partition, one Windows (C: ) partition.

So if you have all your data backed up then you just need to start over and create the partitions and the sizes you want. We can help with that if you need it.

I would not rename that Asus recovery partition if you ever plan to use it again. Although what a lot of folks do is burn the Recovery CD's from the Asus Recovery Menu (just to have), and then delete the partition to gain the disk space.

I agree with TVeblen,

More than likely that C partition was previously divided into a C and D partition, possibly by hand at some point or maybe from the factory, but then running factory restore repartitioned it into one again