Need help with disk partition (OEM Windows 7 Home Premium)

TigerPunk · 05 Jul 2011

Hi,

I recently purchased HP pavilion DV6 3124TX notebook with OEM windows 7 home premium installed . At the time of purchase there was a single partition of over 500GB and another recovery partition of 20GB. Upon my request the store staff (not HP staff but some random store which shelves numerous brands) made two more partitions of 136GB and 147GB respectively leaving the primary partion of 244 GB. However, in doing so the HP recovery tool was deleted and I realised upon reaching home that I cannot create recovery disk any more.
Now, I have two questions regarding which I need help:
1) I want the C drive partition to be 120 GB only. I was told by the HP support team that OEM software would always make a primary partition of 300GB. I found it ridiculous. Is there any way I can do this myself? I read in another thread that this can be done by calling the Microsoft support guys since I have the product key. If yes, should I wait for the recovery disk to arrive or should I go ahead and delete everything and follow the instructions from support team to do a custom install?
2) Is there a proper step by step guide to prepare your system for a fresh installation?

Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

theog · 05 Jul 2011

1) Microsoft support will not send you any disks.For OEM manufacturer's

2) The Notebook was partition by HP, not the Retailer.

3) HP setup the HD with 4 partitions.

5) How to make HP Recovery DVD disks:
Recover Windows Vista Operating System Using HP Recovery - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

How to make HP Recovery USB disk:
Creating a Recovery Disk on a USB Flash Disk HP Pavilion dv6700z CTO Entertainment Notebook PC - HP Customer Care (United States - English)

or
You can Order HP Recovery Disks from here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport...dTypeId=321957

6) If you have a Retail copy of Windodws 7 Home Premium
SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

Clean Install Windows 7

whs · 05 Jul 2011

In order to give you good advice I suggest you post a picture of your Disk Management. That will tell us what your partition structure is and what we can recommend as the best course of action.

Also tell us what you want to do with the free space after you reduced the size of the C partition. In the meantime do not experiment with a fresh installation. I do not think that this is required.

Bare Foot Kid · 05 Jul 2011

whs said:

In order to give you good advice I suggest you post a picture of your Disk Management. That will tell us what your partition structure is and what we can recommend as the best course of action.

Also tell us what you want to do with the free space after you reduced the size of the C partition. In the meantime do not experiment with a fresh installation. I do not think that this is required.

Hello TigerPunk, welcome to Seven Forums!

Unfortunately MS will not help with a factory built PC without compensation, even though you have a Windows activation key.

I'm sure the ones that 'added' the partitions removed the HP Tools for you and it is their fault that you are in this situation, perhaps you should speak to them about reparations.

Please do post a pic of Windows disk management for us to see, here is a link to a tutorial that helps explain the procedure.

How to Upload and Post a Screenshot and File in Seven Forums

gregrocker · 05 Jul 2011

Please post back the screenshot of your maximized Disk Mgmt drive map with listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu.

Make it clear exactly what you want to do. We will give you the steps.

mjf · 05 Jul 2011

Factory restores are generally good enough in my opinion. Except for HP when they leave the user with 1 primary partition and use the other 3 (only 4 primaries available). In this case I'd do a clean install if you can borrow a set of install DVDs.

Bouncing with thread changes - yes a disk management screenshot probably helps.

karlsnooks · 05 Jul 2011

Another vote for a snapshot of your disk management output.

HOW TO POST A SNAPSHOT OF DISK MANAGEMENT DISPLAY

Run disk management:
WIN | type DISKMGMT.MSC | ENTER
WIN is the key with the wavy flag.

Maximize the output of Disk Management:
ALT-Spacebar key combo (this pops up a menu) |
X key (selects Maximize) |
Drag the field separators (such as between Status and Capacity) to show entire field. This is very important, otherwise, needed info is not visible.

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

Post the snapshot:
· Click on the paperclip icon in that row of icons at the top of the message box.
· Click on a BROWSE button. There are 5 of them.
· Navigate to the folder containing the snapshot.
· Click on the snapshot.
· Click on the OPEN button.
· Click on the UPLOAD button adjacent to the 5th BROWSE button.
· Close the MANAGE ATTACHMENTS window.
· Position the cursor at the spot in the message where you want the
snapshot to appear.
· Click on the PaperClip again.
· Click on the file which you want to insert
· Attach code will be inserted into your message.

TigerPunk · 06 Jul 2011

Hi,

Sorry for the late reply. First of all thanks for the valuable advise.
I went to the store and spoke with their manager about repairs. Although, they admit to the mistake but when I asked for immediate repairs the guys directed me to the HP guys who told me to do run the recovery disk to re-instate the factory settings. Since the disk would take atleast two weeks to arrive I find myself in a fix.
I have started using the notebook since I cannot afford to wait for two weeks.

Kindly advise me what should I do?
Currently, the structure is:
C-236GB
D- 136GB
E - 148 GB
I need C drive to be 120GB. Another two partitions of ~220GB.
As per your directions, I have attached a snapshot of disk management.

Thanks again for the prompt response.
Regards

Bare Foot Kid · 06 Jul 2011

Start by seeing how much you can shrink the right side of the C: partition.

Don't try to do anything else, just shrink C: and post back.

karlsnooks · 06 Jul 2011

Tiger,
Excellent.
That clarifies many points.

There are several ways to accomplish your objective.

The quicky way is to use Partition Wizard, but this way can also lead to some possible complications. Win 7 doesn't let you expand a partition to the left and is difficult when it comes to shrinking a partition.

My way would be still more work and would eliminate any traces of HP from the hard disk, in other words, the recovery partition would be gone and their junk ware would be gone.

I'm going to sit back and watch the suggestions from the others since right now you are in a time-crunch if I understand you correctly.

Just as a question, since you will probably get asked this by others:
Do you have a Win 7 DVD? Here I'm not talking about the Recovery dvds. Which if you don't have them, making them would be wise as a fall-back in case disaster strikes.