try to backup and it puts 656Gb on backup drive

k just is fir file storage

That's pretty much a mess.

You say it is a fresh install.

If it were me, I would start over.

Disconnect ALL drives except the one you want Windows to be on.

Install Windows and update it.

Then reconnect one more drive and make a single basic NTFS partition on it.

Then reconnect the third drive and make a single basic NTFS partition on it.

As it is now, you have "system reserved" on the wrong hard drive. You have a dynamic disk, which is bad.

It may be repairable, but in your shoes, I'd cut my losses and start over.

Where you probably went wrong is having more than 1 drive connected when you began.

If K is just for file storage, it definitely should NOT be dynamic.

Look at my setup, 3 drives, each with one partition. D and E are strictly for data:

i had a lot of troubele getting win7 installed so maybe somehow that is how all that got messed up. is there any fixing it to make it "normal" again?

one of the things that happened was that the first install went ok but while doing updates i got the BSOD and after that i had a lot of trouble getting everythng to work. probably should just start over. the K drive has lots of files on it. if i re-install and then plug that drive in will it still show up as a dynamic disk?

martygene said:

if i re-install and then plug that drive in will it still show up as a dynamic disk?

I doubt it will show up as dynamic.

But if it does, it can be corrected---but it takes some work.

It's simpler to begin again and worry about K then.

Get a single C going, with Windows.

Then add a drive, partition it, format it, and give it a drive letter.

Then add the last drive.

Begin with ONLY 1 drive connected.

Choose to delete all partitions on that drive when given the choice.

ok. thank you VERY MUCH for all your help. i guess i know what i'm doing tomorrow

you are correct...i will let you know tomorrow how it all went.. with disk management pictures to boot...

so you don't think then that i have to try to copy all the files on K to another drive before hooking it up after the install tomorrow?