Stupid Newbie Question

Propwash Pete · 31 Jul 2010

I recently purchased a new Dell Inspiron N7010, 64 bit laptop running Windows 7. My hard drive was partitioned by Dell with 58.5 GB on Drive C and 527 GB on Drive D. My C drive is almost full with only 1.58 GB remaining. There is nothing on my D Drive, but I can't figure out how to use it or how to transfer some of my programs and files to the D drive. I considered Partition Magic, but their "free" verson will not handle 64 bit. I hate to have to spend $40 if there is another way to work around this. Any help? (Keep it simple!)

Joe

steve-pressman · 31 Jul 2010

Many people using Partition Magic have had terrible problems with it, I suggest you download this as it is free and we highly reccomend it.

Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software â€“ Partition Wizard Online

Steve

Jacee · 31 Jul 2010

Your D drive should be your recovery drive ... you don't want to back up to that drive. Are you sure about you drive letters and the amount of space on each one?

Petey7 · 31 Jul 2010

If the D drive is formatted you can open it and create new folders to place you personal files in. You can also redirect some folders (like downloads, my videos, my music) to folders on the D drive. This tutorial from Microsoft will explain how:
Redirect a folder to a new location

Bare Foot Kid · 31 Jul 2010

Hello Propwash Pete, welcome to Seven Forums!

You don't want to use ~~Partition Magic~~ as it's out of date and will brick your system.

The free Partition Wizard is an excellent choice, at the link below.

Free Partition Software - Partition Wizard

There's also this tutorial that'll give you some pointers.

Use the Free Partition Wizard

Propwash Pete · 31 Jul 2010

Boy, that was quick! My thanks to all of you for what appears to be some very helpful information. I'll let you know how things turn out in case anyone is interested.

Propwash Pete

Petey7 · 31 Jul 2010

Trust me, we all always interested in how things go.

Bare Foot Kid · 31 Jul 2010

Propwash Pete said:

Boy, that was quick! My thanks to all of you for what appears to be some very helpful information. I'll let you know how things turn out in case anyone is interested.

Propwash Pete

Yes, do post back to keep us informed.

whs · 31 Jul 2010

Jacee said:

Your D drive should be your recovery drive ... you don't want to back up to that drive. Are you sure about you drive letters and the amount of space on each one?

At 527GBs, that is certainly not the recovery partition.

For a data partition; have a look at my video tutorial.

gregrocker · 31 Jul 2010

Yes, consider using D as your Data Partition by separating your User files into it. It will then act as a data vault in case your Win7 won't start. You can just reimage your OS and programs back to C and your data will be waiting on D.

Watch whs's video and read this tutorial: User Folders - Change Default Location

If you decide to resize D to make C bigger, then be sure to back up your files and a system image as resizing operations can fail with 3rd party apps although they almost never do with PW.

Where exactly is your Recovery partition? Can you post back a screenshot of your full Disk Mgmt drive map and listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu, so we can have a look for you?