extending partition?

The D partition on your drive, in common with many computers particularly laptops, is where the manufacturers place an image of the preloaded OS so that you can restore the original factory state of your machine should the need arise. On many systems, this is also super-hidden and only accessible by means of pressing F12 (or whatever key your manual says) during BOOT (just after the BIOS screen).

I recommend that, until you create the factory restore disks, you do not touch this partition at all (I notice that it was called FACTORY_IMAGE).

There is nothing stopping you in allocating and formatting the free space - you can choose the letter you give to it providing no other device/partition shares that letter.

No it isn't true, Gigabyte. Use Disk Management to shrink whichever partition you want to break up into smaller one(s).
Partition or Volume - Shrink
Partition or Volume - Create New

You can move your User files to another partition which protects them in case your OS ever becomes irreparable - you just reimage or reinstall your OS and your data will be waiting in the separate partition(s). Here's how to move the User files to new partition: User Folders - Change Default Location

You need a separate HD or external HD to back up your System Image to: Backup Complete Computer - Create an Image Backup Then you never have to reinstall again, just reimage the HD or it's replacement in 15 minutes. Keep a set of files backed up on your external or secondary HD, too.

I think we are talking about the wrong problem. The OP said: "D is where the restore points are stored". As was already pointed out, that is not correct. However, D is the default for storing during Data backup. I therefore suggest NOT to extend D (which is a bad idea anyhow since it is the recovery partition) but define a new partition in this available space and direct the data backup to that new partition (change the drive letter for data backup).

I did go to my PW just to see what it offers, and it did expand the D partition.
I have my rescue disks, and used that in the past for boot recovery.
But I noticed that my system claimed that no restore points were available I figured it may be out of room on D.

Alsenor said:

I did go to my PW just to see what it offers, and it did expand the D partition.
I have my rescue disks, and used that in the past for boot recovery.
But I noticed that my system claimed that no restore points were available I figured it may be out of room on D.

Again, Restore points are not on D but on the partition where they were activated. D is only the default location for file backups. For your OS, you must activate the restore points on C. You can check which restore points exist. Open an elevated (run as Admin) Command Prompt and type: vssadmin list shadows. That will show you all restore points on all partitions.
PS: Extending D is not such a good idea. It is your recovery patition and should never be touched except for full system recovery (reset to factory state).

I tried using my PM now and it did expand the D partition.
I do have recovery disks, and have used them before to repair a booting problem. That is when I noticed that there were no restore points in my system. Figuring D was out of room I wanted to expand it, assuming that was where the restore points reside.

You are just repeating your story. Did you read my post #16 and did you check with vssadmin whether there are any restore points.

whs said:

You are just repeating your story. Did you read my post #16 and did you check with vssadmin whether there are any restore points.

Sorry, that what old guys supposedly do. I don't even know how to get to the command prompt screen in W7.

Go to Start > All Programs > Accessories > right click on Comand Prompt > Open as administrator. Then type or paste vssadmin list shadows and hit Enter. It will list all the restore points on the system. Look for the partition letter. See below example of one restore point on my system.