after system restore, new hard drive shows wrong size

[barneytoe]

Dell Inspiron E1505 running win7.

Bought a new 500 Gb hard drive. I created a win7 system image from my old 50 Gb hard drive and restored it to the new drive, but now the new one is showing 50 Gb size with 412 Gb Unallocated!

I tried to "extend volume" from win7 disk manager but the option is greyed out. I don't want to create a new drive letter, just want my existing C drive to reclaim alll of the unallocated stuff.

How can I do this? Thanks.

attached disk manager screen shot

c

 

[Arc]

Hi !

47 MB OEM partition, But what is the 3.33 GB primary partition ?

About the 411 MB unallocated , you download Partition Wizard Bootable CD , burn it in a cd , and boot from it . Choose 1 for resolution . Now when it shows your drive partitions , you select the unallocated space and create a new partition there (If you want to use it as your data partition , format it as logical) .

If there is any further query , please inform . Post back with results

 

[GeneO]

What's in that 3.33 GB primary? It is in the way of you extending your 50 GB partition into the unallocated space.

 

[barneytoe]

i have no idea, what do you recommend I do?

c

 

[barneytoe]

Arc, if I create new partition with unallocated space, will it just be added to C: drive or will I have to use a new letter? I just want a big ass C: drive and don't want to deal with multiple drive letters.

thanks.

 

[GeneO]

Dell usually includes a hidden partition with the basic OS on it so it can recover with their recovery CD. It is a FAT 32 partition, Since this is not NTFS, I am guessing it is an image of your dell system recovery partition. You could assign it a drive letter and look at what is on it. I don't know whether after the restore, the DELL recovery utility would work with this relocated partition. If you can verify that is what it is, you could blow it away, it would become part of the unallocated space, and you could extend c: out to the end.

Gene

 

[Kelen]

The status secetion says its OEM.

 

[Arc]

Arc, if I create new partition with unallocated space, will it just be added to C: drive or will I have to use a new letter? I just want a big ass C: drive and don't want to deal with multiple drive letters.

thanks.

Hi !
The new partition will be with a new drive letter . As from the screenshot , you cannot add the unallocated space to C , coz there is another partition in the right of C . If you want to add it to c, first you are to delete the 3.33 GB partition . In this case you should follow the suggestion given by GeneO .

 

[GeneO]

The status secetion says its OEM.

Sounds like the DELL (OEM) recovery partition. Assign it a letter via disk management and show the contents. If you delete this partition you will not have a problem extending C:. Just make sure of what you are deleting and if it is the DELL recovery partition, that you can live without it 9which you probably can if you are making image backups).

Gene

 

[barneytoe]

ok, deleted that 3.3 Gig partition and now disk manager let me at least use the "extend drive" option, but when the wizard launches the unallocated space isn't coming into play. Now what?

You guys are great, I'm making progress at least.

 

[GeneO]

That is odd. Can you post a screenshot similar to your last?

 

[barneytoe]

here's screenshots of diskmanager after the delete, and of extend volume attempt.

 

[barneytoe]

here are some screenshots of both disk manager after the mystery partition delete and of the attempt to extend volume onto unallocated space:

 

[GeneO]

That OEM partition is still there - it must be the first partition on the drive (as it should be) and you misidentified it. That is why I asked for verification of the contents. So I don't know what you deleted. But It should work now from appearances.

 

[GeneO]

Are you right clicking on the C: volume and selecting "extend volume"?

 

[barneytoe]

ok, deleted the OEM chunk and re-tried extend, same problem. Yes, clicking C: volume then selecting extend volume. Another screen shot of disk manager:

 

[GeneO]

Well I don;t think you should have deleted either partition without knowing what it was for. I hope the one after C: wasn't significant, and the first partition would have still been useful as a DELL recovery partition now that it was identified as the OEM partition.

So, can you reboot your computer and try again? I am at a loss why you can't extend C: at this point.

Gene

 

[barneytoe]

I still have the original 50 gig drive sitting around and that's why i'm deleting mystery partitions at will.

Reboot and same issue < sigh >

 

[GeneO]

Well, it looks like you may not be able to extend a boot partition in Windows 7 with the windows 7 disk management. See for instance:

http://www.sevenforums.com/general-discussion/9363-extending-boot-partition.html

where they recommend gparted. I would do some research before pursuing this route.

Gene

 

[barneytoe]

Problem solved. First tried Gparted boot cd and that was a waste. Stupid thing was complaining of errors related to "can't find Server X".

Downloaded MiniTool Partition Wizard (www.partitionwizard.com) ... I had to upgrade to Pro version for Merge capability ($29). Selected the 450Gb of unallocated space and did "create partition" which created new drive F:. After reboot, then launched tool again and did merge, with C: and F: and that worked fine.

So I'm thinking I might have been able to get this done with win7 tools by simply assigning a partition to unallocated space, then merge may have worked from Disk Manager. MiniTool Part Wizard was also unable to Merge when I only had unallocated space.