Complete newbie question

[happujd]

Hi everyone,

Bought myself a new laptop last week with Windows 7 (64 bit) pre-installed. As I've jumped from Windows XP to 7, missing out Vista I'm still finding my way around, so I have a question which is probably so stupid, I apologise in advance!

Windows 7 was pre-installed. I have 2 HDDs showing "OS(C)" 58gb and "local disk (D)" 397gb. Having searched for the answer to my question I believe that Windows has been installed to a partition? My question/problem is that all the programs already installed are on C: and any new programs I want to add are also defaulting to install there, therefore my bigger HDD is completely blank expect one file "msdia80.dll". Is this going to cause me problems? Should I move things to D: while I haven't got much installed? How do I default installation to the D drive?

On my old PC with XP I just had 1 HDD where everything lived, I never bothered with partitions.

 

[Darician]

Some people believe in partitioning. I believe it's a waste of time in many cases though. What you can do in Windows 7 (assuming there isn't anything important on Drive D, go to Computer Management (Go to Start --> Right-Click on Computer, Click on Manage). After that, click on Disk Management, then look for where partition D:, assuming it's all on one drive, right-click on the D: partition, and hit "Delete Volume". Then to use that dead space, you can right click on the C: partition and hit "Extend Volume" and extend it to the maximum space and you should have full use of everything on the C: drive.

 

[happujd]

Some people believe in partitioning. I believe it's a waste of time in many cases though. What you can do in Windows 7 (assuming there isn't anything important on Drive D, go to Computer Management (Go to Start --> Right-Click on Computer, Click on Manage). After that, click on Disk Management, then look for where partition D:, assuming it's all on one drive, right-click on the D: partition, and hit "Delete Volume". Then to use that dead space, you can right click on the C: partition and hit "Extend Volume" and extend it to the maximum space and you should have full use of everything on the C: drive.

Literally the only thing on the D drive is a file called "msdia80.dll", so am I safe to delete this and basically merge my 2 drives?

 

[Petey7]

You should be safe to, but some people have problems resizing the primary partition from within windows. The people that do believe in partitioning, just move their personal files, like documents, music, pictures, etc. to the second partition. The choice it up to you. If you have trouble resizing the partition, let us know and we will get you sorted in no time.

 

[strollin]

If you indiscriminately delete that file, you may cause some program to stop working. You'd be better off moving it to a folder in your Path such as \Windows\System32 or someplace like that.

 

[marsmimar]

The Msdia80.dll file is installed in the root folder of the boot drive when you install the Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package by using the Vcredist_x64.exe file or the Vcredist_ia64.exe file


The correct path of the Msdia80.dll file is Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VC.

 

[happujd]

The Msdia80.dll file is installed in the root folder of the boot drive when you install the Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package by using the Vcredist_x64.exe file or the Vcredist_ia64.exe file


The correct path of the Msdia80.dll file is Drive:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\VC.

I've looked there and the file exists in the C drive, so can I delete the entry on D?

 

[Darician]

You should be able to.

 

[Petey7]

I would move the file to the desktop on C, in case you have problem. Then you can restore it at a later time, if necessary.

 

[HammerHead]

Hidden Files

When you look at the partition are you displaying hidden and system files?

 

[happujd]

Some people believe in partitioning. I believe it's a waste of time in many cases though. What you can do in Windows 7 (assuming there isn't anything important on Drive D, go to Computer Management (Go to Start --> Right-Click on Computer, Click on Manage). After that, click on Disk Management, then look for where partition D:, assuming it's all on one drive, right-click on the D: partition, and hit "Delete Volume". Then to use that dead space, you can right click on the C: partition and hit "Extend Volume" and extend it to the maximum space and you should have full use of everything on the C: drive.

I've deleted volume D, so now have OS C: and a large block of free space, however the option to extend volume is greyed out and I can't select it...

Do I need to rename the C drive?

 

[Petey7]

I thought this would happen. Use method two of this tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2670-partition-volume-extend.html

 

[happujd]

I can follow the guide until step 7/8, but when attempting either i receive an error message "there is not enough usable free space on specified disk to extend the volume" on step 7, or if i manually type a size i get "virtual disk service error: there is not enough usable space for this operation."

 

[Lordbob75]

I can follow the guide until step 7/8, but when attempting either i receive an error message "there is not enough usable free space on specified disk to extend the volume" on step 7, or if i manually type a size i get "virtual disk service error: there is not enough usable space for this operation."

Can you post a screen shot of disk management? I think you might need to delete the free space and make it unallocated space instead.

~Lordbob

 

[DocBrown]

Have you look at this other tutorial ?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/93322-partition-wizard-use-bootable-cd.html?ltr=P

 

[karlsnooks]

welcome to SevenForums.

To be 100% certain of giving you the correct advice, we need the output of Disk Management.

You need to:

1. Run Disk Management
2. Maximize the display you see.
3. Make a snippet using the Snipping Tool
4. Attach that snippet ( a PNG file) to your next post.

WIN key is the one with the wavy flag on it.

WIN | type DISKMGMT.MSC | ENTER key
Maximize the display
WIN | type SNIPPING | ENTER key
Attach to your next post.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-how-post-screenshot-seven-forums.html

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Jonesyboyuk, welcome to Seven Forums!





If you have questions about how to post a snip/screen-shot have a look at the tutorial at the link below; so you can post a snip of Disk Management so we can see what you have going on.


How to Post a Screenshot in Seven Forums

 

[karlsnooks]

Jonesyboyuk,

Help us by completing your system specs:

________________________________________

HOW TO FILL OUT YOUR SYSTEM SPECS

In the line at the top of www.SevenForums.com you will see UserCP.
That is an abbreviation for User Control Panel.
Click on UserCP.
In the left-hand column, under Your Profile you will see Edit System Spec.
Click on Edit System Spec
You can copy and paste from the output of Speccy, Speccy - System Information - Free Download to fill out much of the info. Be sure to use the Other Info section of your System Specs for such info as your optical drive, your wireless adapter, your speakers, etc.

________________________________________

 

[happujd]

Can you post a screen shot of disk management? I think you might need to delete the free space and make it unallocated space instead.

~Lordbob

Thanks for all your help. This solved my problem. Deleted the space , then right clicked and expanded volume.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello again, glad you got it sorted; thanks for the update.