Solved Hard drive partitioning problem

[Senator]

I recently loaded an image of Windows 7 onto a new (larger) hard drive. The process seemed to go smoothly. However, a map of the new hard drive indicates a lot of unusable space in an "Unallocated" partition.

Here is what the drive looks like in Disk Management



and here is another look at it from Windows Explorer and Properties



Notice I only have access to 100GB of the more than 300GB total space on the drive. I believe this is just the way the image process works when you go from a smaller drive to a larger drive. The original drive is a 100GB and the new one is 320GB.

I aborted an attempt to "Expand" the 100GB (C) partition, fearing I might create an unrecoverable problem. The process was not all that intuitive and I really know enough to be dangerous here.

I'm relatively sure there is a simple solution to the problem, I'm just not sure what it is and I'm afraid to do something I will regret.

Thanks

 

[ignatzatsonic]

You were on the right track when you aborted.

You need to add that unallocated space to C. You do that in Windows Disk Management by choosing C and right clicking, which is probably what you did to "expand".

What are you going to do with Disk 1, the old drive?

 

[Senator]

That worked. Here is what it looks like in Disk Management now. However, I need to change the name of the drive.

What are you going to do with Disk 1, the old drive?

I have several older laptop hard drives that are close to being sent to the bone-yard and this may be one of them.

Thanks very much for your help.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

However, I need to change the name of the drive.

Looks OK to me. You can rename with a right click in Explorer.