reinstalled windows 7 and have three partitions, which do i need.

[fireman0175]

Reionstalled Windows 7 ultimate on my Dell Studio XPS 1640. I "clean all" the hard drive. I followed the great tutorial and have a windows 7 (c) drive, a System Reserved (E) and renamed the remaining 132 GB "main (T)".

So, my concern is, and I assume that the C drive is for the OS and everything will go onto the E drive? Do I extend the E drive into the T drive partition? The E drive seems to be growing. Should I hide or block somehow the C drive so it is only for the OS?

THanks,

 

[Slartybart]

Please post the following system information using the prefered method:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/9733-screenshots-files-upload-post-seven-forums.html

• Disk Manangment

Thanks

---

How to post a Disk Management screen shot:
Right Click on Computer and select Manage
Click Disk Management
Maximize the window
Close the left & right panes (click the icons on either side of the help icon).
Resize the top and bottom panes to provide as much information as possible.
The top pane, showing size, freespace, and drive flags (active, boot, system,primary,logical...)
The bottom pane showing disks and partiononing.
:tip: Drag the horizontal pane bar up or down.
:tip: If you have many disks you might have to post more than one screen shot, one of just the top pane and one of just the bottom pane.

 

[VistaKing]

The System Reserved partition and a hidden partition shouldn't have a letter. It stores boot files . So you should be installing Windows to the C drive.

Your Partitions should look something like this

   Information

Disk 0 Partition 1 OEM (System Reserved)
Disk 0 Partition 2: RECOVERY (D: )
Disk 0 Partition 3: OS (C: )

 

[fireman0175]

I hope this works!

 

[fireman0175]

Vista King,
That is what I would assume. However, it didn't come out that way after the clean and install. How do I get things corrected now? I have installed all my Dell drivers and 99 Window updates...

 

[Slartybart]

@fireman0175: What tutorial did you follow? Please post a link.

Did you reinstall from a OEM recovery disc? Or did you install a fresh Win7 using the ISO (USB or Optical disc)?

Vistaking is correct, the System Reserve partition is not normally assigned a drive letter. And Windows should be installed to C:\

A little background information would also help. Why did you reinstall?
What do you mean E:\ is growing? Space is being used? This is not normal.

Do NOT extend the System Reserve drive.

The disk management screen shot will help.

 

[VistaKing]

If the E drive is empty Is delete the partition and merge it to the C: drive .

Your boot files are in the C drive and its Active meaning its booting from that drive not drive E which is your System Reserved partition . It is usually hidden and doesn't have a letter either .

Added : See if this tutorial will help. It helped many

:ar: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html

 

[fireman0175]

I did the reinstall because of problems I had like bluetooth didn't work with devices and printers page, it couldn't find anything I had. I was also unable to recover to an earlier date. My Dell Datasafe 2.0 was corrupt.

I used these procedures to prepare the computer:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

I mean it grows as my files seem to be going into that portion of the drive.

I guess I need to remove that partition. I just want to ensure my files I am creating are going into the correct place so I don't have conflicts later.

I installed using the OEM disk Dell sent me via the optical drive.

 

[Slartybart]

Thanks fireman.

Since it is a recent re-install, I suggest that you follow the advice/suggestion of VistaKing.

You could just remove the drive letter from E: (it's only 200MB you'll lose).
That leaves C: for your OS, program files, and user files (100GB is fine). You can use T:\ for data storage

I would suggest another re-install using the Clean reinstall Factory OEM tutorial. Please follow that for the best re-install using OEM disks.

 

[fireman0175]

Thanks for the suggestions. I tried to merge the 200mb with drive C and or drive T, but merge was grayed out in each choice. So, guess I will have to leave it alone.

As for a clean install, I did a Clean All install as clean would not work. Maybe a Clean install would work now, but everything seems to be working great now. Should I hide drive C? or leave it as is?

I do need to make a recovery disc still though.

 

[theog]

I did the reinstall because of problems I had like bluetooth didn't work with devices and printers page, it couldn't find anything I had. I was also unable to recover to an earlier date. My Dell Datasafe 2.0 was corrupt.

I used these procedures to prepare the computer:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/2674-partition-volume-create-new.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

I mean it grows as my files seem to be going into that portion of the drive.

I guess I need to remove that partition. I just want to ensure my files I am creating are going into the correct place so I don't have conflicts later.

I installed using the OEM disk Dell sent me via the optical drive.

If you had used the clean or clean all command, you would have a System Reserved Partition of 100mb with NO drive letter, hidden & active.

 

[whs]

What on earth are you guys trying to do. This disk configuration is perfectly right and should not be messsed with. Especially DO NOT touch the E partition. That is your boot partition which contains the bootmgr and will NEVER change (unless you do a double boot one day). If you continue to muck around with it, your system will become unbootable.

Put your user data into the T partition and you can merrily sail along.

 

[fireman0175]

Thanks WHS. Yep, my computer had stuff in that partition and now the bluetooth is gone, the computer doesn't see the network, no network printers found, etc that I have not found yet. I guess I will have to reinstall it all again...

Theog, I did do that, but it or some step reference that I need to name the cleaned drive into new partitions.

 

[Slartybart]

If you decide to re-install, use http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/219487-clean-reinstall-factory-oem-windows-7-a.html as your guide. Don't try to piecemeal it from various tutorials.

Members have posted good suggestions, but it's difficult to see where things stand. A clean install will unravel all of the uncertainties on both sides of the monitor.

Both VistaKing (except merge E:\) and WHS are correct. I was concerned that E:\ was being used as a storage drive; based on your post saying that it was growning.

Now that you've posted other things are not working, I believe that your machine is in an unstable state. The easiest thing for you (and us) is to re-install following the tutorial above. Since you recently re-installed, this should not present a great difficulty for you (time yes, difficulty no).

Pay attention and follow the steps carefully - your reward will be a very clean and stable system.

You will lose the ability to run OEM recovery or OEM diagnostics using an F key or from Bios (but you have the disk and they will run from that). The only way to avoid that is to use the OEM install - Factory Image Restore option. This puts all of the OEM software in the proper place per the OEM mfgr.

 

[fireman0175]

Thanks all,

I did another complete reinstall. I let Windows set the drive. I extended the remaining balance so I have
the following: Things are working smooth.

 

[whs]

Looks great. Now leave it that way.

 

[Slartybart]

Looking good Fireman.

Please mark this thread as solved at your convenience.

Bill
.