Stupid Newbie Question

[Propwash Pete]

I recently purchased a new Dell Inspiron N7010, 64 bit laptop running Windows 7. My hard drive was partitioned by Dell with 58.5 GB on Drive C and 527 GB on Drive D. My C drive is almost full with only 1.58 GB remaining. There is nothing on my D Drive, but I can't figure out how to use it or how to transfer some of my programs and files to the D drive. I considered Partition Magic, but their "free" verson will not handle 64 bit. I hate to have to spend $40 if there is another way to work around this. Any help? (Keep it simple!)


Joe

 

[steve-pressman]

Many people using Partition Magic have had terrible problems with it, I suggest you download this as it is free and we highly reccomend it.


Free Download Magic Partition Manager Software – Partition Wizard Online


Steve

 

[Jacee]

Your D drive should be your recovery drive ... you don't want to back up to that drive. Are you sure about you drive letters and the amount of space on each one?

 

[Petey7]

If the D drive is formatted you can open it and create new folders to place you personal files in. You can also redirect some folders (like downloads, my videos, my music) to folders on the D drive. This tutorial from Microsoft will explain how:
Redirect a folder to a new location

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Hello Propwash Pete, welcome to Seven Forums!





You don't want to use Partition Magic as it's out of date and will brick your system.



The free Partition Wizard is an excellent choice, at the link below.

Free Partition Software - Partition Wizard




There's also this tutorial that'll give you some pointers.

Use the Free Partition Wizard

 

[Propwash Pete]

Boy, that was quick! My thanks to all of you for what appears to be some very helpful information. I'll let you know how things turn out in case anyone is interested.

Propwash Pete

 

[Petey7]

Trust me, we all always interested in how things go.

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Boy, that was quick! My thanks to all of you for what appears to be some very helpful information. I'll let you know how things turn out in case anyone is interested.

Propwash Pete

Yes, do post back to keep us informed.

 

[whs]

Your D drive should be your recovery drive ... you don't want to back up to that drive. Are you sure about you drive letters and the amount of space on each one?

At 527GBs, that is certainly not the recovery partition.

For a data partition; have a look at my video tutorial.

 

[gregrocker]

Yes, consider using D as your Data Partition by separating your User files into it. It will then act as a data vault in case your Win7 won't start. You can just reimage your OS and programs back to C and your data will be waiting on D.

Watch whs's video and read this tutorial: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/18629-user-folders-change-default-location.html

If you decide to resize D to make C bigger, then be sure to back up your files and a system image as resizing operations can fail with 3rd party apps although they almost never do with PW.

Where exactly is your Recovery partition? Can you post back a screenshot of your full Disk Mgmt drive map and listings, using Snipping Tool in Start Menu, so we can have a look for you?

 

[Bare Foot Kid]

Here is a good Imaging program and an excellent tutorial on its use, at the links below.


Macrium Reflect FREE Edition

Imaging with free Macrium

 

[Propwash Pete]

Here's a screenshot of my disk managament. Is this what you need?

Propwash Pete

 

[Petey7]

You should be able to just move files to you D partition. Look at my previous post for a guide on how to set your normal My Ducument, My Music, etc. folders to be on your D drive.

 

[whs]

Yeah, all is well. The recovery partition is hidden (no drive letter). That's where the confusion came from because usually it is the D partition. You can go ahead and move the data to your D. You may even want to subdivide D. Just make sure you create an extended partition and not another primary.

 

[gregrocker]

Were you provided with any Recovery Disks or Win7 OS DVD by Dell? I understand they have recently stopped doing this. On clean reinstalls, we normally wipe the OEM partition which provides the useless Dell utilities and the Recovery partition if there are disks instead.

However Dell's Recovery Partition works unusually well, although it would have to be carefully studied during reimaging to see if it wants to overwrite your D data partition or allows you to choose only to reimage C. It is likely better to make your own image of C stored externally so you can reimage C easily should WIn7 become irreparable.

First get it all set up as you want, with the bloatware programs removed using Revo uninstaller, all startup freeloaders (besides AV and gadgets) removed from msconfig>startup list, HD perfectly cleaned and ordered using CCleaner ("Run Cleaner" and Registry tabs) and Auslogics Disk and Registry defraggers, google repeat errors in Event Viewer>Admin View to eventual resolution.


Since the Recovery partition is marked System Active, it will want to include it if you use the built-in Win7 imaging app, so consider using free Macrium Reflect or Paragon which allow more flexibility to choose.

Keep a set of your active User folders also backed up externally in case of HD failure or the forced need to restore to factory condition using the Recovery partition.

 

[Dzomlija]

Try this:
1) Click the Start Button, then click on you user-name at the top right:

​

2) Right-click on "Documents", then select "Properties":

​

3) In the "Documents Properties" window, click the "Location" tab, then click "Move". Browse to your D:, select the folder where you want "Documents" to be located (create a new folder, if necessary). Click "Select Folder":

​

4) When you have changed the location, click "Apply" to confirm the change, and allow Windows to move ALL the files.

5) When done copying, click "OK"

6) The above procedure will work for "Contacts", "Desktop", "Documents", "Downloads", "Favourites", "Links", "Music", "Pictures", "Videos", "Saved Games" and "Searches", although the folders most often relocated by users are "Documents", "Pictures", "Videos" and "Downloads", because those folders usually take up the most space with user files.



You can also read the User Folders - Change Default Location tutorial (written by Brink) for more information.

 

[Propwash Pete]

Status Update

Here's where I am so far. I have not re-sized the D drive or the C drive yet because it seems a little above my pay grade. I have moved things over from C to D to free up space on the C drive. I'm going to approach this one step at a time because I can see where I am trodding on trecherous soil. One mistake and it's all over. Stay tuned.

Propowash Pete

 

[gregrocker]

You may not need to resize either drive if you succeed in moving your User folders to the D data drive.

 

[Petey7]

I wouldn't make any more changes since you can move your stuff over now. Just keep 20GB free on the C drive and you'll be fine from here on.

 

[huffman]

My hard drive was partitioned by Dell with 58.5 GB on Drive C and 527 GB on Drive D

Drive D is normally the recovery drive for the operating system. Your user manual should tell you what Drive D is for. You should also make the recovery disks for your pc unless it came with the install disk.

527 GB on Drive D would be insane for a recovery drive. A recovery drive is normally only a few gb.

I would give Dell a call; they should be able to help you without any charges if the computer is less than a year old.