Stupid Newbie Question

[Dzomlija]

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.

The 527GB partition which "Propwash Pete" spoke of is not the recovery partition, he just didn't know what else to call it. It's the data partition that was setup by Dell, just they where too lazy to redirect user folders to it, which is a mistake that manufacturers often make, while not realizing that many users don't know how to do it themselves.

 

[MacGyvr]

I see no reason for the drive to be divided into two partitions, and GParted could easily combine the two back into one.

Afterthought: If there is no data on drive D....Windows 7 can do the "re-combine" with no help from any external software, simply delete the D partition and expand the C partition into the unused space. But since people here have already advised the user to move his data around, which I think was a bad idea from the start...this further complicates matters.

 

[whs]

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.

Have a look at his Disk Management picture above. The recovery partition is hidden (no drive letter)