Drive C, Drive D problems with size and downloads

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by sugarberrie, Apr 12, 2009.

  1. sugarberrie

    sugarberrie Private E-2

    I used the system recovery disc on our computer and now it reads only 5 GB on drive C and 143 GB on drive D. I do not believe it was like this before and now I have problems installing things onto the computer because of lack of room. When I install things they usually automatically install into Drive C. Is there a way to install things onto Drive D and they work? Or what am I doing wrong? Is there a way to make drive C bigger? I know a bit about computers rolleyes, but I am in no way a wiz at these things and I hope I did not do something wrong. Would a clean install help and how would I go about doing one? Please help? :cry
     
  2. Aimee Wilbury

    Aimee Wilbury Staff Sergeant

    Best way is to swap drive C and D around, but I'm not sure of the exact procedure, whether you can do it in the OS or have to use the BIOS. Somebody here should know.
     
  3. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

    What brand and model of computer? It almost sounds like during the recovery, the computer got confused and now designated your hidden recovery partition (the 5GB part) as C: instead of using the 143GB as it was supposed to do.
     
  4. sugarberrie

    sugarberrie Private E-2

    It is an emachine W3644. I agree, that was what it seemed like to me too. Is there anything I can do? Can I swap the drives? Should I use the recovery disc again?
     
  5. jconstan

    jconstan MajorGeek

    I'd say do the recovery again but delete both partitions and reinstall on the one large unformatted space.
     
  6. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

    NO! do not delete any partitions. The recovery disk depends upon what is in the recovery partition. If you delete that, your disk is useless!
    jconstan, this is not a full windows CD; this a special recovery CD that needs the hidden partition to work.
     
  7. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

    I'm not having any success at eMachines. I downloaded a user's manual (pdf) and it did not mention a thing about using the recovery cd. There is also no search box on the site that you can put the term "recovery CD" into to try and get any information.

    There is probably a key to press at boot up to use the recovery CD but I can't find any information, sorry.
     
  8. jconstan

    jconstan MajorGeek

    What good is a recovery disk that can't recover from a failed hard drive? Are you saying if you have a hard drive failure on this machine the recovery disks are no good? That doesn't sound right to me.
     
  9. plodr

    plodr Major Geek Super Extraordinaire

    Yes, that's what I'm saying.
    The recovery disks look to the hidden partition; if it isn't there it doesn't work. I don't like the way manufacturers decided this was the way to recover a computer but that's what they've been doing for several years. In fact, some manufacturers are too cheap to even include the CDs or DVDs. They want you to make your own from the hidden recovery partition.

    I agree.

    If a person doesn't have an XP CD and doesn't know the key, they can not install the OS. Instead you see people asking for help trying to figure out what to do when the hd dies.
     
  10. jconstan

    jconstan MajorGeek

    Well, you have me really scratching my head on this one. I'm almost sure I have rebuilt Compaq, HP and Dell machines that had a recovery partition by wiping all partitions and reloading with the recovery disk. Now, I can't swear that I've done the same with an eMachine BUT I think I have. Nonetheless, I can't say without a doubt BUT in the future I will keep this in mind and perhaps even get a chance to test it. Thanks.
     

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