Missing Hard Disk (Unallocated)

Fuzzythinking

Hi

Since I have been reorganizing my laptop such as removing old files and unused software, I have discovered that there is approximately 15GB missing in my hard disk. Hence I went to administrative tools then computer management and found approximately 15GB are unallocated. How can I restore almost of all unallocated hard disk to my C driver? I would be very gratefully if someone provide me clear instruction

Regards

FT

loudcox

Fuzzythinking wrote: »

Hi
Hence I went to administrative tools then computer management and found approximately 15GB are unallocated. How can I restore almost of all unallocated hard disk to my C driver?

This is likely to be the recovery partition where either your backup software saves backups, or you vendor's system recovery installation files are stored.

It's probably not best not to delete it!

Fuzzythinking

The trouble is that I have only 8 percent hard disk available to use at the moment and it is not enough for my application software. My original hard disk is 40 GB and now I have got 2GB left to use out of 25 GB. I require more hard disk space.

FT

sleep2much

if your running vista you can access disk manager by right clicking "my computer" and selecting manage, there are options to set partitions as active or merge etc, there maybe an option in xp too, but it's so long since I used xp I've forgotten.

fwor

If it's shown as "unallocated" then it probably is not a recovery partition, or anything useful. Certainly on my dual-boot PC here, Disk Management in Windows XP knows that the Linux partitions are there, though it doesn't recognise their format.

There are plenty of paid-for utilities available that will allow you to "stretch" the existing partition. There are also several free, Open Source ones too, but you would need to be comfortable about downloading a .ISO file and saving it to a CD that you then boot from. You would also have to accept that there is a risk involved and that some of your data ~could ~ be lost or corrupted.

wakandem

It could be a damaged part of the drive, run a full disk check. I would be tempted to get a new drive , you can get a 80gig delivered for around 45 quid, Install windows from the restore cd you should and then your applications reinstalled, transfer your files back over and the pc will be like new & you know the data is safe for a few years.

Fuzzythinking

wakandem wrote: »

It could be a damaged part of the drive, run a full disk check. I would be tempted to get a new drive , you can get a 80gig delivered for around 45 quid, Install windows from the restore cd you should and then your applications reinstalled, transfer your files back over and the pc will be like new & you know the data is safe for a few years.

Unfortunately it is a laptop computer, not PC

fwor

Laptop drives are just as cheap - bought an 80Gb PATA drive from PCWhirled a couple of weeks ago for £39.99 to replace a dying HDD without a problem.

As wakandem says, best to do a chkdsk /f and reboot to see if it's damaged - though I'm not sure whether chkdsk checks unallocated space.

albertross_2

try turning off system restore, then turning it back on, then run https://www.ccleaner.com

it might free up some disk space.

fwor

Or how about this: having done what Albertross suggested to free a bit more space on your C: drive, use the Windows fdisk utility to create another partition to use up the free 15Gb, and install your new application on that. ~But~ make sure that all of your work files stay on the C: drive - minimising the risk of data loss if there is actually something wrong within the unallocated space?