would a windows install fix this??

[Dominator211]

I have a 1tb HDD I that came pre-partitioned from the factory as C: OS DATA and I would like to have all of my data on one volume so that way when I install applications i can just click through the installer and i just would like all of my data to be on one partition.... i know why they do this im just not sure of there is any benift thanks....

my laptop is a asus x555la

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

Don't need to do any install, just use Disk Management to delete the partition and then extend the C: partition to use now empty space.

To open Disk Management, just type: diskmgmt.msc in the search box in the start menu, open that, and then right click the D: Partition to delete, and right click the C partition to extend.

 

[Dominator211]

Don't need to do any install, just use Disk Management to delete the partition and then extend the C: partition to use now empty space.

To open Disk Management, just type: diskmgmt.msc in the search box in the start menu, open that, and then right click the D: Partition to delete, and right click the C partition to extend.

does not work already tried

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

The partitions have to be "next to each other", in a sense, to combine empty data.

What are the two partitions that are being blocked by the menu? One looks like a recovery partition, which is odd as these are almost always at the beginning of the drive, not in the middle between two partitions. This is likely an Asus recovery partition, which appears to be positioned so you can't combine the data and Windows install partition when it's stock.

Not sure what the other one is, but either way both of those partitions would need to be removed in order to combine C: and D:.

 

[The Real Jdbye]

View attachment 107874
does not work already tried

The other partitions on the drive are in the way. You may need to use a more advanced partition manager to move the partitions around so you can resize C:.
I wouldn't suggest deleting them. You may need them in the future if you need to reinstall or fix boot problems.

 

[migles]

What are the two partitions that are being blocked by the menu? One looks like a recovery partition, which is odd as these are almost always at the beginning of the drive, not in the middle between two partitions. This is likely an Asus recovery partition, which appears to be positioned so you can't combine the data and Windows install partition when it's stock.

Not sure what the other one is, but either way both of those partitions would need to be removed in order to combine C: and D:.

that partition in the middle is indeed a recovery one

windows IIRC in 7 started to create 2 small partitions for recovery\boot\whatever..
i do have 2 small partitions but at the beggining and it's not even a BRAND recovery thing

 

[Dominator211]

The other partitions on the drive are in the way. You may need to use a more advanced partition manager to move the partitions around so you can resize C:.
I wouldn't suggest deleting them. You may need them in the future if you need to reinstall or fix boot problems.

The partitions have to be "next to each other", in a sense, to combine empty data.

What are the two partitions that are being blocked by the menu? One looks like a recovery partition, which is odd as these are almost always at the beginning of the drive, not in the middle between two partitions. This is likely an Asus recovery partition, which appears to be positioned so you can't combine the data and Windows install partition when it's stock.

Not sure what the other one is, but either way both of those partitions would need to be removed in order to combine C: and D:.

it seems like a good reason but i kinda remember a chat with a Microsoft person saying i couldn't changes it because it has the OS files im not sure if this still stands

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

that partition in the middle is indeed a recovery one

windows IIRC in 7 started to create 2 small partitions for recovery\boot\whatever..
i do have 2 small partitions but at the beggining and it's not even a BRAND recovery thing

if it is a recovery partition they sound very important because there is no saying i wont be making threads about my PC shitting the bed

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

The other partitions on the drive are in the way. You may need to use a more advanced partition manager to move the partitions around so you can resize C:.
I wouldn't suggest deleting them. You may need them in the future if you need to reinstall or fix boot problems.

also i took some space out of the d drive and it is sitting as unallocated and it is not letting me expand the volume

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

that partition in the middle is indeed a recovery one

windows IIRC in 7 started to create 2 small partitions for recovery\boot\whatever..
i do have 2 small partitions but at the beggining and it's not even a BRAND recovery thing

I am aware, as I said it's usually at the beginning of the HDD, not the middle like his is. Manufacturers can place their own recoveries wherever they want though, especially if they repartition a drive like Asus apparently did with this laptop.

@OP, as mentioned by Jdbye, the recovery partition isn't something you should necessarily remove, but IMO it'd be fine if you have access to another PC that can create a recovery USB drive (or create your own recovery drive now and save that for later just in case) as it's the same thing as Window's recovery partition.

However, if you're ok reinstalling Windows completely, doing so (while completely formatting the HDD during Windows install) will indeed give you back the space that Asus repartitioned that way.

 

[Dominator211]

I am aware, as I said it's usually at the beginning of the HDD, not the middle like his is. Manufacturers can place their own recoveries wherever they want though, especially if they repartition a drive like Asus apparently did with this laptop.

@OP, as mentioned by Jdbye, the recovery partition isn't something you should necessarily remove, but IMO it'd be fine if you have access to another PC that can create a recovery USB drive (or create your own recovery drive now and save that for later just in case) as it's the same thing as Window's recovery partition.

However, if you're ok reinstalling Windows completely, doing so (while completely formatting the HDD during Windows install) will indeed give you back the space that Asus repartitioned that way.

i have a lot of crap on my c drive that isnt really easy to get i would much rather mirror the c drive to the whole repartitioned drive if possible

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

i have a lot of crap on my c drive that isnt really easy to get i would much rather mirror the c drive to the whole repartitioned drive if possible

I assume you don't have an external hard drive or something else to back the content up to? Without a separate storage device you can't really just mirror it to the same drive, it doesn't necessarily work that way.

This is actually why having two partitions on the same drive is useful, one can be used strictly for OS usage and the other for data storage. You can screw around with the OS partition as much as you want without having to worry about losing important data.

 

[Dominator211]

I assume you don't have an external hard drive or something else to back the content up to? Without a separate storage device you can't really just mirror it to the same drive, it doesn't necessarily work that way.

This is actually why having two partitions on the same drive is useful, one can be used strictly for OS usage and the other for data storage. You can screw around with the OS partition as much as you want without having to worry about losing important data.

i do have a 1tb external hdd
im just afriad since it is coming form a 300gb ish partition there might be trouble when i put it on the 1tb partiton

 

[VinsCool]

I assume you don't have an external hard drive or something else to back the content up to? Without a separate storage device you can't really just mirror it to the same drive, it doesn't necessarily work that way.

This is actually why having two partitions on the same drive is useful, one can be used strictly for OS usage and the other for data storage. You can screw around with the OS partition as much as you want without having to worry about losing important data.

THIS so much.
It's a huge time saver.

And as I look at the screenshot, I believe something is clearly wrong in OP's partitions. I get the recovery ones get created by Windows, but the unused space doesn't make sense at all. From what I see, the last partition on the list, on the right side seems to be NTFS, so it could be expanded to use the unalocated space, then it could be converted into a data partitin, leaving C:\ and the recovery partitions as they currently are. I personally think this would be a pretty fair and functional fix to the problem.

 

[Dominator211]

I assume you don't have an external hard drive or something else to back the content up to? Without a separate storage device you can't really just mirror it to the same drive, it doesn't necessarily work that way.

This is actually why having two partitions on the same drive is useful, one can be used strictly for OS usage and the other for data storage. You can screw around with the OS partition as much as you want without having to worry about losing important data.

one problem... i do not believe that the windows isntall lets you install from a mirrored hard drive

 

[Futurdreamz]

A cloned drive should boot though.

Yeah I think the whole point of the split partition thing is so that manufacturers can offer a "reset to factory" option which just reimages the OS partition. If you're competent enough that recovery partition is completely unnecessary.

Off the top of my head there's two options you can do:

Copy everything important off the drive then do a clean reinstall (go to advanced and delete all existing partitions)

Use SSD transfer software (there's one free but I don't remember what it's called) to clone to the hdd and back again. It will default to stretching all partitions but you can skip that when cloning to the HDD, then only stretch the C partition when cloning back.

The first one would be preferable, as it looks like one of those other partitions is the primary one so weirdness may happen if you futz with it.

 

[Dominator211]

A cloned drive should boot though.

Yeah I think the whole point of the split partition thing is so that manufacturers can offer a "reset to factory" option which just reimages the OS partition. If you're competent enough that recovery partition is completely unnecessary.

Off the top of my head there's two options you can do:

Copy everything important off the drive then do a clean reinstall (go to advanced and delete all existing partitions)

Use SSD transfer software (there's one free but I don't remember what it's called) to clone to the hdd and back again. It will default to stretching all partitions but you can skip that when cloning to the HDD, then only stretch the C partition when cloning back.

The first one would be preferable, as it looks like one of those other partitions is the primary one so weirdness may happen if you futz with it.

My external hard drive isn't detachable and I don't know how to re mirror the image back to the hard drive

 

[gnmmarechal]

Using a utility such as Macrium Reflect you can easily image one or more partitions to a file. Personally, I'd image the recovery partition to a file on an external drive with such a tool and then remove that partition.