PARTITIONS ON THE HARD DRIVE

Hi all, When I click on MY COMP, I can see I have 4 disks= C=D=E=F=G and H an have NO IDEA WHY DO I HAVE SO MANY,cause most of them are empthy EXCEPT "C" and "H"? Can somebody HELP ME PLEASE how to keep only 2 disk "C" for windows and progr files and "D"- for ALL MY DOCUMENTS STUFF PLEASE REPLY

Do you use a program called Alcohol52% or Daemon..? If so, thats the reason for the extra drives (that is of course providing you dont have 6 physical drives)

Hi, Have no idea what those programs are?I got new HP comp last year and I see I have C-D-E-F-G and H disks, but only "C"- and'H"- said "LOCAL DISK", while the rest of them ARE EMPTTY AND it said "REMOVABLE DISK", what is the different here and how can I have only "C" for windows/progr file/doc and setting and "H" - for mY PERSONAL DOC?? However, those disks are all empty,so I don't understand ARE THEY TAKING SPACE-MEMORY AWAY FROM "C" and "H" or not, and how can REMOVE THEM so that I have Only "C" and "D" disk? TY

No .. there not taking up space. They ARE space. More than likely you, or someone else who has access and uses your computer, at one time used or use a jump drive maybe (a USB peripherial) ? .. The programs i listed are used to create virtual drives/ CD burning..etc. Any how.. there not taking up space but its quite possible they could be slowing your comp down some.

Hi and ty again I got new comp last year (HP-pavilion) and comp store put all those disks, C-D-E-F-G-H,but I never knew what r they for,until my brother ask me other day why do I have SO MANY PARTITIONS, I even didn't know what partition was? He said that all those extra DISKS r taking MY SPACE-MEMORY?? ,but he doesn'tknow how to put them alltogether so that I have ONLY "C"-disk for windows/progr files/doc and settings and "D" disk, FOR MY PERSONAL DOCUMENTS So, I am asking in the forums rooms to see if anybody have knowledge how to do this,so that I CAN HAVE "C" and "D" DISKONLY

Forget to add, I also have DVD/CD-RW drive (I:) and DVD-RW drive (J:)

Hi larisa, The D:\ drive is the partition that has system recovery on it. Did you make your recovery CD's/DVD when you got the machine, or did the recovery discs come with it?

I'm just now learning about this too. So I can't help you remove the partitions. My "D" drive says: PRESARIO_RP ….. "E" is DVD/RW and "G" through "J" are removable disks. You'll have to look in the owner's manual and see how to make recovery discs for you computer.

Hi ty again, I do have good instructions for ACRONIS to make BOOTABLE CD, I only have to learn how to REPARTITION so that I have only "C" andmaybe "D" for my doc, unless Ineed extra,I don't know after all this,than I can create BOOTABLE CD with ACRONIS program

Ok so lets start over. How many physical drives do you have..? In other words.. inside your tower, do you have one physical hard drive partitioned into these seperate ones.. or two? Also.. system restore is NOT a maintinance utility and should not be used as one.

I wonder if the other partitions that appear empty do in fact contain data (backups of the OS/Drivers etc) but they are 'hidden'? If you reinstall the OS (pretty drastic) then you can decide how many drives/partitions to create, but once they have been created you cannot delete/merge them without using a third party program like Partition Magic (which is not free). If you reinstall you could choose to have just a C drive for the operating system/programs and a D drive for your files. If you reinstall you will lose any information that might be stored on the other partitions so you need to make sure you've backed up anything important and/or have the original OS or Recovery cds. Having several partitions does not use extra 'memory'. There are some benefits to having several smaller partitions rather than one larger one. However, since the total hard drive space is divided between several partitions, the amount of storage 'space' available in each partition is obviously reduced. So, for example, if the H drive where you store your files is 20mb, there will come a point where you can't install more files in the H drive. But you could always start storing new ones in the G drive or whatever. What I'm saying is that you haven't 'lost' the space (apart from small overheads), it's just that the space is split between the various partitions. Cheers….

Ty so much for explaining to me so nice, I do understan better now I like to know if "C" and "D" DISk will be enough, cause it is my home comp, theonly pesronal things I have is MY PICTURES-music - miscel stuff and video maybe in the future frommy video cam/ as of now "C" _DISK has 68.7 G "H"- disk has 5.80, I think this is more than enough for me miscel stuff, I just didn't know why do I have SOMANY EXTRA DISKA, what for, D-E-F-G and thanks to the forums I learn more and more PS How can I tell if "D" disk has hidden files on,cause I was right cliking on properties for each empty disk AND IT IS EMPTHY AND DOESN'T SHOW NO SIZE OF ANYTHING- ? Have a nice day SO It is better to REINSTALL XP clean and create C for wind/prog file/.doc and settings and create "D" just for my personal stuff, but how can I tell if "D" doesn't have hidden files like you said?

Oopss…sorry Crow, I didn't see your last post before I posted mine. Larisa - please disregard my comments and answer Crow's question and work with him to resolve your problem. Cheers…

but once they have been created you cannot delete/merge them without using a third party program like Partition Magic (which is not free).

Not true. You can delete partitions all day long.

If you reinstall you could choose to have just a C drive for the operating system/programs and a D drive for your files. If you reinstall you will lose any information that might be stored on the other partitions so you need to make sure you've backed up anything important and/or have the original OS or Recovery cds.

Not true. If you FORMAT you will loose information on ALL partitions. If you reinstall then you will likely loose data on the active partition. Also, recovery disks will not help you if you format. Restores will.