Problem with HDD partition in Windows 10

Hi All
Would greatly appreciate some advice concerning the way my 1Tb drive has been partitioned on my Dell Inspiron 2350 (running on Intel i7). I apologize in advance about the length of this thread.

Previously when using Win 7 on my previous laptop and PC, I divided the available 500Gb drive into two roughly equal partitions, the main C drive for Windows itself plus all application programs (Program Files x86) and Drive D for files (ie documents/photos/graphics/music files etc).

However the IT guy who installed Win 10 on my present PC (it came with Win 8.1 installed) and configured it, allocated only 29.26 Gb to Drive C (Windows 10 and all application software) and the remaining 931.51 to Drive D. What's even more bizarre is that under Disc Management, Drive D (as opposed to C) is allocated as "Primary Partition" and located above Drive C which is described as "Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition"

I tried to allocate more disc space to Drive C by shrinking Drive D to approx 500Gb. This was shown as un-allocated space (possibly a third partition). I then tried to Extend Volume on Drive C but the legend "Extend Volume" is greyed out in the drop down menu on drive C.

As there are no important files as yet on Drive D, I could delete all , followed by Delete Volume and finally by Delete Partition. Would this work and Drive C automatically gaining all drive space previously allocated to Drive D? If necessary, I could then re-partition the disc to my own preference.

What am I doing wrong. Someone please help!

Unallocated space is not a partition.

You likely need to use a third party tool such as Partition Wizard to assign some of the unallocated space to C.

Disk Management has limitations in some situations, such as yours. Most likely D is sitting between C and the unallocated space. Disk Management no can do in that case.

After you get C sized right, you can then extend D to use all the remaining unallocated space--with Disk Management or with Partition Wizard.

MiniTool Partition Wizard | Best partition magic alternative for Windows PC and Server

Post a detailed screen shot from disk manager so we can see

Samuria said:

Post a detailed screen shot from disk manager so we can see

Screen shot attached.

Can I not just first delete all files on drive D (no program files, only documents, photos etc), then "Delete Volume D" under Disk Management and follow by "Delete Partition". Would not all space allocated to Drive D get added to Drive C?

Not 100% sure if jpg of screen shot has uploaded. First time on MS Forum

Msg for ignatzatsonic : Have downloaded Partition Magic. Give it a try tomorrow

Msg for Samuria : in case screenshot didn't upload, I'll try attaching it again

Effell said:

Can I not just first delete all files on drive D (no program files, only documents, photos etc), then "Delete Volume D" under Disk Management and follow by "Delete Partition". Would not all space allocated to Drive D get added to Drive C?

No, at least at first glance.

You appear to have 2 totally distinct hard drives: 0 and 1.

You can't move assign space from one to the other without heroics that you'd most likely want to avoid.

If C and D were part of the same drive, you could reassign---but it appears they are totally separate.

Exactly what is disk 1?? It appears to be only about 32 GB in size--ridiculously small.

Is it a hybrid drive of some type?

Is it an SSD?

Is it an ordinary hard drive?

Going from memory--if it is a hybrid drive, it may be that disc 0 and disc 1 are NOT distinct, even though they show up that way in Windows Disk Management. I can't recall the details. If that is true, you MAY be able to reassign space in some way (?), but I don't recall the details other than that hybrid drives are peculiar and to be avoided if possible.

I recall some lengthy threads on this forum by other people who have hybrids---it lead to a lot of head scratching and consternation due to their being something of an oddity.

It may be that you can reinstall Windows on D and ignore C entirely.

Are you in touch with whoever installed Windows?

Edit: I just looked at the specification sheet for your Dell. It says:

Storage

Interface: SATA 6 Gbps
Hard drive: One 2.5‑inch
mSATA: One mSATA card

Hmmmmm........................................

ignatzatsonic said:

No, at least at first glance.

You appear to have 2 totally distinct hard drives: 0 and 1.

You can't move assign space from one to the other without heroics that you'd most likely want to avoid.

If C and D were part of the same drive, you could reassign---but it appears they are totally separate.

Exactly what is disk 1?? It appears to be only about 32 GB in size--ridiculously small.

Is it a hybrid drive of some type?

Is it an SSD?

Is it an ordinary hard drive?

Going from memory--if it is a hybrid drive, it may be that disc 0 and disc 1 are NOT distinct, even though they show up that way in Windows Disk Management. I can't recall the details. If that is true, you MAY be able to reassign space in some way (?), but I don't recall the details other than that hybrid drives are peculiar and to be avoided if possible.

I recall some lengthy threads on this forum by other people who have hybrids---it lead to a lot of head scratching and consternation due to their being something of an oddity.

It may be that you can reinstall Windows on D and ignore C entirely.

Are you in touch with whoever installed Windows?

Edit: I just looked at the specification sheet for your Dell. It says:

Storage

Interface: SATA 6 Gbps
Hard drive: One 2.5‑inch
mSATA: One mSATA card

Hmmmmm........................................

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you for taking the time and investigating my HDD problem. As regards to number of drives, as yu guessed, there is just the one SATA 1Tb drive on the machine. However I may have a clue as to why it was configured this way.

I was used to working with Win 7 on my previous machine. Quite frankly, it did all I needed it to do and more and had a good in depth knowledge (as a user) of it's workings. On a PC and given nature of my work, I've little use for using touchscreen, so I asked the IT guy to install Windows 7 as an additional OS which would be the one that suited me best.

The IT guy implemented this by installing Win 7 on Drive D running it in Oracle VM VirtualBox as you can see in 'Win7' screen capture, and rightly assuming that it's the OS that I'd mainly use, allocated most of the HD space to it. However, as you can see in the second screen capture, Win 7 runs in a box much smaller than the full screen and not really suitable for my work (Photo Editing, Audio etc) as well as being dreadfully slow. So I'm afraid that using Win 7 is a no go.

Given my limited knowledge, the solution seems to be to uninstall the Oracle VirtualBox and Win 7 along with it. Is there anyway I can do this, for example would it work through the Uninstall procedure in the Control Panel. Reluctant to try in case I render the Win10 OS inoperable.

ignatzatsonic said:

No, at least at first glance.

You appear to have 2 totally distinct hard drives: 0 and 1.

You can't move assign space from one to the other without heroics that you'd most likely want to avoid.

If C and D were part of the same drive, you could reassign---but it appears they are totally separate.

Exactly what is disk 1?? It appears to be only about 32 GB in size--ridiculously small.

Is it a hybrid drive of some type?

Is it an SSD?

Is it an ordinary hard drive?

Going from memory--if it is a hybrid drive, it may be that disc 0 and disc 1 are NOT distinct, even though they show up that way in Windows Disk Management. I can't recall the details. If that is true, you MAY be able to reassign space in some way (?), but I don't recall the details other than that hybrid drives are peculiar and to be avoided if possible.

I recall some lengthy threads on this forum by other people who have hybrids---it lead to a lot of head scratching and consternation due to their being something of an oddity.

It may be that you can reinstall Windows on D and ignore C entirely.

Are you in touch with whoever installed Windows?

Edit: I just looked at the specification sheet for your Dell. It says:

Storage

Interface: SATA 6 Gbps
Hard drive: One 2.5‑inch
mSATA: One mSATA card

Hmmmmm........................................

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Thank you for taking the time and investigating my HDD problem. As regards to number of drives, as yu guessed, there is just the one SATA 1Tb drive on the machine. However I may have a clue as to why it was configured this way.

I was used to working with Win 7 on my previous machine. Quite frankly, it did all I needed it to do and more and had a good in depth knowledge (as a user) of it's workings. On a PC and given nature of my work, I've little use for using touchscreen, so I asked the IT guy to install Windows 7 as an additional OS which would be the one that suited me best.

The IT guy implemented this by installing Win 7 on Drive D running it in Oracle VM VirtualBox as you can see in 'Win7' screen capture, and rightly assuming that it's the OS that I'd mainly use, allocated most of the HD space to it. However, as you can see in the second screen capture, Win 7 runs in a box much smaller than the full screen and not really suitable for my work (Photo Editing, Audio etc) as well as being dreadfully slow. So I'm afraid that using Win 7 is a no go.

Given my limited knowledge, the solution seems to be to uninstall the Oracle VirtualBox and Win 7 along with it. Is there anyway I can do this, for example would it work through the Uninstall procedure in the Control Panel. Reluctant to try in case I render the Win10 OS inoperable.